Community media and industry training survey results

This online survey of 351 media industry employees from across all media sectors provides a snapshot of educational qualifications, voluntary/work experience history and other factors which assisted media industry employees to make the transition to paid employment. The survey reveals that community media contributes substantially to the media industries, providing training and networks which lead to real career opportunities across the commercial, public, community and education sectors

Youthworx media: youth media and social enterprise as intervention and innovation

This research explores the impact of Youthworx, a community-based cross-sector response to the problem of youth marginalisation and social exclusion. Preface Youthworx is a successful model of a practical, community-based, cross-sector response to the problem of youth marginalisation and social exclusion. It combines professional expertise, networks and material resources across social service delivery agencies (Salvation Army and Youth Development Australia (YDA)), youth-run community media (SYN Media), an educational provider (North Melbourne Institute of Technology TAFE (NMIT)) and research organisations (the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI), at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research (SISR)). Media training and production is used to build capacity to re-engage with learning, education and employment. After some years in development between 2008, when Youthworx effectively began operations, and 2013, the program has provided open access multimedia workshops, accredited training and, more recently, paid traineeships for more than 400 youth disconnected from formal learning, with experience of homelessness, juvenile justice or alcohol and drug abuse. Participants broadcast and distribute their works through SYN Media, local festivals and screenings, as well as online. They also make commissioned creative products for external clients and not-for-profit organisations. Research undertaken by Swinburne University’s SISR between 2005 and 2013 explored impact of Youthworx on these young people and the broader lessons for debates on social innovation, community media and creative economies, informal learning, opportunity and enterprise. The integrated R&D is a unique element of Youthworx, allowing documentation, analysis and capacity-building. It combined longitudinal on-site research, a comparative study of best practices across parallel international youth media initiatives, and mobilisation of established academic and industry networks. Although our findings to date have appeared in a range of publications, this document offers the first comprehensive report on the project. It discusses the development of Youthworx and the results of the 2008-13 period. The presented findings draw on a qualitative fieldwork at Youthworx and semistructured follow-up interviews with a group of Youthworx graduates who participated in the program between 2009-2011. In combination, this material is used to document and explore the specific institutional structure and cultural context in which Youthworx’s media training and production took place, the ways in which young people experienced, engaged with and valued the project, as well as the project’s social outcomes. The longitudinal account of Youthworx presented here integrates and summarises multiple voices, including industry partners, service organisations, practitioners, researchers and, importantly, young people themselves. It reflects arguments developed across the team, including material previously published

Open Problems in DAOs

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are a new, rapidly-growing class of organizations governed by smart contracts. Here we describe how researchers can contribute to the emerging science of DAOs and other digitally-constituted organizations. From granular privacy primitives to mechanism designs to model laws, we identify high-impact problems in the DAO ecosystem where existing gaps might be tackled through a new data set or by applying tools and ideas from existing research fields such as political science, computer science, economics, law, and organizational science. Our recommendations encompass exciting research questions as well as promising business opportunities. We call on the wider research community to join the global effort to invent the next generation of organizations

Co-creative media in remote Indigenous communities

This paper examines co-creative video outputs that have originated from, or relate to, remote Indigenous communities in Australia. Scholarly work on remote media has mostly operated at the interface of media studies and anthropology, seeking to identify how cultural systems shape the production, distribution and reception of media in Aboriginal communities. This paper looks instead at content themes, funding sources and institutions during the 2010-2013 period, and examines the factors that may be determining the quantity of co-creative outputs, as well as the types of stories that get produced. I argue that the focus on culture has obscured important shifts in remote media policy and funding, including a trend towards content designed to address social disadvantage

