Community Media Matters

Community Media Matters

Helen Henry, 15th January 2015
Print

The Community Media Matters report, published in 2007, presents the results of the first national qualitative research study into Australian community broadcasting audiences. It explores why a significant and increasing number of Australians listen to community radio and/or watch community television, what they value about it, and how it meets their needs.

The report details how the Australian community broadcasting sector is fulfilling these four broad functions:

  1. Providing alternative sources of local news and information;
  2. Offering diverse audiences diverse music program formats and styles;
  3. Enabling community members to ‘connect’ — either socially or by engaging with radio programming — thus
  4. ‘creating communities’; and
  5. It more accurately represents Australian social and cultural diversity than other media outlets.

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