Topics in this digest:
1. African journalist Frank Nyakairu discusses challenges, rewards of h
From: George Lessard
2. 'Communities are the radio stars', UK: Ofcom Community Radio report,
From: Salvatore Scifo
3. Community Media and European Policy: Workshop and Panel Discussion,
From: Salvatore Scifo
4. Community radio - a rare success story, Media Guardian (9 March 2009
From: Salvatore Scifo
5. UK: Community radio surges ahead
From: George Lessard
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1. African journalist Frank Nyakairu discusses challenges, rewards of h
Posted by: "George Lessard" mediamentor@gmail.com themediamentor
Date: Mon Mar 9, 2009 2:35 pm ((PDT))
Currently featured on IJNet
https://www.ijnet.org/ijnet/training_opportunities/african_journalist_frank_nyakairu_discusses_challenges_rewards_of_human_rights_reporting
African journalist Frank Nyakairu discusses challenges, rewards of human
rights reporting<http://e2ma.net/go/1794288191/1637736/60952138/goto:https://www.ijnet.org/ijnet/training_opportunities/african_journalist_frank_nyakairu_discusses_challenges_rewards_of_human_rights_reporting>
*By Jessica Weiss, IJNet Editor* -- Ugandan human rights reporter Frank
Nyakairu received the 2008 Knight International Journalism Award from the
International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in November. As a correspondent
in East Africa, Nyakairu is a voice for victims of genocide, rape and other
violent offenses stemming from wars in the region. He also serves as the
chairman of the Forum for African Investigative Reporters, and as a coach to
budding reporters.
Since January, Nyakairu has worked for Reuters' humanitarian news network *
AlertNet*, which aims to keep relief professionals and the wider public
up-to-date on humanitarian crises around the globe.
To learn more about the experience of human rights reporting in conflict
zones, IJNet Editor Jessica Weiss recently interviewed the accomplished
30-year-old Nyakairu. Read the interview >>.
<http://e2ma.net/go/1794288191/1637736/60952137/goto:https://www.ijnet.org/ijnet/training_opportunities/african_journalist_frank_nyakairu_discusses_challenges_rewards_of_human_rights_reporting>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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2. 'Communities are the radio stars', UK: Ofcom Community Radio report,
Posted by: "Salvatore Scifo" salvatore.scifo@communitymedia.eu salvatorescifo
Date: Mon Mar 9, 2009 8:31 pm ((PDT))
---Apologies for cross-posting---
Source:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2009/03/nr_20090309a
Executive Summary at:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/cr_annualrpt/
Full report (pdf, 386kb):
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/cr_annualrpt/cr_annualrpt.pdf
Communities are the radio stars
More than 8 million people are now able to tune into community radio
stations and demand is still high for licences, Ofcom's first Annual
Report of Community Radio reveals.
Over 130 community stations are now broadcasting across the UK, with
another 50 preparing to launch.
These not-for-profit radio stations cover small geographical areas and
each typically provides 81 hours of original and distinctive output a
week – mostly locally produced.
Community radio licensing was introduced by Ofcom and the first licence
was awarded in March 2005.
Rich content
Community radio stations reflect the variety of cultures, demographics
and tastes in the UK.
For example, there are stations catering for urban music fans (New
Style, Birmingham) experimental music aficionados (Resonance FM, London)
younger people (CSR, Canterbury), the Armed Forces and their families
(Edinburgh Garrison FM) and religious communities (Cross Rhythms,
Stoke-on-Trent).
In total, 41% of stations are aimed at general audiences in town or
rural communities, 18% broadcast to general audiences in urban areas,
but a significant proportion target specific groups such as young people
(17%), minority ethnic groups (14%) or military communities (5%).
Wide social benefits
The Community Radio Annual Report also reveals that, on average, each
station operates with 74 volunteers who together give around 214 hours
of their time a week. Across the sector this represents over 100,000
volunteer hours a month.
In fulfilling their wider requirements to deliver social gain to their
communities, each station are also required to provide training and
accessibility.
