Week Seven: ABC Media Report

Article from: ABC Media Report
Title: 'On the record' with Deborah Welch
Presenter: Antony Funnell
Date: September 11, 2008

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2358056.htm#transcript

In this week's segment Antony Funnell speaks to the station manager at Radio Adelaide (and President of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia), Deborah Welch, about reasons why she feels community broadcasting deserves more funding. She mentions that community broadcasting is very diverse and offers something for everyone. She also mentions the involvement of new media, such as websites, involved in community broadcasting and also discusses user-generated content vs community broadcasting.

Deborah feels that community broadcasting can create a relationship between what is happening within a community to the people within that community. She feels that user-generated content by individuals does not have that same impact and I happen to agree. I am originally from a small country town in South Australia and the local paper and radio stations were, and still are, a vital source of information within that community, as well as providing the members of that community with a sense of belonging and camarderie. I also understand Deborah's desire to recieve more funding to expand community broadcasting's possibilities into realms such as the internet. Although I no longer live in rural South Australia and have very little access to the physical pages of that local newspaper, I am very glad to be able to access it online and hold onto my connections with that community.

I find it interesting to note also that new media is becoming an important part of every media organisation and is in high demand from the public. Deborah mentions that people often ring the radio station in search of the written transcript and wonder if it is possible to find these things online. She then explains the fact that changing the genre or type of media from its original form, such as changing a radio program into a transcript, requires effort and funding and is not as easy as simply waving a wand and having it appear.

This idea brings me to an assignment I am currently undertaking. I am required to change an audio excerpt (see link below) about wave energy into three other genres. This requires special considerations of audience, context and purpose which I think relates to Deborah Welch's point. Each genre has a set of similarities and rules and perfecting a publication so that it can be easily understood by an audience requires time and effort. I hope to be able to achieve this over the next few weeks and maybe one day I'll be able to help out Deborah Welch and the rest of the community broadcasting associations.

Wave Energy audio except: http://www.abc.net.au/rural/telegraph/content/2006/s2335194.htm