This weekend, I was delighted to discover the “Community Media Sustainability Guide: The Business of Changing Lives” via Persephone Miel, author of one its articles, entitled “Small Towns Find a Voice Online” and speaker at “We Report, We Decide: Civic Media’s Impact on Mainstream News“.

As a community media worker here in Massachusetts, the report reminded me of how important community media are to people all over the world.

In section one, the guide lays out the core principles and definitions of community media.

“All community media must have a community and the intention to serve and build the community. A quality community service is one that:

• Validates and strengthens communities
• Covers topics that are relevant to the community
• Encourages community discussion and debate in producing and sharing content.
• Facilitates community participation in production and dissemination of content
• Ensures that voices of marginalized, stigmatized, and repressed sectors of communities are heard
• Provides spaces for perspectives and views that are alternative to those originating from mainstream media”

At the end of the first section, the authors conclude:

“We hope the guide will be of value to the thousands of community media activists and practitioners engaged in the daily struggle to build sustainable community media and to the many donors and development agencies that support them.”

I look forward to spending more time with this guide and learning from its examples.