Please Note: The public part of the program will end at 1pm, however members of the audience are more than welcome to stay and contribute in the workshop sessions, which will end at 5pm.

EVENT DESCRIPTION:

Where is your content going?

The internet has made it easy for us to create and distribute media. But have you considered how your information and creative works will be used? In the process of distributing your ‘user-generated’ content you may also be handing over your personal information. Even worse, you could be supporting corporations that seek to restrict the way we access information in the future.

In an ‘information society’ we need media organisations we can trust – and we need them to be clearly recognisable.

Many grassroots media organisations are working to achieve democratic and ethical alternatives. Such groups are protecting our rights, ensuring equal access to the media, developing open technologies and providing training. However, it is difficult to know just by visiting a website or turning on the TV/radio what kind of media we are participating in. We cannot know whom the profits go to, what they do with content and how they will treat the information we give them. Reading the privacy statements is time-intensive and confusing. There must be a better way.

This symposium will discuss how we label and certify Our Media. We will workshop a strategy to lift the profile of grassroots community media and assist producers to identify trustworthy organisations. Issues include:

·      Do we need certification?

·      What would it consist of?

·      What is the new role for peak bodies?

·      What kind of registries and directories are needed to make people aware that these alternatives exist?

·      Can we unite online and broadcast community media into a strong and identifiable movement?

Australia has one of the strongest community broadcasting sectors in the world. These organisations are more important in the new media world than they have ever been. We need to ensure that existing community media groups maintain visibility and credibility so that audiences and producers can make appropriate, ethical choices when it comes to media use. And we need to extend the same guarantees into the online environment.

Hosted by: Open Spectrum Australia, State Library of Victoria, ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, RMIT School of Applied Media.