Beyond Faith In The BBC – Public Purpose, Democracy And The Future Of Media Policy The recent Beebwatch discussion with Professor Lee Edwards of the Media Reform Coalition is useful because it reopens questions that are too often treated as settled. It asks who the BBC is for, how it should be held accountable, and whether public consultation means anything if major decisions appear to be announced before that consultation has been properly absorbed. Those are serious constitutional and democratic questions.

If the BBC serves the public, who defines that purpose? Should it sit beyond Parliament, or within democratic oversight? And in an age of global platforms, is the priority protecting one institution, or enabling wider participation in media?

Learning in Practice – Shumaila Jaffery’s Reflections from the Field What does it mean to step into a community media environment not as an observer at a distance, but as a participant embedded in its everyday routines? This discussion between Rob Watson and Shumaila Jaffrey reflects on that question through the lens of lived experience, research practice, and civic engagement. Over the course of her placement, Shumaila encountered community media not as an abstract concept, but as a working ecology of relationships, conversations, and shared activity.

What changes when research is shaped by participation rather than observation? This discussion reflects on learning through community media, lived experience, and the role of relationships in shaping how we understand communication and social life

This means asking a harder set of questions. Why has the government not applied its own civic society compact logic to the rebuilding of local media trust? Where are the innovators and new entrants who will build the civic media infrastructure of the future?

Government Investment in Local News Is Welcome, But Renewal Will Fail Without Civic and Local Ownership – Decentered Media The government’s new Local Media Strategy is welcome. After years of drift, DCMS has finally acknowledged that local news and community radio are not optional e

The deeper question is how will this bring new service providers who can innovate and rebuild the trust of people in the different places they serve decentered.co.uk/government-i...

Government Investment in Local News Is Welcome, But Renewal Will Fail Without Civic and Local Ownership The government’s new Local Media Strategy is welcome. After years of drift, DCMS has finally acknowledged that local news and community radio are not optional extras in public life. They are part of the civic information infrastructure on which trust, accountability, belonging and democratic participation depend. The announcement brings a new Local News Fund worth up to £12 million over two years, a doubling of community radio funding to £1 million a year over the next three years, and a stated intention to address “news deserts” where communities no longer have a dedicated local outlet.

What would it take for investment in local news to support new entrants, not just existing providers? Could civic society play a stronger role in shaping trusted local media, and how might local, place-based solutions emerge beyond central funding models?

Tough Times: A Gathering – Friday 20 March – Artworks Alliance In a period shaped by division and uncertainty, how do we sustain the work that holds communities together? ArtWorks Alliance, in partnership with UNION , is ho

A few places remain for Tough Times: A Gathering on Friday 20 March, 10:30am–4pm at Bridge Manchester. Don't miss the chance to connect, reflect, and explore solutions in these challenging times. Secure your spot today! artworksalliance.uk/tough-times-...

'Tackling Communalism in Leicester in a Transnational World' – What’s the Role for Independent and Community Media? · Luma The Better Together report confronts Leicester with difficult questions about social fragmentation, polarisation and the erosion of common ground. It describes…

The Better Together report raises challenging questions about social fragmentation. Decentered Media is hosting a workshop at 6pm on Wednesday 18th March for people involved in independent and community media to reflect on these issues together luma.com/wb5xuyx4

Welcoming Local Media’s Place in the Social Cohesion Agenda The UK Government’s updated social cohesion policy, Protecting What Matters, is significant not only for what it says about confidence, resilience and shared civic life, but also for what it now recognises about media. The inclusion of local media, community radio and local reporting within this framework marks an important shift in policy language and, potentially, in policy direction.

The Government’s social cohesion policy recognises the role of local media and community radio in building trust and shared civic life. Will the forthcoming Local Media Strategy strengthen place-based journalism & community broadcasting across the UK?

Total Place and financial flexibility is back on the agenda Integrated budgets are important, but they are not the endgame. That's the message I've heard loud and clear in the conversations I've had with local leaders as...

