In a brief online exchange, following a recent Philly Independent Media Center article, entitled “Public Access TV in Philadelphia is Finally Here,” one commenter inquires about the relevance of public access in a digital age. The commenter brings up two relevant issues: (1) the growing popularity of internet video production, publishing and distribution platforms and (2) the fact that not everyone subscribes to cable television.
I won’t attempt to respond directly to these comments, but I did choose to highlight them as a way to continue to catalog these and similar conversations taking place at this intersection of public access TV and the Internet.
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From the title of this post, “Does Public Access TV Matter in a Digital Age?” I would ask, does a location based community matter in digital age? Is that a concept that means anaything in people’s lives anymore?
Advocating for community media is fundamentally an argument for the preservation/revitalization of local communities, period. Is public access in its current model up for that?
Having just moved out to the suburbs it is an issue that I have been thinking about quite a bit.
Good points, Jason. I was curious to know how “moving out to the suburbs” relates to your thoughts on this topic?