Urszula Doliwa, vice-president of CMFE, took part in the meeting between researchers and activists on community media in Barcelona organised after the IAMCR Conference in Madrid (July 16, 2019):

The IAMCR Community Communication and Alternative Media Section and OURMedia network & RICCAP organised Pre-conference and Post-conference community media activities related to the IAMCR conference in Madrid “Communication, Technology, and Human Dignity: Disputed Rights, Contested Truths” (7 – 11 July 2019). The Section brings together research on community, alternative and citizens’ media, media activism, and other forms of civil society-based communication. Following the 2019 IAMCR conference in Madrid, it offered a series of visits to community media projects in four different regions of Spain: Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia & the Basque Country. The visits aimed at providing a general portrait about the plurality of alternative media projects in Spain including promoters, organization and sustainability models, contents and programming, etc. A detailed programme of these events can be found here https://iamcr.org/madrid2019/community-communication-and-alternative-media-section-prepost-conference-events

One of the activities planned was the meeting between researchers and activists on community media in Barcelona. The local organiser was the organisation dealing with community media training Teleduca http://teleduca.org. In this meeting 18 participants from the Barcelona region representing different community media outlets took part as well and 11 from other regions of Spain and from other countries: Mexico, Australia, Uruguay, Taiwan and UK. It was a chance to get knowledge about Catalan community media, which are very vibrant and diverse as well as to hear how the situation of CM looks like in other parts of the world. The participants discussed such issues as sustainability of CM, regulatory frameworks as well as gender balance in CM. In this meeting the Secretary of CMFE Urszula Doliwa took part. It was a chance to present the role of the Community Media Forum Europe, invite new members and encourage people gathered in Barcelona to take more active role in the work of the organisation. She also supported the discussion about the main problems of community media.Such meetings are a perfect platform for establishing new contacts between CM representatives, activists and researchers around the globe. We would like to congratulate the IAMCR Community Communication and Alternative Media Section and other organisers for this interesting initiative.

Organisers of the events:

  • IAMCR Community Communication & Alternative Media Section (COC). Website: https://iamcr.org/s-wg/section/community-communication
  • OURMedia / NuestrosMedios. Website: www.comminit.com/la/content/our-medianuestros-medios
  • Redecambio. Red Universitaria de Postgrados en Comunicación, Desarrollo y Cambio Social. Website: www.redecambio.org/es/
  • RICCAP (Red de Investigación en Comunicación Comunitaria, Alternativa y Participativa – Research network on Community, Alternative & Participatory Communication): First Spanish organization focused on the study of participatory communication processes in alliances with other nodes and research groups in Latin America and Europe. Website: www.riccap.org
  • Data Justice Lab. Space for research and collaboration at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC). It examines the intricate relationship between datafication and social justice, highlighting the politics and impacts of data-driven processes and big data. Website: https://datajusticelab.org
  • Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. One of the three public universities offering communication studies in Madrid. Website: www.uc3m.es
  • Saint Louis University – Madrid. American university based in Madrid which offers communication studies in English. Website: www.slu.edu