South Africa is entering a period of deepening economic and social crisis. Between October and December last year 208 000 workers lost their jobs. Given that every job supports on average five other people, more than a million South Africans lost their source of income. But this was only the beginning of the economic crisis.

In the first 3 months of this year the manufacturing industries declined by 22% and the mining industry declined by 33%. The number of companies that closed down between January and April 2009 increased by 45.3% compared to the first quarter of 2008. The impact of this economic crisis is increasingly being felt in every village and township across South Africa.

In this crisis the mainstream media is letting us down. Most of the current affairs programming/editorial and news coverage of the public and commercial media caters to the interests and concerns of rich urban people. Most of the media produced specifically for the poor communities by the public and commercial media focuses on entertainment (like music, sport, or soap operas).

They’ve been repeating that South Africa has enjoyed the longest and strongest period of economic growth in our history. That's true, but then what about the growing unemployment, record-breaking inequality, and lack of basic service delivery 14 years after the dawn of our democracy? We ‘enjoyed’ jobless growth that has seen the rich get richer and inequality grow. Now, with the economic crisis deepening the South African media is failing to inform us about the extent of the crisis or to have a discussion about alternatives to the system that is collapsing.

Big companies asking for bailouts, but who will bailout ordinary South Africans?  And who will pay the price of propping up the failing system? If communities are not informed and organized it will be ordinary South Africans that pay through taxation (VAT) and low wages for many years to come.

South Africa needs an alternative media that can tell the story as it affects ordinary South Africans, giving voice to their experiences and grappling with possible alternatives to their hardship.

Community media projects – with over 70 on-air radio stations and numerous print publications – were established to serve the information and expression needs of our communities. But are they meeting this challenge? In too many cases our community media projects are doing little more than imitating the commercial media with entertainment and gossip formats where news and opinion is often taken straight from commercial or government news sources without giving it any context or angle making it relevant to ordinary people.

Rather than a unique voice of marginalized communities, community media has come to see itself as a ‘little brother’ of mainstream media; a training ground for aspirant celebrities, and a ‘small business’ catering to the companies and government departments wanting to influence our communities .

Around the world media organizations are battling to survive as companies cut their advertising budgets. With less income and a deepening social crisis community media are challenged to develop new strategies to sustain themselves. It cannot be ‘business as usual’ and smart media projects will become increasingly responsive to their audiences – providing relevant content and a platform of expression that empowers and transforms communities, arming them with the knowledge and confidence to organize and assert right to a quality life.