For example, in the year to April 2008 Bang Radio, broadcasting in west
London, delivered broadcast training to over 230 young people, and
continues to offer further work placements to local school and college
pupils.
Similarly, Wolverhampton's WCR Radio provided accredited training to 49
of its 190 volunteers – 44 of whom now hold a qualification in radio
production.
Funding community radio
The typical income of a community radio station is £66,500 pa – yet for
some stations this is as little as £6,000.
The Report has established that a community radio station's income is
primarily generated through grants (45%), donations (12%) and in the
growing area of service contracts with local authorities (11%). Across
the board, on-air advertising represents 18% of total income.
Peter Davies, Ofcom's Director of Radio Policy, said:
"Community radio is a real success story. It delivers rich and varied
content to listeners and provides additional benefits through community
involvement and training.
"Our Community Radio Annual Report reveals that, in just over three
years, 130 stations have sprung up across the length and breadth of the
UK. They reach many communities: from rural to inner city areas and
serving diverse audiences with content ranging from religion,
experimental music to RnB."
"We are delighted that interest from those wishing to run such stations
for their own communities remains high."
Those connected to and working within the sector:
WCR's (Wolverhampton) Zac Morris, 31, a former soldier currently seeking
work said:
"Before I joined WCR I had no knowledge of all the technical aspects
involved in radio.
"Now I can operate a studio, take interviews and I was broadcasting live
on-air after receiving my training."
Ian Wallace, Director of Gaydio based in Manchester, which is preparing
to launch said:
"There's a real excitement in Manchester's gay community about the
launch of Gaydio.
"As well as working with a great team of people we will also be reaching
out to those people who do not currently have a lot of contact with the
LGBT community, which can only be a win–win for everyone in Manchester."
Jonathan Bellamy who runs Cross Rhythms FM, a Christian radio station
based in Stoke, said:
"We have been thrilled at how well we have been received by local
Christians but also by those without a faith. In particular, our unique
music playlist mix of rock, pop, hip hop and R&B by Christian artists
has proved a real hit.
"Our community focussed programming has included features on Media
Action for Mental Health, Safer Cities Partnership, ADSiS (Alcohol and
Drug Services in Staffordshire) and many, many others."
Mark Page, who produces programming for a number of Army stations, said:
"Army audiences and their families, as well as civilians who live in the
local area really value our output.
"Listeners of Community Radio with a military focus regularly hear from
our boys and girls deployed in war zones - it is such a great feeling to
know our programming gives such comfort to those who tune in and that it
also provides real links with those outside bases."
The full report can be found here:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radio/ifi/rbl/commun_radio/cr_annualrpt/
Ends
NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. Community Radio stations are different to local commercial radio
stations; they are not-for-profit and must deliver social gain. They
were created with the Community Radio Order 2004
2. Each community radio station that has been broadcasting for more than
a year is required to complete an annual report.
3. For the period May 07 – Apr 08 Ofcom received reports from 67 stations.
4. A full list of community radio stations can be found here:
www.ofcom.org.uk/static/radiolicensing/Community/community-main.html
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3. Community Media and European Policy: Workshop and Panel Discussion,
Posted by: "Salvatore Scifo" salvatore.scifo@communitymedia.eu salvatorescifo
Date: Mon Mar 9, 2009 8:31 pm ((PDT))
---Apologies for cross-posting---
Community Media and European Policy: Workshop und Panel Discussion
März 12-14, 2008, Halle (Saale), Radio CORAX/Mitteldeutsches Multimediazentrum (Mansfelder Straße 56)
Organized by: medien ost e.V.
Supported by: Staatskanzlei Sachsen-Anhalt, Aktion Mensch (dieGesellschafter.de), Medienanstalt Sachen-Anhalt, Mitteldeutsches Multimedia Zentrum GmbH,
Radio CORAX, Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE)
The medien ost e.V. invites to an international workshop aiming at networking and exchange on the status of Community Media (CM) in the European
Political Sphere. The workshop will be held from March 12-14, 2009, in Halle. Knowing about the growing interests in non-commercial broadcasting
media offering open access noticeable in the European Parliament or in the Council of Europe politicians, representatives of CM and European, national
and regional organizations will discuss the potential and the perspectives of the third media sector in Germany as well as in Europe as a whole.
