Community Radio and the Internet

1
Community Radio and the Internet
Bridging the Digital Divide?
Amoshaun Toft ICA, 2007
2
Internet use and news consumption patterns
The digital divide and the information divide

• Increasing media consolidation reduces diversity
  in news content
• Mass media channels are still the primary source
  for news and information
• Community radio offers a terrestrial
  distribution channel for uncommon news and
  information

3
News Consumption
Where did you get your news yesterday?

• Local TV (59)
• National TV (47)
• Radio (44)
• Local paper (38)
• Internet (23)
• (Pew Internet American Life Project, 2006)

4
News Consumption
Radio listening patterns

• 94 of respondents said that they listen to AM/FM
  radio on a weekly basis, averaging 2 ½ hours a
  day (Arbitron, 2007)
• 54 of respondents get their news several times a
  week or daily by listening to radio news
  broadcasts (Harris Interactive Inc., 2006)
• 8 of portable mp3 device owners use them for
  news content 5 at least a few times a week
  (Pew Research Center for The People The Press,
  2006)

5
The Digital Divide
Who has access to the Internet?

• Unequal access in schools based on student family
  income (U.S. Department of Education, 2005)
• Racial minorities, those that make less than
  30,000 a year, and those with a high school
  education or less are still far less likely to
  use the Internet at all (Pew Internet American
  Life Project, 2007)

6
The Digital Divide
Where do people go for news on the web?

• TV news organization sites (46)
• Portals like Yahoo or Google (39)
• Local daily papers (32)
• Local TV news stations (31)
• National daily newspapers (20)
• (Pew Internet American Life Project, 2006)

7
The Digital Divide
New sources of information on the web

• 22 have gone to foreign or non-traditional news
  sites at least once
• 9 have gone to a news blog, and 6 to an
  alternative news site such as Alternet at least
  four times
• 3 have went to a news blog, 2 to a radio news
  site and 2 to an alternative news site yesterday
  
• (Pew Internet American Life Project, 2006)

8
Old Media Content, New Media Channel
Radio listening among digital users

• 43 of all iPod-owning respondents ranked an FM
  tuner as the most desirable feature in the next
  generation of iPods (Jacobs Media, 2007)
• 43 of young adult radio consumers occasionally
  listen to radio programs on something other than
  a radio console computers (76), iPods (35),
  laptops (34), cell phones (13)
  (Pew Internet American Life Project, 2007).

9
The Northwest Community Radio Network
2005-2007
Methods

• 1 ½ years as a participant in helping to form the
  Northwest Community Radio Network (NWCRN)
• Publicly available data from
• Website (reclaimthemedia.org/communityradio)
• Wiki pages (nwcommunityradio.wikispaces.com
• Public list (lists.riseup.net/www/info/nwradio)
• Web-based survey

10
NWCRN Website
.
.
11
NWCRN Wiki Space
.
.
12
NWCRN Email List
.
.
13
Northwest Community Radio Listing
.
.
14
Northwest Community Radio Listing
.
.
NW Communiy Radio hyperlink network map
(IssueCrawler.net)
15
NWCRN Participating Stations
Community radio stations, by state, that are
listed on the NWCRN stations listing page,
responded to the survey, and attended the
conference.
.
16
NW Community Station Use of Online Resources
Website and Internet Simulcast Use
17
Northwest Community Radio Listing
.

• Zoomerang.com survey (October, 2005)
• 37 respondents
• 5 states
• station staff (n26)
• volunteers (n13)
• unaffiliated content producers (n11)

.
18
Why the NWCRN?
2005 NWCRN Survey Responses

• The sharing of news content (78.4) and the use
  of an FTP site (70.3) was the most important
  thing that the NWCRN could do
• 59.5 of stations are not already producing
  local news
• 81.3 were very interested in finished news
  programming
• Stations preferred segments in just under ½ hour
  or 1 hour blocks

19
Shared Programming
How are stations producing and sharing news?

• Staff Supported Volunteer News Producers
• One World Report (KBCS, Bellevue)
• Station Hosts Content
• NWCRS Keynote by Amy Goodman
• Radio.indymedia.org Hosted Content
• Pacifica's Audioport

20
Conclusion
Supporting regional stations with digital tools

• Open source audio editing tools (Audacity)
• Flexibility and low-overhead involved in digital
  content distribution tools (Radio4All.net)
• Open publishing and open source networking tools
  support communication across geographic space
  (WikiSpaces.com, Zoomerang.com, RiseUp.net)
• Coordinated regional programming (J-Lab Grant)