Call for Papers - 3CMedia: Journal of Community, Citizen’s and Third Sector Media

Funding community media

Call for Papers- 3CMedia: Journal of Community, Citizen’s and Third Sector Media

3CMedia is a scholarly journal published by the CBAA. It is international in scope and encourages submissions from established and emerging scholars in community, citizen’s and third sector media, as well as practitioners. In 2015, 3CMedia is particularly keen to encourage submissions that are concerned with the theme of ‘funding community media’.

Participatory community media is animated by collective and individual commitments to social action and self-representation. Historically it has been distinguishable from commercial and public service media by the voluntary labour of love that underpins it. As community media has matured it has also become a collaborative effort of amateurs supported by dedicated professionals and professional services. It has created opportunities for new social enterprises that increase media diversity and expand information and entertainment choices. In the quest for legitimacy and sustainability, community media has been driven to develop and grow revenue streams to cover operational costs, production, program supplies and service development. Memberships, subscriptions, fundraisers, sponsorship, commissioned production, sale of services, and government support all figure in the community media funding mix. Once a disruptive influence that fanned the development of niche-targeted media, participatory community media now grapples with the disruptive impact of rapidly evolving digital technologies and Internet-based economies.  

So what are the challenges, opportunities, risks and threats of funding for community media activity? How are they understood from academic and practitioner perspectives? How does research help to understand these problems? What approaches, methods, and frames of analysis are helpful to understanding the funding requirements of community media? How does funding impact on the criticality of community media organisations, outputs, processes and publics? What can be learnt from past and present experiences?

Full papers received by Friday 28 August 2015 will be considered for publication in the 2015 issue of 3CMedia.

All submissions should follow the specified guidelines. 

Submissions and further enquiries should be directed to Dr Christina Spurgeon, Editor, 3CMedia.