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{"id":447,"date":"2018-04-16T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/?p=447"},"modified":"2019-01-15T14:18:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T14:18:00","slug":"community-media-can-do-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/2018\/04\/16\/community-media-can-do-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Media Can Do Better"},"content":{"rendered":"

As someone who started his career in community radio, community media is naturally dear to my heart.\u00a0 Radio KC in Paarl might not be a famous radio station in the bigger scheme of things, but it was there where I honed my skills as a radio presenter before moving on to commercial radio and then television.\u00a0 If ever there was an example of how community media can and should be used as a platform for aspiring presenters then I would be just that.<\/p>\n

Too busy to read? You can listen to the audio version of this blog post here:<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\nOf course community media also plays other crucial roles.\u00a0 These newspapers, websites, radio and television stations are the link to the towns and cities they represent.\u00a0 There\u2019s a new school opening down the road, there\u2019s been a break-in at Mrs Smith\u2019s house or a new set of traffic lights are going up at the corner of Church and Main \u2013 yes, these are the bits of news you will not find in the national press.\u00a0 Further to that it is exactly where aspiring journalists can hone and craft their skills and begin to make valuable contacts.<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-677\" src=\"http:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Soweto-TV-350x362-290x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Soweto-TV-350x362-290x300.jpg 290w, https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Soweto-TV-350x362-230x238.jpg 230w, https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Soweto-TV-350x362.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/p>\nCommunity television stations like Soweto TV give aspiring presenters and journalists a chance to hone their skills.<\/em> \nPhoto credit: Soweto TV Facebook page<\/em><\/p>\nHow tragic it is then that community media in South Africa is still owned by the big boys.\u00a0 The same people who own the major daily and weekly newspapers also own the Randburg Sun for example.\u00a0 The same corporates running two of the country\u2019s three largest media conglomerates also own all the community television channels.<\/p>\nThere really is no point to having Soweto TV, or Cape TV, if they are going to broadcast American televangelists for 12 hours a day.\u00a0 Personally I think that kind of content would be best suited to a Sunday, and in a country where the majority of people identify as Christian, it would also be good.\u00a0 But in the week there should be local news bulletins, talk shows, magazine programmes, education programmes \u2013 all locally-produced of course.<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-676\" src=\"http:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Radio-KC-2-230x308-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Radio-KC-2-230x308-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Radio-KC-2-230x308.jpg 230w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/p>\nCommunity radio stations like Radio KC give young, up and coming hopefuls a chance to hone their skills.<\/em> \nPhoto credit: Radio KC Facebook page<\/em><\/p>\nOur community media platforms \u2013 especially the television channels \u2013 are letting their communities down in a bad way.\u00a0 My hope is that when South Africa finally does switch over to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), the industry will open up in a big way and provide the platform for the truly local journalist, presenter, producer and filmmaker to showcase their skills.<\/p>\nDon\u2019t hold your breath though.\u00a0 South Africa was meant to have DTT in place ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.\u00a0 The country has routinely missed the other self-set deadlines since then, including the 2015 international deadline.\u00a0 It is now 2018, the country has yet another new Minister of Communications, and we are still waiting for the day that the criminals who broke into Mrs Khumalo\u2019s house, and stole her high school netball trophy, are named and shamed on her community\u2019s local television channel.<\/p>\nWhat do you think about all this? Leave a comment below. I\u2019d love to hear your thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As someone who started his career in community radio, community media is naturally dear to my heart.\u00a0 Radio KC in Paarl might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":678,"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447\/revisions\/678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterstemmet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}