Ahead of our #TotalPlaceNow event next week, read our chief executive Anna Randle's take on why the new place-based pilots are just the beginning of place-based innovation
🔗 www.themj.co.uk/total-financ...
#LocalGov #CommunityPower #PublicPolicy #TotalPlace

Women, Community Media, and the Work of Holding Communities Together in Times of Conflict How do women working in community media respond when their communities face tension or conflict? What does it mean to tell local stories from within the community rather than from a distance? And how can everyday communication through radio, local journalism, and storytelling help rebuild trust between neighbours when misinformation and misunderstanding threaten to divide them? These were the questions explored in a discussion recorded for International Women’s Day, bringing together women who are actively involved in community media and local communication projects. Sumaila Jafri opened the discussion by reflecting on her own background as a journalist who had previously worked in national and international newsrooms.

How do women in community media respond when tensions affect local communities? This discussion reflects on the 2022 unrest in Leicester and asks whether storytelling, radio, and local journalism can help rebuild trust & encourage dialogue across communities

The BBC Charter Renewal Should Renew Public Purpose Media, Not Just the BBC The current BBC Charter Review should not be treated as a narrow exercise in institutional maintenance. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport opened the present consultation on 16 December 2025, it closes on 10 March 2026, and it is intended to inform a new Charter from 1 January 2028, when the current Charter period ends on 31 December 2027. That timetable matters because it offers a rare chance to ask a bigger question than the one now being posed most often.

Should support for the BBC also strengthen the wider not-for-private-profit media sector? As Charter Renewal is debated, should independent, civic and community media be recognised as equal partners in a public purpose media ecology rather than remaining outside the system?

BBC Charter Renewal and the Liberal Questions We Are Not Asking The debate about BBC Charter Renewal is already becoming familiar. The BBC says it needs stronger constitutional protection, a more secure funding settlement, lighter regulation, and a renewed public mandate so that it can continue to act as a universal public service institution. Those arguments are serious and deserve to be taken seriously. But there is another side to this discussion that is receiving far less attention.

Are we asking the right questions about BBC Charter Renewal? If media is now diverse and abundant, does one universal institution still need exceptional privileges? Could reinforcing the old model risk solving yesterday’s problem rather than tomorrow’s?

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Local Trust, Public Accountability and The Limits of Regional Broadcasting Robert Thompson, Interim Director of BBC Local has published a blog arguing that, in a divided world, local news brings communities together. That is an admirable aspiration. However, in Leicester during the communal tensions of 2022, the BBC was widely perceived as absent, reactive, and structurally distant from the realities unfolding on the streets. The SOAS report published this week…

If local media brings communities together, why did Leicester face 2022’s tensions without trusted, accountable local coverage? Should the BBC address its blind spots before Charter Renewal, and make space for genuinely local civic dialogue to rebuild trust?

Rebalancing The Airwaves – Reflections From The Better Media Consultation The recent Better Media online consultation sessions brought together practitioners, advocates and policy observers to reflect on two live processes shaping the future of UK radio: Ofcom’s licensing review and the DCMS Radio Review. The purpose was not simply to respond to technical questions, but to examine what kind of broadcast ecology the UK intends to sustain over the next twenty years.

What would a genuinely plural radio system look like in 2036? Can we diversify supply, apply a meaningful localism test, and treat broadcast as civic infrastructure rather than a legacy market? How should DCMS and Ofcom respond to consolidation and gatekeeping?

The BBC Charter Renewal Needs Wider Public Voices The BBC’s Charter renewal is not a technical exercise. It is a decision about what the BBC is for, who it serves, and how it should be held accountable for the next decade. That matters because the BBC is not just another media brand. It is a publicly funded institution that helps shape how people understand public life, cultural identity, and the shared facts that make democratic debate possible.

BBC Charter renewal must not be an insiders’ agreement. It should ask what the public needs, how the BBC proves it is meeting those needs, and who holds it to account. The voices not in the room matter most if trust and legitimacy are to be rebuilt.

In his last monthly update as Campaign Coordinator, Rowan Gavin reflects on some highlights of our work since 2022, looks forward to some current and upcoming events in media, and recommends some ways to keep informed outside of socials.

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Better Media is a membership org working to support campaigns for media reform in the UK. We are a successor to the union-backed Campaign for Press & Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF), which ran from the '70s to the '10s. Follow for updates on how you can Be The Media, Know The Media and Change The Media.