Against the turmoil of media distrust, community television has a vital role to play
On the island of Ireland there are three community television channels. Two of those are south of the border- one in Cork (CCTV) and one in Dublin (DCTV). While its non-commercial ethos means that operations tend to run on a shoestring and a core of dedicated volunteers, it also means that it doesn’t answer to a political party or business tycoon but to the community that it serves. As people turn to social media for their news instead of journalists and AI advances create deep fake pictures, soundbites and videos that put words in the mouths of people who didn’t actually say them, this role of ‘honest broker’ takes on an increasingly crucial potential. The role of community television was just one of the topics discussed, last weekend, at the a community television festival in Dublin at which I was held a workshop on television project applications.
DCTV is at an exciting juncture. It has been broadcasting for years on Virgin Media’s platform at Channel 802, but financial woes and the shift away from linear tv had resulted in dated content and a general lack of public awareness. That is changing, and changing fast. A dedicated and hardworking committee of volunteers managed to keep the heartbeat of the channel ticking over against huge odds and now the corner has been turned. DCTV has just taken on someone to oversee the day-to-day running of the channel and the committee has grown to include original well-experienced members and new additions who bring a raft of perspectives and talents to join what’s already in place. The festival also saw the station’s AGM at which I became a committee member.
A vision document is being drafted, but the talk of what that vision will be is exciting. There’s an air of collaboration with the other two community television stations which is expected to see local content grow for each region and cooperation on national interest content, with days that will see the three channels broadcast the same content at the same time.
Another important development is the move towards online streaming and on-demand content. While there is something engaging about watching scheduled programmes on traditional television, combining this with online offerings serves both existing audiences and new-media audiences who are used to viewing what they decide, when they decide.
The future for DCTV, then, is looking bright. And with an ethos of ‘for the community, by the community’ community television is poised to play an important role for those who are looking for information that they can trust.
