Battling it out.

In the digital battle viewers are likely to be faced with a display of machismo unlike anything seen to date as the broadcasters compete to attract the public. The viewer will have the ability to flick through hundreds of television channels. The height of this revolutionary technology is for the viewer to engage in 'interactive' television. They will, for example, have the same programme running at 10-minute intervals on multiple of channels giving the viewer the ability to keep flicking channels until they reach the beginning of it!

But what opportunity is there for locally produced television, which guarantees genuine interactivity and two-way communication?

In the past it has been very difficult for community television activists to argue for local access television on the airwaves. The traditional gatekeepers of the distribution outlets believed that the public television service, BBC/RTE, was all that was needed. When 'community access' programming was provided the process of production was heavily filtered. When extracts of community access programming particularly from America, reached our screens they chose the wackiest bizarre examples.

The de-regulation of television in UK and Ireland and the fact that television beams across national boundaries has shaken up the notion that broadcasting is confined to a few 'chosen' institutions. National broadcasters and their supporters are horrified with the prospect that our airwaves (and culture) are more and more dominated by a few multinationals. The general public is also beginning to wake up to the prospect that our screens (including cinema), are swamped with American product. Unfortunately community access programming isn't part of the transglobal multi-national agenda…..not much profit there! In the North, Cabeltel, the local cable company has rejected community groups appeals to use one of their forty Channels…'we're using them all'…. (showing wall to wall sports, endless chat shows, shopping, cookery and pornography) 'and our subscribers would not want to watch them' they claim.

So where does community television fit in?

Let's compare the music industry with community television.

Major record companies enable superbly produced CD's to be recorded in expensive studios using the latest technology. They are beautifully packaged, backed with a huge promotion budget and distributed on a world market basis.

Alongside there are independent locally produced CDs, recorded in bedrooms or cheap community recording studios using simple technology where not a lot of technical wizardry or musical knowledge is required and mastered and distributed locally.

Yet for all their technical limitations and lack of know-how, independently produced records can deliver the most exciting results, can have substantial sales…and begin to push the creative boundaries of our expectations!

With community television, we don't claim it will compete with mainstream television, it won't look as slick, it may not attract mass audiences…but it has its place, its viewers and can be an important ingredient of public debate.

All dressed up and no where to go.

For many years throughout Ireland and in the U.K. community video makers have been training people at a grassroots level in the production of programmes. Video is an electronic media meant for distribution over the airwaves and it has been frustrating not to have the means to distribute community work to a wider audience.

All over the world community television is really taking off! No longer confined to the studio with difficult heavy equipment, programming can be produced using lightweight low cost digital cameras and desktop editing.

People are excited by the decentralisation of information and two-way communication (the Internet). Local community radio is extremely popular and the 4 week licences are constantly being applied for. Many groups see the need to engage in programme production as a way of affirming a local identity and culture…. and a way of making society more democratic.

And no where more so than in Northern Ireland. In our divided society television is one of the few 'neutral zones' where people from both communities can speak to one another, create dialogue and begin to heal divisions.

At Northern Visions we have applied for a local television licence to broadcast in the Belfast area. This is a perfect solution for all those video groups who use Northern Visions facilities and want to show their work to a wider audience. It will give marginalised groups a voice.

Another development has seen a lobby group within CWN negotiating with TnG about the possibilities of community media groups gaining access to the air time not used for Irish language programme transmission.

This is a very exciting time for community programme makers as we too are about to enter the digital age!

David Hyndman
Northern Visions Community Media Officer