ua2008/ISLCMFIPMD

Title †

International seminar on local community media center as a
fundamental infrastructure for participatory media democracy : Community media center and media activism at the age of media convergence

Dates †

17th - 18th. 2008
  

Venue †

Mediact Lecture room
  

Co-organizer †

- Mediact (media center in Seoul) / CAMF (media center in Inchon)
  

Sponsor †

• Broadcasting-telecommunication Commission

Number of the participants †

• Possibly about 10 activists and researchers from outside Korea, and
  more

  from Korea
   

Accommodation and travel †

• Basic cost for participation is financed by the seminar organizer,
  including the airline ticket and four nights of hotel stay.

Background †

1, Recent development of media activism and participatory media
structure in
Korea

Since early 80's, various social movements and media activism played 

vital

roles in the process of democratizing Korean society. And one of the

successful aspects of the recent development initiated by independent
and

alternative media activism were strengthening the participatory media
structures and related policies.
Due to the continuing struggle and policy lobby, many legal changes 

were

introduced and these changes resulted in the audio-visual policies

supporting various participatory media areas including the public
access TV,
local media center, media education, community radio, etc.

Concerning public access, based on the following articles in 

Broadcasting
law and related policy initiative, there are 25 minute weekly slot on
national public broadcaster, local cable channel access structure,
satellite
access channel RTV.

* Reference : articles related with public access
Article 69 (Programming, etc. of Broadcast Programs) (6) The Korean

Broadcasting System shall program the viewer participation programs
directly

produced by the viewers under the conditions as prescribed by 

Presidential

Decree.
 Article 70 (Structure and Use of Channels) (7) A Comprehensive cable
broadcasting business operator and a Satellite broadcasting business
operator shall, in case where the viewers request the broadcast of a 

program

directly produced by them pursuant to the provisions of the 

Commission's

regulations, broadcast it via a regional channel or a public channel 

unless

there is any special reason.
 Article 38 (Expenditures of Fund) The Fund shall be used for a 

project

falling under any of the following subparagraphs: 4.Broadcast programs
produced directly by the viewers;
 And concerning local community media center, after Mediact was 

established

in 2002 funded by Korean film council, now there are two local 

community

media centers established by Broadcasting-telecommunication commission
(formerly Broadcasting commission), and more than 10 local media 

centers

whose initial funding was given by Ministry of culture. (When we 

mention the

name 'media center' here, the concept of media center is audio-visual 

media

center in terms of the area of the media, center for non-profit public
access and independent filmmakers in terms of the role of the center)
  
2, Challenges and crisis
But these developments which also inevitably have problems and 

limitations

per se at its early stage face serious challenges recently.
(1) First challenge is related with the recent political situation. 

Newly

elected regime this year started a huge campaign attacking the 

existing

public structure including national public broadcaster and non-profit
participatory media sector such as RTV, and regulating the internet. 

In

short, Neoliberal conservative perspective is almost fully dominating 

the

whole policy including media sector, which eventually will result in
commercializing the media sector and shrinking public media in broad 

sense.

(2) Second challenge is the fast process of media convergence. The 

speed of

technological and industrial developments created a situation where 

the

traditional media law, regulatory framework and regulatory body became
obsolete and finally, the new regulatory body called
Boradcasting-telecommunication commission was established this year 

with a

lot of controversies. And the proposal on the new convergence law 

called

Boradcasting-telecommunication basic law is now submitted to the 

congress by

the commission. And these institutional changes and legislative 

proposals

have serious limitations due to the political situation and 

commercialized

driven policy framework.
  
3, Developing media activist strategy and forming new alliance
 Considering this situation, media activist organizations including 

Mediact

started to develop the new strategies and alliance.
 On the networking level, most broadest alliance in our media activism
history was formed called <Media action network protecting and 

strengthening

the public media> which included alternative media (<National Media 

Activist

Network> which consists of various media activist organizations 

nationwide,

including Mediact), internet activist organization (JinboNet), 

mainstream

media trade unions, citizen watchdog groups, NGOs etc. And this 

network is

playing the central role to fight back the attack on the public media
structure and the whole policies and political pressures pushing
deregulation and violating the freedom of expression.
 And on the area of developing progressive policy and law, several 

connected

initiative has been formed. Firstly, <National Media Activist Network> 

made

a task force team in 2007 and it has developled both broad and 

specific

policy framework and agenda related with media convergence based on 

the four

groups divided by specific subjects (Media of handicapped, Media 

education,

Information and telecommunication issue, Platform and contents.) And 

inside

<Media action network protecting and strengthening the public media>, 

task

force responding to the Broadcasting-telecommunication basic law was 

formed

with the participation from above mentioned <National Media Activist
Network> task force, which is now elaborating the alternative
Broadcasting-telecommunication basic law representing media activist
perspective.
  

