OURMedia calls itself a "network and forum" and is made up of engaged academics and media practitioners, activists, artists and policy-makers who support the growth of what they term the "democratic potential of community, alternative and ‘citizens’ media".
Gathering on a sixth occasion in as many years, this time in Sydney, Australia from April 9 to 13 2007, they looked from all angles at “Sustainable Futures: Roles and Challenges for Community, Alternate and Citizens’ Media in the 21st Century.”
Some 70 participants from overseas attended the Sydney conference. OURMedia 6 hosted 130 presentations from people in 35 countries, representing over one hundred organisations.
How it works
OURMedia focuses on forms of media that are beyond the mainstream. These forms of media have been variously labelled, and also called the social focus media, autonomous media, citizens’ media, community media, independent media, alternative media, tactical media, participatory media or even radical media.
OURMedia was born in 2000-01 in Mexico, at another communications event. It was started when the academics present realised that in the past couple of years, three books had been published on the alternative media, including Professor John D.H. Downing’s Radical Media and Clemencia Rodriguez’s Citizens’ Media.
Founding members such as Rodriguez say that the idea behind it was to create a network that would serve as a series of bridges -between academics, activists and practitioners. It was also intended to act as a bridge between the "global North and the global South" and to serve as a "bridge between different media technologies."
OURMedia says it does not consider itself as having any "centre", and it wants to balance off differences based on language, gender, race and the like.
During its conferences, there has been a mix of academic presentations, media activism initiatives, policy workshops, community cultural development round-tables, new media labs, research-led forums and presentations by local media producers.
2005 saw OURMedia being held for the first time in the Asian continent, in the Indian city of Bangalore. For the first time too, this conference was not attached to any other mainstream conference.
OURMedia 2007
In this year’s event, some of the conference themes were organised around themes such as “new technologies and social action” or “indigenous media”. Many participants from academic institutions presented research results and books they are publishing around these themes.
Among those taking part in the Sydney conference as keynote panellists and invited speakers were John D.H.Downing, professor of international communication and founding director of the Global Media Research Center at the Southern Illinois University in the USA; Sharon Bhagwan Rolls, founding director of femLINKPACIFIC: Media Initiatives for Women in Fiji; Luis Evaristo dos Santos Soares of the Community Radio Centre in Timor Leste.
During OURMedia 2007, there were many side-events and media training workshops, as well as a ‘community and tactical video ONscreen’ event, in which social change films were screened. Film crews from the Aboriginal Youth Media in Central Australia, the GEM TV of Ethiopia and Honk Kong attended this section of the yearly conference.
OURMedia Australia
This event was hosted in a part of the globe, which is seen as having a long and strong tradition of citizen engagement, experimental arts and community arts.
Australia’s community broadcasting sector is over three decades old. In 2005, Australia was estimated to have 341 community radio stations, 54 stations holding or seeking temporary licences, 76 remote indigenous community TV licensees, and six generalist community TV stations.
Besides catering to diverse language groups, the alternative media here has also been seen as catering to specific interests – indigenous broadcasting, gay and lesbian groups, religious people, independent producers, social activists, artists, educational institutions, seniors, youth.
