Mapping Community Media Policy at AMARC, Argentina

“The lack of proper enabling legislation is the single principal barrier to community media’s social impact”, as the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) highlighted in its 2007 'Community Radio Impact Evaluation'. The policy environment will be at the core of discussions when community radio activists and advocates will meet at the 10th AMARC congress on November 8th-12th in La Plata, Argentina.

Several hundred participants from around the globe will also discuss the role of new technologies in an ever-changing media environment, experiences of community radio in disaster response, the contributions of community radio to a socially and ecologically sustainable future, gender issues, and various aspects of radio production and management.

The project 'Mapping Global Media Policy' will be introduced in a dedicated workshop. Enabling civil society activists and community media advocates to identify and analyze issues, actors, processes, outcomes and resources of media policy, the project enhances their capacities to intervene into policy settings. Providing necessary knowledge to participate in the shaping of media policy is one of the project's key goals. It can thereby be an important factor in reducing the barriers mentioned by AMARC.

Workshop participants will learn how to use the project's online platform to investigate and contribute information on community media policy worldwide. Community media researchers and advocates will provide insights on the policy situation in their regions, and discuss the use of the project for their purposes. Commentators include Kate Coyer (Central European University, Hungary), Damian Loreti (Counsellor in Legislation and Communication Rights, AMARC Latin America), Bazlur Rahman (Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication, BNNRC), Bruce Girard (Comunica.org) and Stefania Milan (European University Institute).

Convened by McGill Research Fellow Arne Hintz, the workshop will show participants how to get involved with mapping activities. It will be the starting-point for building a dedicated section on the project platform that maps the policy situation for community radio across various regions.

Daily updates from the conference will be provided on the Media@McGill website at http://media.mcgill.ca/en/blog/872