The National Community Radio Forum and the Alternative Information and Development Centre will host a reflection conference on the 8th and 9th October this year to stimulate dialogue between leaders from community projects and other stakeholders to reflect on their environment and create a shared critique to develop alternatives.

South Africa now has over 100 on-air community radio stations, two on-air community television stations, and numerous print and online community and alternative media initiatives. These media projects have grown out of the struggle to liberate our people and from an acknowledgement that accessing information and the capacity to express ourselves are critical to the creation of a more just and participatory democracy – as well as an realization that media owned and controlled by the private sector and state could not serve this purpose.

Community media projects have grown in number and have had fifteen years of often challenging experience since dawn of our democracy. Key questions have emerged that require collective and structured reflection. Amongst these questions:

• What is the current understanding of the purpose of community media, and are media projects having their desired impact?
• How can projects enable fuller community participation in governance, management, and production?
• Can projects realize their democratic and potentially transformative role if they are dependent on advertising for their financial sustainability? What alternative funding models are possible?
• How do projects ensure editorial/programming independence in relation to powerful institutions including the state and the private sector?
• What are the key training & capacity needs of projects, and are the various training & capacity building institutions adequately meeting these needs?
• How can projects better partner and network with one another (through NCRF Hubs, etc) and with other organizations to realize their goals?
• What constitutes ‘quality content’ that meets the information and expression needs of our communities and how can projects improve the quality of their communication service?

The conference will lay the basis for a Popular Media Mindblast and NCRF Biannual General Meeting in December 2009 by developing aspects of the programme, mapping the issues, developing provisional positions, and engaging leaders in the process.

You can find a draft programme for the conference here.

READ THE FULL CONFERENCE REPORT HERE