The workshop will be in English, the panel discussion will be in German.
Besides the public service and the private commercial broadcasters private non-commercial broadcasting media play an increasingly important role in
most of the European countries. They offer free access for social minorities and local communities, for individual, experimental and unusual approches
to media. They forward the intercultural dialogue and communication across borders, the regional identity or the political discourse on the current status
and the future of our society. There are thousands of CM working in Europe including a number of more than 100,000 active volunteers.
Community Media mean in this context most of all radioand TV, whereas plenty of initiatives broadcast via internet as well or even exclusively because
of not having broadcasting frequencies. In Germany the CM-sector contains the non-comemrcial local radios (German: NKL) and - with some restrictions -
the open channels (OK).
The motives and the profiles of CM are very heterogenous - on the international, national and even on the regional level. But they have common features:
a relatively open access, a high level of participation, ownership by the communities, openness for minoritiy-issues and -formats, an important role of
social, political and cultural volunteering and active citizenship: CM are part and expression of the civil society. In the political institutions of the
EU and in the Council of Europe CM had been eking out a shadowery existence for a long time - in spite of the growing importance of the European political
level for the national and regional political regulation in the fields of culture, education and media. But durung the last two years a number of
activities and reports first of all in the European Parliament and in the Council of Europe have been initiated which aim at the improvement of the
political and economical status of the ‚third media sector’.
The workshop is to contribute to a better state of information on CM and to involve existing organizations and associations like the Community Media Forum
Europe (CMFE) and AMARC, which play an increasingly important role in the European media policy and which regularly provide information on the sector on a
European or even global level. The workshop will also offer an opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and experience across borders among acitivists
coming from community radio and -TV-stations. It will contribute to the debate on the characteristics and potential of CM and present selected projects
and approaches from CM as examples of ‚best practice’. Finally, relevant conditions for CM will be discussed on the European and on the national level,
including the general question about the current and future status of CM.
The workshop will bring together representatives of federations and initiatives, which stand for the interests of self-organized and CM in their countries,
politicians and practicioners coming from CM. It will focus issues like the status of CM in the European political spere, co-production and co-operation on
a European level, the relationship of CM and minority or alternative media, CM and intercultural dialogue, CM and digitization and others. The workshop will
include a number of keynotes but it will offer a space for the development of new projects and ideas as well. On March 13th, from 19-21 hrs., there will be
a public panel discussion with the Minister for European Issues in Sachsen-Anhalt, Members of the European Parlimant and representatives of the Council of
Europe and the European Commission, which will be broadcasted via FM and internet stream.
Participants can register via mail: info(et)medienost.de, part. fee is 10 €, which will have to be paid at the reception desk.
Info: Thomas Kupfer, Tel. ++49 +345 681 95 70 / ++49 +178 388 16 11
Internet: www.medienost.de, www.cmfe.eu
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4. Community radio - a rare success story, Media Guardian (9 March 2009
Posted by: "Salvatore Scifo" salvatore.scifo@communitymedia.eu salvatorescifo
Date: Tue Mar 10, 2009 5:58 am ((PDT))
Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/mar/09/community-radio-ofcom-plunkett-blog
Please note, that you can follow the blog discussion at the bottom of the article, where Plunkett asks
> Do you work in community radio? Do you listen to it? Is it in danger
> of being left behind by digital radio - or are the current stresses
> and strains of the commercial sector community radio's biggest
> opportunity yet?
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Community radio was today hailed as a triumph by the media regulator,
Ofcom, but is the new breed of volunteer-run stations filling the void
in local programming that commercial radio has left?
