Community radio and TV stations are hugely important to the vitality of local communities, say the authors of a groundbreaking study being launched today.

In the largest project of its kind in the world, researchers from Griffith University have spent two years interviewing audiences across the country, including listeners of Indigenous stations, ethnic language programs, metropolitan, suburban, regional, rural and remote radio, as well as TV audiences in the emerging community TV sector.

The resulting report, Community Media Matters – an audience study of the Australian community broadcasting sector, reveals the integral role played by community broadcasting as described by some of its more than seven and a half million listeners.

The Hon. Helen Coonan, Minister for Communication, Information Technology and the Arts is launching the report at the Melbourne studios of 3RRR-FM, today, Friday August 17.

Community Media Matters finds that audiences’ reasons for tuning in were overwhelmingly similar – their station offers diversity, alternatives and intimacy, an affirmation of their community and its values and a welcome escape from the predictability of mainstream media.

Audience members were passionate in their responses; people talked about their stations as if they were part of a big family – as accessible and approachable, offering places where communities can connect and providing accurate representations of Australia’s social and cultural diversity.

“The community broadcasting sector is a valuable cultural resource”, says Griffith University researcher Associate Professor Michael Meadows. It contributes to Australia’s rich and diverse heritage through its commitment to maintaining, representing and reproducing local cultures. No other media sector is able to do this.”

John Martin, President of the Community Broadcasting Foundation, says that report’s findings demonstrated strong support for community media. “More than any other media, community broadcasting represents and reflects the multiplicity of cultures of today’s Australia. It provides an invaluable forum for Australians from all walks of life who are not represented by mainstream, privately owned media.”

Countries around the world look at Australia’s large and dynamic community broadcasting sector with envy – it’s grassroots vitality providing much needed diversity to the Australian media landscape. With over 480 independent, community-run broadcasting services it is Australia’s largest and most diverse media sector, producing an extraordinary range of programming, in English and more than one hundred ethnic and Indigenous languages.

Contact

Deborah Welch
Research Advisory Committee Chair
0418 887 035

Assoc. Professor Michael Meadows
Researcher
0409 729 785

Click here to find out how to use the 'Community Media Matters' report to promote your station.

Copies of these resources are also available to be downloaded from the CBOnline website including a transcript of the Minister’s speech from the launch of Community Media Matters.