Community television is the common thread in a mixed bag of workshops

Ringsend and Irishtown Community Centre was the venue for a one day seminar run by Dublin Community Television today (July 12, 2024). It comes as DCTV undergoes a raft of positive changes that see it supplement its Virgin Media Channel 802 broadcast with an online stream at its dctv.ie website as well as expand its management committee to greatly expand the toolkit of skills behind running the station.

Declan, and long time collaborator, producer Bill Tyson, kicked off proceedings with a talk on budgeting for community television projects. Both Bill and Declan are currently in production on Coimisiún na Meán-funded projects, so were able to give up-to-date information on drafting and implementing budgets.

Other talks included an overview of how DCTV programmes are sourced, logged, broadcast and archived from station manager Brian Greene, a presentation on a low budget but high production quality documentary from DCTV chairperson John Gormley and discussion on the role of community television in combatting racism and hard right extremism.

“The seminar was highly interesting,” said Declan, “but it was also important in that it was a face-to-face event that provided a super opportunity to network. With so much taking place online these days, such opportunities are increasingly rare.”