There are now more than 130 community radio stations across the UK,
with another 50 preparing to launch. Although, given current economic
conditions, it remains to be seen how many of those will actually take
to the air.
But with commercial radio in the doldrums, any radio success story
outside the BBC is to be celebrated.
The not-for-profit stations are required by Ofcom to deliver "social
gain to one or more communities" in their local area, with stations
catering for urban music fans (New Style in Birmingham), experimental
music aficionados (London's Resonance FM), the armed forces (Garrison
FM in Edinburgh) and religious communities (Cross Rhythms in Stoke on
Trent).
Ofcom says the community stations are "generally meeting their costs",
with the average station costing £101,000 to run, with average station
income also at £101,000. Well, they are supposed to be not for profit.
But it is worth noting, as Ofcom does, that the figures for the median
station are somewhat lower, with operating costs of £64,500 and income
of £65,500, suggesting that a small number of stations earn - and cost
- significantly more than the majority.
Community radio relies on a huge band of volunteers - an average of 74
a station, according to Ofcom - delivering a total of more than
100,000 volunteer hours a month. In return, some of them get training
and qualifications that they would not receive elsewhere in the
sector.
But how much can community radio provide the "local factor" that will
inevitably go missing from the big commercial radio stations as they
turn their back on locally produced content and heritage station names
in favour of syndicated programming and national brands?
Announcing Ofcom's first annual report of community radio today, Peter
Davies, Ofcom's director of radio policy, said community radio was a
"real success story".
"It delivers rich and varied content to listeners and provides
additional benefits through community involvement and training.
"In just over three years, 130 stations have sprung up across the
length and breadth of the UK ... We are delighted that interest from
those wishing to run such stations for their own communities remains
high."
Each community radio station provides 81 hours of "original and
distinctive output", according to Ofcom, with most of it locally
produced.
To protect the revenue of existing commercial stations, community
broadcasters are barred from raising more than 50% of their income
from on-air advertising and sponsorship - it currently stands at 18% -
with the majority of their backing coming from public sources such as
local authorities.
Less than 15% of the UK population - around 6.5 million adults - are
able to receive a community radio station aimed broadly at them, says
Ofcom. The shortage of FM frequency availability hasn't helped this,
although the process of "digital migration" - you probably shouldn't
hold your breath - may one day free up extra spectrum.
My earliest experience of community radio was more than a decade ago,
when I covered the launch of the Rochester-based Medway FM in north
Kent. One of the joys was hearing about local news and events, which
were never covered by BBC Radio Kent, even though it was based just
down the road.
But it didn't have the newsgathering resources of the local newspaper
- I admit it, I was working for it - and the amateurish presentation
quickly moved on from endearing to irritating.
Still, Medway FM has moved on since then - its office is now a wine
bar and the newsroom a ladies' loo - and so has community radio, with
the current band first licensed in 2004.
Do you work in community radio? Do you listen to it? Is it in danger
of being left behind by digital radio - or are the current stresses
and strains of the commercial sector community radio's biggest
opportunity yet?
Messages in this topic (1)
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5. UK: Community radio surges ahead
Posted by: "George Lessard" mediamentor@gmail.com themediamentor
Date: Tue Mar 10, 2009 6:18 am ((PDT))
Community radio flourishing
Computeractive - London,UK
Around eight million people are able to tune into community radio stations
and learn about what is happening in their area, according to Ofcom. ...
<
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/news/2238080/community-radio-stations
>
Community radio surges ahead
Radio Today - Manchester,UK
Mar 09, 2009 - More than eight million people are now able to tune into
community radio stations and demand is still high for licences,
Ofcom's first ...
<http://radiotoday.co.uk/news.php?extend.4483.2>
Community radio – a rare success story | Media | guardian.co.uk
By John Plunkett
John Plunkett: Ofcom is feting Britain's volunteer-run stations, but how
will they cope with the downturn? And is anyone listening?
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/mar/09/community-radio-ofcom-plunkett-blog
>
Media: Organ Grinder | guardian.co.uk
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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