The project’s academic partner, the CMDS at Central European University, provided a research-based understanding of the challenges and opportunities community media face in managing online archives. The research center produced a study, authored by Joost van Beek with contributions from Kate Coyer, which explores best practices and lessons learned that can be used to help improve the ways community media share, exchange, and archive programming online.
The report is based on a combination of case studies and in-depth interviews with practitioners at community media across Europe. Questions that are covered in the study include: How have successful models of sharing and archiving content online been developed? How are these online archives structured and organized? How is the work flow structured and who plays what role? What training, guidance, and moderation are needed and established? What technical capacities and other related issues do stations grapple with? What practical solutions are being found, and what problems are not being adequately solved?
The report finds that online sharing and archiving is still in an embryonic stage for most community broadcasters, hampered by the sector’s limited financial and organizational resources, and to some extent its often emotive roots in on-air broadcasting as a medium. Nevertheless, the study identifies a number of interesting cases in which individual community broadcasters have explored the possibilities of online archiving and the best ways to serve new audiences in innovative and successful ways. The report outlines how they have done so and what lessons can be learnt from their experiences.
View or download as a PDF file: Bold strides or tentative steps? How community media share and archive audiovisual content online