Community Media in Transition

In a recent blog post (via Clippings for PEG Access Television), Alan Moore highlights an article on “Citizen-produced” programs on cable access TV in Chofu, Tokyo. Because, as he writes, “it echoed with the theory that people embrace what they create.”

The post is interesting to me because of the connection Moore makes between examples of networked media (via YouTube, Current TV, etc.) and cable access television. In referring to the community-strengthening aspects of cable access TV, he includes a quote from the original article

The channel is now playing a part in bringing people together who didn’t know each other before. In one case, citizens who were producing programs began to take a greater interest in community issues and eventually got involved in cleaning up a local lake.

In the same post, Moore talks about what makes strong communities “Part of the answer is accountability and collective sense of responsibility.” And that “Being part of something, being part of its creation, is also the process of engagement.”