Basic focus and program structure †

 In the above mentioned context, there are many issues and subjects we 

have

to cover, but for this seminar, we will focus on the following 

subjects.

1, Local community media center supporting community and independent 

media

 : As the category of this funding is <Funding for networked media 

center

activities> and also as the community media center is important
infrastructure to promote public access and independent film and video
activism in Korean situation, the detailed information sharing and
discussion is the first half of this seminar. Inviting activists 

running the

media centers, we hope to share various information from the 

introduction of

each center to specific aspects on media center. Detailed issues 

includes

the Brief Introduction, Internal organizing structure, Membership, 

Training

and education, Supporting programs for producers, Funding, Information
service, Network, Long-term strategy, etc.
2, Policy struggles regarding media convergence focusing on the 

regulatory

body and legislation
 : But local community media center is just one part of the issues we 

have

to tackle. There are many different issues such as community radio, 

media

education, internet activism, etc and one of the urgent issues we face 

now

which affect the whole issues is how the media activism develop not 

only the

alternative but also concrete legal and policy framework. And the 

meanings

of this initiative are both the active response to the Neoliberal
restructuring of the law and regulatory body and the basic strategy 

setting

and sharing the perspective for the progress of the movement. As you 

already

noticed from the above mentioned information, Korean activists have 

been and

are trying to produce various alternative framework, strategy, related
documents on IPTV, Regulatory body, Basic Broadcasting-

Telecommunication

law, Frequency allocation, Digital switch-over, etc and hope to share 

the

information with activists in other countries who face similar 

situation.

3, Funding for community media
 : And the last part of the seminar is devoted to the funding issue. 

In

order to sustain the community media, especially in Korea where there 

is a

large amount of public funding part of which should be supposed to be 

spent

for supporting community media, the issues such as why the funding 

should be

allocated for community media, what kind of policy for funding is 

needed,

for which area funding should be spent, what kind of funding model is
effective and productive, etc are important issues. Even though the
mainstream policy framework is not for public media in the broad sense 

here,

it is undeniable that certain public funding should be allocated for 

the

public media. 
  

Possible outcomes ; national and international level †

 There can be many gains when it comes to this kind of international
seminar, including the developing each participant's activities and
strategies based on learning from each other, and creating new network 

for

exchanging and co-working. But more concrete possible outcomes at this
moment expected are as follows.
 1, Developing new perspective and strategy for making local media 

center

infrastructure a basic space for connecting with and empowering the
communities
 2, Developing new framework and strategy for media activists' active 

role

in legislation and policy decision making process related with media
convergence
 3, Strengthening the basis for international networking in order for
building strong alliance intervening the global policy decision making
process
 4, Promoting the vital role of the community media and participatory 

media

activism among the citizens and press which hopefully results in 

organizing

the broader network of participants and supporter for media activism.
 

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Program planning †

• 1, Schedule
  • 17th. Dec
    10:00AM - 12:00AM Opening and Section 1
    12:00AM - 1:30PM Lunch
    1:30PM - 3:30PM Section 2
    3:30PM - 4:00PM tea break
    4:00PM - 6:00PM Section 3
  • 18th. Dec
    10:00AM - 12:00AM Section 4
    12:00AM - 1:00PM Lunch
    1:00PM - 3:00PM Section 5
    3:00PM - 3:30PM tea break
    3:30PM - 5:30PM Section 6
    5:30PM - 6:00PM Closing
• Allocation of the sections to three subjects
  We have three basic subjects as follows.
  : Local media center
  : Media activism's intervention to the media convergence and policy
  change
  : Funding for media activism
  According to the original plan, 17th (Section 1-3) will be devoted to
  the discussion on local media center, and 18th (Section 4-6) will be
  devoted to two basic subjects including media activism's intervention to
  the media convergence and policy change, and funding for media activism.
  But if we need more time on the latter, we may make Section 3 as a part
  of the discussion on media activism's intervention to the media
  convergence and policy change. We may have to decide this soon. (Basic
  translation is English-Korean simultaneous translation so there is no
  time needed for translation, but Japanese speakers may need time for
  Japanese translation when they speak.)

2, Participants on each section

• Sections on media center (Sections 1,2,3 or 1,2)
  Louis Massiah (US)
  Joshua Breitbart (US)
  Mediact (Korea)
  CAMF (Korea)
  MediR (Japan)
• Sections on media activism's intervention to the media convergence and
  policy change (Sections 4,5 or 3,4,5)
  Joel Kelsey (US)
  Sasha Constanza-Chock (US)
  Ellie Rennie (Australia)
  Gabi Hadle / Ikeda Kayo (Japan)
  Lawrie Hallett (UK)
  One from Latin America, to be determined
  Definitely one or two presentations from Korea on convergence and policy
  issues
• Sections on funding for media activism (Section 6)
  Hye-Jung Park (US)
  Possibly two Korean speakers from foundations and regulatory body

3, Basic structure
Basically, our idea is that in each section, there is a curator (mostly
from organizers, but also international participants may be asked as
curators).
And each presenter has 30 minute for basic presentation.

