“As the voice and ears of communities, their content should be interesting, participatory, relevant, entertaining and accurate, and aimed at driving social changes,” Dr Bosch said.
However, given the sorry state of affairs in which most of SA organisations find themselves, coupled with challenges such as licence conditions and other technicalities, that may seem as much an empty dream and a wishful thinking.
The conference heard that most of the country's community newspapers and TV and radio stations are seriously under-funded and under-equipped, lack vision, expertise and professionalism, have weak structures and are beset by internal power struggle issues.
Some of them lack adequate editorial direction and continue to succumb to advertisers' pressure -something experts believe has tainted their image and dissolved their editorial independence.
“Issues such as time constraints, funding, escalating costs, lack of adequate resources and staff training and lack of skills might impede these organisations to generate quality content, and therefore push them to depend on international content without having to localise it to start a public debate,” Dr Bosch said.
She said: “Universities and colleges should not be elitist places, but must belong to the people. Where are the people who were trained to produce shows?”
Journalists who are unable to travel in very remotes areas of their communities to cover their issues and interact with residents due to lack of resources are likely to depend on SMSes or phone calls from their sources if they have established any in there, but it might prove difficult to verify the authenticity of some news gathered via mobile technology, especially if the source is not credible enough and has a ‘dark agenda'!
Then, there is also a thorny issue of licence conditions, to which a broadcasting institution must adhere if it wants to stay in business and avoid big trouble with the regulator (Icasa), according to Dimakatso Qocha, deputy executive director of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).
However, adhering to the SA Press Code is sort of a ‘sky is the limit' for print media!
Charles King, publisher of Highlands Herald, an Mpumalanga-based community newspaper, believes that other limitations may include language problems (multilingual requirements), journalistic competence, distribution, and failure to understand your community.
King said one must also take account of balance and tolerance in covering some issues - for instance bringing in the issue of gay and lesbian rights even if it means alienating ‘sensitive' people.
Failure to produce quality content means these organisations could not be seen as credible agents for spreading democracy, freedom of expression and socio-economic upliftment.
Delegates were also reminded that community media should be pro-active and create social awareness and mobilisation in the areas they serve.
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