Sep 11 2008
Podcast: Participation, Ahoy! – Participatory Culture In Community Radio
Exegesis
This podcast aimed to educate listeners about an aspect of community and participatory culture. A participatory culture is a ‘culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices’ and where the ‘members believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection with one another’. (Henry Jenkins, ‘Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century’) 6EBA World Radio immediately came to mind as a topic choice, as I have personally experienced the participatory nature of the station and few groups, activities or events in our society merge the concepts of community and participatory culture better than community radio.
As explored through various topics throughout the seminar, catering for the needs of small groups is as, if not more important, than providing support and opportunity for interaction for the larger groups in communities. Dani Cinnamon points out in the podcast that added together, those small groups make up quite a large section of a society and often community radio is one of the only ways in which smaller communities can keep in touch, be informed of community events and the current affairs in their countries. Michael Hedges states that ‘the health of the medium [community radio] depends on reaching real people, no matter how small the audience’. (Michael Hedges, ‘State Council overturns regulator on community radio’) Through offering an intense variety of programming featuring several languages and topics, community radio reaches assorted groups and individuals whom are not catered for by the larger, commercial stations that are aimed at a boarder audience. As media giants such as Amazon.com have discovered, ‘the future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets’, most entertainment forms are moving towards a more personalised and individual experiences for their intended audiences. (Chris Anderson, ‘The Long Tail’) While this has continuously been the trend in community radio, the direction of new media forms (such as Social Networking Sites) raises the question of whether community radio will be the only provider of support, interaction and participation for smaller niche groups, and in turn whether it has a future as society moves further into the digital age.
A common conception of digital technologies and the movement towards a digital age is that it is going to enable increased audience and community participation, and move away from the ‘top-down’ experiences of media creation that have shaped our past as a consumer culture. When I raised the question to Cinnamon, she explained that the amount of digital channel available to community radio was limited and the digital channel was mainly going to allocated to commercial channels. (Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, ‘The challenges for community broadcasting’) The fact that community radio is only receiving a smaller fraction of the digital channel than currently available means that there will be less opportunity for participation, or at least less available opportunities for varied cultures and communities with smaller intended audiences to participate. It is an interesting turn in the ideologies surrounding digital media, which is often promoted as a space where there will be and is increased participation, digital media, ‘gets the audience involved, provide[s] opportunities for everyone to be a content creator, to distribute the content, and to present content in new venues’. Additionally the changes involved in the translation from analogue broadcasting to broadcasting on the digital channel bring challenges in the form of funding, management of the station and the technical structures that would be required. (Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, ‘The challenges for community broadcasting’)
I chose to record my podcast in the 6EBA studio, primarily as that was where I would be meeting my interviewee but also because this provided, what I felt, was a much higher quality of sound than a handheld recording device would. Additionally, I was then able to use audio editing software that I was already familiar with at 6EBA, and so did not have to familiarise myself with another system. Overall, this allowed for a great recording experience, as I was able to watch the interview be recorded onto the computer and so did not have any concerns about issues accessing the recording from a device. The only challenge that I came across was that the time limit of the podcast was somewhat restrictive, and consequently I had to cut out several questions and some answers that would have also contributed to concepts of participatory culture and community.
While the future of community radio is uncertain due to changes in technologies and media, it currently provides support and opportunities for participation that are not available elsewhere to small groups and communities either within or outside their community.
The Podcast
Bibliography
Henry Jenkins, ‘Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century.’ http://www.digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF (accessed 10 September 2008).
Michael Hedges (2008) ‘State Council overturns regulator on community radio.’ http://www.followthemedia.com/mediarules/gazelle01092008.htm (accessed 10 September 2008).
Chris Anderson (2004) ‘The Long Tail.’ http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html (accessed 10 September 2008).
Community Broadcasting Association of Australia ‘The challenges for community broadcasting.’ http://www.cbaa.org.au/content.php/506.html (accessed 10 September 2008).
Ethnosphere Volume 2, ‘Track 23’ (Music), n.d.
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2 Responses to “Podcast: Participation, Ahoy! – Participatory Culture In Community Radio”
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It is interesting to note that there is a community radio which is done for non-commercial purposes. Unlike commercial radio which involves participatory culture to a large scale, community radio involves participatory culture in a small scale. Thus, participatory culture can be compared to as quantity versus quality (to some extend). Quality in participatory culture is evident in community radio through the example in the Podcast of domestic violence, targeted at victims and perpetrators. Although it may only involve a small group, it provides them with a sense of comfort to know that there is someone out there helping them. A sense of community is definitely evident the community radio caters of different ethnic groups rather commercial radio, which caters to everyone in general. Thus, forging a sense of belonging and identity, which are important traits of a community.
However, there are raising concerns about the future of these community radios. With the advent of digital technology, it seems as if community radios will lose a place in society. Given that there are only small niches of groups supporting community radio and that digital channel mainly goes to commercial radios, the community radio would have to rely on word-of-mouth or some form of advertisement in order to keep itself going.
This podcast has efficiently demonstrated the idea of participatory culture and community through the relevant use of examples. It has also demonstrated the controversies of digital media and widened my knowledge in knowing that some radio stations still broadcast using analog channels rather than digital channels. This podcast has also portrayed professionalism and clarity. Lastly, it would be great to know more about what Dani has to say about the future of and what could be done to ensure the continuity of community radio!
Nice podcast, Alex.
Its exploration of community in the present and the future of community radio is a good synthesis of the ideas of community that the podcast requires, with the ideas of participatory culture that are examined at further length by the unit. Furthermore, your questions tie in well with each other and a logical progression is noticeable. Technically speaking, the sound quality is high, and both presenters are clear and audible.
Of particular note was the point Dani made, and you expanded upon, about small niche groups forming a large group of people, which to me spoke a lot about the long-tail economic theory, but took it beyond economics and making products available to people in an online shop, and articulated the same process in how it forms communities in a larger society.
Furthermore, the discussion on the relative ease for community members to join into the community formed by the radio station indicates again a good topic choice. By its sheer existence, broadcasting in as many languages as it does, it engages members of society with the radio who may not necessarily be involved with it. Especially if these are people who don’t necessarily have a good command of English, the radio station facilitates their connection with world news and events.
The topic of the digital stream presents an interesting irony, that the technology behind digital radio theoretically reduces the barriers for engagement, that is, making radio and broadcast more oriented to a participatory culture, yet the bulk of the digital channel is occupied by commercial interests, and potentially will squeeze out existing or potential community broadcasters. This concern was not one with which I was previously familiar, so your work in informing people of situations via the podcast technology has again been successful.
All in all this piece of work presented satisfies all criteria, in that it is technically well produced, engages the audience and ties together ideas of community in their existing forms, and presents them in a new manner, asking questions of them and their place in the future with new technologies.