Community media in the prosumer era

How is media convergence impacting on established, ‘broadcast-era’ community media? In this paper Ellie Rennie takes SYN (a community radio licensee in Melbourne) as a case study and employs media ethnography and policy analysis to identify contemporary challenges facing community media.

Community media requires a different approach to convergence than that which is commonly associated with the professional creative industries. In the community sphere, convergence is led by members and encouraged through open, participative processes. The ‘open source organisation’ is proposed here as a useful way of thinking through the challenges of convergence and the limitations of Australia’s existing communications policy framework.

Published in:
3C Media: Journal of Community, Citizen’s and Third Sector Media and Communication
ISSN 1832 – 6161
Issue 3 December 2007