I just finished listening to Friday’s episode of Radio Boston on “Super Local News” with Adam Gaffin (Universal Hub), Dan Kennedy (Media Nation), David Dahl (Boston Globe) and an all too short (2 minute) conversation with Marcela Garcia (El Planeta). It made me think about community media’s role in all of this.

With all the recent coverage surrounding the turmoils of the newspaper business, I rarely see any mention of community media and their potential in this situation.  After all, this is a time when newspapers are increasingly using “citizen journalism” or “user-generated” stories for their news “content” online.

As commercial businesses have experienced a convergence in cross-media platforms over the past few years, so too have Public, Educational and Government Access Television (community media) centers experienced a similar convergence through their use of both community television and the social web – as well as other media platforms.

For example, just this past week, Dakota Access Media, Community and Government access television for Bismarck-Mandan, North Dakota provided live updates on the flood emergencies using their Twitter feed.

As they recently stated about this convergence on their website:

We are at a very interesting time in the world of marketing, as many are aware. With the ever-growing popularity of Facebook, YouTube and other user-generated content sites, it is a constant source of debate as to the future of traditional media (radio, TV, newspapers, etc) and new media.

At Dakota Media Access, we see our role in the same way that we always have. Helping individuals and non-profits gain access to equipment and skills to help them develop the digital media content in order to use multiple communication vehicles simultaneously.

So, in this discussion about the future of local news, here are 3 important lessons that can be learned from what’s happening in community media across the U.S. (where they still exist):

1. Community Media Are The Community – The story from Dakota Media Access above is just one of the many reasons why community media centers are uniquely positioned to provide important news and information to residents in local communities. Particularly in locations where a city or town’s community newspaper only has one or two on staff on-board to report on the critical local issues affecting its residents. Community media are created by and for the people who live in the community.
2. Community Media Provide Media Training – Many community media centers also provide media training on the equipment needed to report the news. As I’ve mentioned before, our “hyperlocal” program, NeighborMedia has benefited from those journalists who have been told that they need to gain “multimedia” skills to report the news in a digital age – they’ve come to us. This is another important contribution that community media centers can make to help train the next generation of super local newsmakers.
3. Community Media Build Community – Because community media centers are physical places, they help bring residents together to make media and share their voices on issues that matter to them and others in their community. As online tools become increasingly popular, community media centers help ground the communication and information in lived spaces.

For these reasons and more, I believe there are exciting opportunities for local newspapers, and others concerned about the future of their news, to work together with their community media centers to create new models for sustaining local news and information now and into the future.