Panel discussion at Alliance for Community Media National Conference, July 6, 2006, Boston Moderator: Dan Kennedy, Northeastern University School of Journalism Panelists: Sascha Meinrath, Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network; Kevin Howley, DePauw University Media Studies; Felicia Sullivan, Organizers' Collaborative. Mainstream media’s corrosive effects on community life have long been studied and discussed. In 1985, the late Neil Postman wrote a famous critique of our television culture, “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.” Also in 1985, Joshua Meyrowitz wrote a related critique, “No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior.” More recently, Robert Putnam wrote “Bowling Alone: The Collapse & Revival of American Community” in which he cites television as one of the causes for a decline in America’s “social capital.” Community-based media stands as an antidote to the community-corrosive effects of mass media. It creates a sense of place, rather than obliterating it; it builds community, rather than eroding it. Largely ignored by the mainstream media, community media has been quietly fixing what the mainstream media has been callously breaking.