Unintended consequences: Satellite policy and Indigenous television

This article examines two instances of media policy involving satellite transmission and Indigenous television: the introduction of the Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) platform in 2010 and the introduction of AUSSAT in the mid-1980s. The government’s failure to provide community and Indigenous broadcasters with an access regime at the time of AUSSAT resulted in Australia’s first and only Indigenous commercial television licensee, Imparja. Over a quarter of a century later, Imparja now forms part of the joint-venture company that runs VAST, a key component of Australia’s digital switchover planning. During the passage of the legislative amendments required to establish VAST, the issue of access resurfaced – this time in relation to Australia’s national and community Indigenous television channels. The article recounts the events leading up to the 2010 Bill, and examines the intended and unintended consequences of satellite policy in relation to Indigenous media, including equalisation and transparency of government funding programs

Community media production: access, institutions, and ethics

In policy terms, community media are known as the “third sector” of the media. The description reflects the historical expectation that community media can fulfill a need not met by the commercial and public service broadcasters. A defining element of this “need” has been the means to production for nonprofessionals, particularly groups not represented in the mainstream media. The historical construction of community media reveals production to be a guiding principle; both a means and an end in itself. This chapter examines the various rationales underpinning community media production, including empowerment, media diversity, and the independent producer movement. Using case studies from youth media, the chapter critiques producer-centric models of community media. In the contemporary media environment, production alone cannot meet the social needs that community media were established to address. Instead, I propose a rationale that combines both production and consumption ethics

DEMIC DEAL-BREAKERS AND THE STATISTICAL IMAGINARY OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

In this paper I challenge current conceptions of digital inclusion and exclusion as they are conceived through statistical analysis. Drawing on the findings of a multi-year study of internet adoption in remote Aboriginal communities in central Australia, I demonstrate how remote Indigenous sociality is leading to a particular enactment of ‘digital choices’ (Dutton et al. 2007) that cannot be understood through statistics alone. These choices are leading to an ‘all or nothing’ scenario that manifests at the group level as a digital divide. The paper proposes a new theory – the ‘demic dealbreaker’ – to explain differential rates of broadband adoption across remote Aboriginal communities

Murder in the damp: The Killing

'The Killing' is the US remake of the Danish TV series 'Forbrydelsen.' Apart from retelling a gripping story, the producers have done their best to recreate a cold climate

Remote beginnings, metropolitan developments: community and indigenous television in Australia

Australian television officially commenced in 1956, two decades after the United States and Britain. The United States had chosen to structure its television industry in favor of commercial media enterprise, whereas Britain kept television in public hands, implementing a state-funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and retaining public ownership of transmission sites. Having observed the benefits of both models, the Australian government opted for a 'dual' model, permitting commercial television but also establishing an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which would operate under a similar framework as its British counterpart. Television was an immediate success in Australia. In order to maintain cultural policy objectives, the government adopted a method of quid pro quo, whereby broadcasters were required to conform to policy objectives (such as local content quotas and children's programs) in return for a stable market in which no more than three commercial broadcasters were allowed to operate in any one area. By the early 1970s, television had evolved into a mature and relatively stable industry, but community television became a permanent fixture in the analogue landscape only in 2004. What was originally heralded as a seismic shift in the media landscape—'the most fundamental change in broadcasting since the introduction of television itself' (Productivity Commission, 2000)—did not budge the incumbent commercial and national broadcasters. Amidst all the planning and jostling for digital television channels, one important point was: digital television could open up a range of possibilities for the third sector media, offering new content forms and better governance models organized around flexible spectrum use. As national and commercial broadcasters rallied to maintain their existing interests and services, the community sector was already rethinking the boundaries of what its 'television' might be. This chapter revisits the history of community and indigenous television before it examines the issue of digital television

Creative world

The creative world might not look much different from what came before. But as with the skateboarders who took the architecture of the city and saw in its shapes the potential for speed and style, creativity is about repurposing, subverting, and improving what is already there. Even now, as those who invented the term 'creative industries' review its boundaries and inroads, the creative world is doing what it likes with the idea. The general introduction outlines how creative industries came about through the forces of globalization, including changes in national and international economic patterns and in culture and communication