4, Focus of each subject
We hope this seminar can be fruitful in both contexts, one on national
level, and another on international level. In order for realizing these,
we hope the following points should be covered. Please let us know your
idea.

(1) Local community media center supporting community and independent
media
: Basically, in this part of the seminar we hope to share various
information on the goal, structure and activities, etc.
: Also more specifically, especially considering Korean contexts, we
hope two issues should be covered, one is how media center builds strong
connection with the grassroots ad communities, and another one is want
kind of role media center should play in the age of media convergence.
: So we guess there should be basic common structure of the presentation
for this subject can be as follows.
1, Introduction and review : Goals, Internal organizing structure,
Membership, Training and education, Supporting programs for producers,
Funding, Information service, Network, Long-term strategy, etc. (Please
see the reference issue sheet at the end of this email)
2, Overall analysis : Outcomes, challenges, obstacles and strategies

(2) Policy struggles regarding media convergence focusing on the
regulatory body and legislation
: Basically, in this part of the seminar we hope to share various
information on the following issues, especially focusing on the overall
change of the policies and regulatory body.

• Critical analysis on media convergence, challenges and dillema
• What kind of issues social movement and media activism have
• How they organize and discuss to create new alliance and strategy
• How they intervene the process of policy and institutional change
  : For the reference, Korean situation is that activists have been and
  are trying to produce various alternative framework, strategy, related
  documents on IPTV, Regulatory body, and Basic
  Broadcasting-Telecommunication law base don new coalition and new
  framework.
  : For each participant, basic idea for us is briefly as follows. It's
  just basic, so please let us know and share your specific subject
• Joel Kelsey (US) : Consumer union's strategies and activities
• Sasha Constanza-Chock (US) : New concept of public media
• Ellie Rennie (Australia) : issues, alliance and strategies of media
  activism in Australlia, and labeling the community media
• Gabi Hadle / Ikeda Kayo (Japan) : issues, alliance and strategies of
  media activism in Japan
• Lawrie Hallett (UK) : issues, alliance and strategies of media
  activism in UK and EU, and more specifically on community radio and
  digital conversion
• One from Latin America, to be determined
• Definitely one or two presentations from Korea on convergence and
  policy issues

(3) Funding for community media
: For sustaining the community media, especially in Korea where there is
a large amount of public funding part of which should be supposed to be
spent for supporting community media, funding policy has been and would
be important battle ground for media activism.
: Issues in this subject can be as follows.

• why the funding should be allocated for community media
• what kind of policy for funding is needed
• for which area funding should be spent
• what kind of funding model is effective and productive

Reference : Issues regarding media center †

1, Goal

2, Internal organizing structure

• Composition of the department or branch (Division of the activities,
  roles and labor)
• Staffs : how many, and who they are (responsibilities, background,
  skills, etc)

3, Membership, if any

• Membership structure, process of qualification, etc
• Who can use your facilities and who can be the trainees in your
  training program

4, Training and education

• What kind of subjects are covered ?
• Detailed description of each program : categories, scheduling, target,
  etc
• The process on how the training programs are decided and changed by
  staffs
• Who the teachers or trainers are
• Any network or regular meeting between media center and teachers ?
• Schedule of recent training programs
• Introduction to on-line training program, if any
• Project on making manuals, textbooks for each course

5, Technical support for producers

• List of facilities owned by the media center : cameras, editing room,
  etc
• The main principles of rental services : conditions, rates, any
  regulation, etc
• Any technical seminar provided by media center for members ?

6, space (rooms) available for the individual or other organizations

• On what condition ?
• Any screening programs ? regular or irregular ?

7, Funding

• Financial resources / revenues
• Expenditures

8, Information service

• Printed newsletter or journal
• On line web magazine or any regular update ?

9, Any other forms of media other than the video and film ?

10, Any current (and urgent) issues faced by the media center

11, National and international perspective, cooperation and network

• Evaluation on the existing project or network, on national level or
  international level
• Possibilities of new project or network between media centers
• Any clue on the relationship between media centers and WSIS ?

12, Issues on long-term strategy for media center

13, What you want to know from the other media centers

14, Please share any rules and procedures, regulations, bylaws, etc
which can be translated for Korean audience for further understanding
your media center

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