The Future of Community Broadcasting Civil Society and Communications Policy Elinor Rennie BA (Hons) Creative Industries Research and Applications Centre Queensland University of Technology Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2003 ii Keywords access, civil society, communitarianism, community broadcasting, communications policy, cultural policy, development, digital television, free speech, new media policies, non-commercialism, quality iii Abstract Will community television one day be lamented in the same way as the Glenn Valley Bridge Club in Pennsylvania, where no one remains ‘who can tell us precisely when or why the group broke up’ (Putnam, 2000: 15)? Robert Putnam’s bestseller Bowling Alone proposed that people ‘need to reconnect with one another’ and rebuild their communities for the good of society. Although he may not have succeeded in instigating a revival of lawn bowls and bridge, Putnam did spark a debate about the meaning of “community” today and its role in bringing about positive social change. At a time when the communications landscape is set to transform with the introduction of digital broadcasting technology, this thesis looks at the status of community broadcasting and its role within civil society. Taking Australia’s community television sector as its starting point, it aims to define the pressures, public philosophies and policy decisions that make community broadcasting what it is. iv This thesis is structured thematically and geographically. The introductory chapters establish the research question in relation to Australia’s community broadcasting sector. As well as tracing the intellectual path of community media studies, it sets out to locate community broadcasting within broader intellectual debates around notions of community, governance and the media. These are brought back to the “on-the-ground” reality throughout the thesis by means of policy analysis, interviews and anecdotal evidence. Chapters Three to Five map out the themes of access, the public interest and development by reference to community broadcasting in different regions. In North America I explore notions of free speech and first-come-first served models of access. In Europe, notions of “quality”, public service broadcasting and the difficult relationship that community broadcasting has with public interest values. Through the Third World and the Third Way I examine how community broadcasting is implicated within development discourse and ideas of social change. The final chapter of the thesis moves into the virtual region of the Internet, looking at changing notions of access and the relevance of new communications rationales to the community broadcasting project. At the intersection of the various themes and models discussed throughout the thesis exists a strong rationale for the future of community broadcasting. Although new technologies may be interpreted as the beginning of the end of community broadcasting, I have argued that in fact it is an idea whose time has come. v Table of Contents LIST OF DIAGRAMS ...........................................................................................................vi ABBREVIATIONS................................................................................................................vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................x INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER ONE: AUSTRALIA ..........................................................................................15 CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL CONTEXTS ............................................................51 CHAPTER THREE: NORTH AMERICA .........................................................................79 CHAPTER FOUR: EUROPE ............................................................................................122 CHAPTER FIVE: THIRD WORLD AND THIRD WAY...............................................154 CHAPTER SIX: NEW POLICIES, NEW TECHNOLOGIES .......................................196 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................225 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................236 List of Diagrams DIAGRAM 1: THESIS OUTLINE ......................................................................................20 DIAGRAM 2: STATUS OF COMMUNITY BROADCASTING .....................................36 vii Abbreviations ABA Australian Broadcasting Authority ABCB Australian Broadcasting Control Board ABT Australian Broadcasting Tribunal ACA Australian Consumers Association ACE TV Adelaide Community and Educational Television AFC Australian Film Commission AMARC Association Mondiale des Radiodiffuseurs Communautaires ATSIC Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Commission ATVA Asian Television Association BENT TV Collective of queer television broadcasters BRACS Broadcasting for Remote Aboriginal Communities Scheme BSA Broadcasting Services Act 1992 CAT TV Community Access Television Inc. CBAA Community Broadcasting Association of Australia CBF Community Broadcasting Foundation CESPA Centre de Services de Production Audiovisuelle viii CIRAC Creative Industries Research and Applications Centre CLC Communications Law Centre CMA Community Media Association CRTC Canadian Radio–television and Telecommunications Commission ERTC Ethnic Radio and Television Committee FCC Federal Communications Commission HDTV High Definition Television HORSCOTCI House of Representatives Standing Committee on Transport, Communications and Infrastructure LPFM Low Power FM LPTV Low Power Television MCT31 Melbourne Community Television Consortium NCPM National Centre for Popular Music NIBS National Indigenous Broadcasting Service PBAA Public Broadcasting Association of Australia RMITV Club of the Student Representative Council, RMIT University SBS Special Broadcasting Service SDTV Standard Definition Television SKA TV St Kilda Access Television TVCBF Télévision Communautaire des Bois-Francs ix The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. Elinor Rennie June, 2003 x Acknowledgements It seems that everyone who writes about community broadcasting has also worked in the sector. Whether we get much of an audience in either pursuit is beside the point – it is the process and networks that make both achievable and worthwhile (although we do still cross our fingers and hope the content is ok). Those who put-up with my rough edits and endured countless meetings from both the broadcasting and academic communities get first thanks. My supervisor, Christina Spurgeon, made this project happen and literally put the world at my feet. The wise words of Stuart Cunningham and Barry Melville (my associate supervisors) always pointed me in the right direction. In the broadcasting community I am especially grateful to the CBAA team (Andrew Brine, David Sice and Jan McArthur) whose collaboration on policy projects influenced my thesis without them knowing it. Also to everyone at SKA TV (in particular Jeff, Cam, Peter, John, Rose, Ntennis) who never gave up. As Cam once said, ‘there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and for once it’s not another train coming…’ Many people contributed their thoughts to this thesis. Thanks to everyone who went out of their way to talk to me on my travels, including: Nicky Edmonds, xi Steve Buckley, Sylvia Harvey, Jeni Vine, John Trevitt, Chris Hewson, Dave Rushton, Hitesh Popat, the Undercurrents gang, Nick Couldry, Peter Lewis, Margaret Gillan, Sean O’Siorchu, Ollie McGlinchey, Nick Jankowski, Martina Huyzenga, Erik van der Schaft, Jürgen Linke, Jonathan Levy, Zane Blaney, Denise Brady, Ron Cooper, Kari Peterson, Ruben Abrue and MNN, DCTV, Tara and Carlos at Paper Tiger, Kevin Howley, Curtis Henderson, Isabelle Allende, André Desrochers, the Federation of Community Television Stations in Quebec, Peter Foster, Catherine Edwards, Bunnie Riedell, Nantz Rickard, Jim Blackman, Bevin Yeatman, Tracy Naughton, Christina Alvarez, Kath Letch, everyone at OURMedia, IAMCR ComCom, the AMARC delegates and everyone else who I spoke with in corridors or over coffee. Thanks to my family and friends in Melbourne who I did not spend nearly enough time with and all my Brisbane friends who were always there. xii Introduction Simply, the sector lacks the political power of both public service radio and commercial radio. While the sector has been sanctioned and offered some support by the state, it has also been under-resourced in terms of material needs such as equipment and funding and ignored in public debate, analysis and polemic – Albert Moran The Research Question Australia’s community television trial is coming to an end. For over a decade community television groups have been analog broadcasting under an open narrowcasting trial on the sixth free-to-air television channel. The expectation has been that if the stations can prove their viability – with no government funding and short one-year apparatus licence terms – that they will become fully licensed community broadcasters. The amendments to the Broadcasting 1 Services