Civilmedia Salzburg 06 – Civil Society and its Media Forum on Role and Perspectives of Community Media
Salzburg, June 22/23, 2006
Contribution and commitment of civil society is a basis of democracy and as such it needs the media: to reach an audience, to share information, but even before that to encourage commitment, build communities and acquire the necessary skills to do so. Community media meets these requirements. In Austria, community radios have been providing open access for 8 years now, for half a year the first Austrian community TV-station is ‚on air‘ in Vienna. They impart media literacy and are a platform for citizen journalism, thus fulfilling a public service function of growing importance. Despite this, there is no structural finance basis to this work, as there is in many other countries.
The Forum „Civilmedia 06„ is held to initiate broader information and discussion on the use and need of community media and the financial necessities involved, present international models of support and demonstrate the contributions to society free media is making here and elsewhere.
The second day is dedicated to the development of future perspectives and reflects the changing role of frequency bound radio and TV in times of weblogs and podcasting.