Arts/Review

Community TV’s great potential examined

THE BAREFOOT CHANNEL: Com-
munity Television as a Tool for Social
Change. By Kim Goldberg. New Star
Books, Vancouver, 1990. 176 pages,
erback: $14.95; cloth: $24.95.

When Kim Goldberg began her three-
year stint as program co-ordinator for the
community access TV channel in Nanaimo
in 1981, she was struck by the lack of a
sourcebook to help the thousands of sub-
scribers to community access TV make ef-
fective use of this powerful resource. By

It appears to be lucky 13 for the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, which has sold some

1987, she knew the time had come to write
it herself.

“Society was growing more conserva-
tive. The public more obedient. Our central-
ized information systems more potent as
sculptors of public thought. Given this Or-
wellian script, the implications and potential
of hundreds of citizen-controlled, non-com-
mercial TV stations spanning the nation
were profound. But nobody seemed to be
mentioning it. I decided it was time to break
the silence. ”

Folk fest, Karsh exhibit

5,000 “early bird” tickets for the 13th annual event at Vancouver’s Jericho Beach
Park, July 13-15. The early-bird’s are gone, but an advance weekend ticket is still a
bargain at $65, organizers say. And there are a variety of discount for kids, while
seniors get in free. They may be cutting off sales at the gate, so purchasing an

advance ticket is recommended.

Yousuf Karsh has photographed every-
one from Khrushchev to Boris Karloff, but
the Canadian renowned for his portraits
around the world began shooting Ottawa
Little Theatre productions back in 1933.
Now samples of all stages of Karsh’s work
are on display at the Vancouver Art Gal-

New Titles

THE SOVIET
REVOLUTION: Shaking
the World Again.

By Fred Weir
$14.95 paperback

SIGNS OF HOPE:
Working Towards Our
Common Future.

By Linda Stavioe
$11.95 paperback

INTER-AMERICAN
RELATIONS FROM
BOLIVAR TO THE
PRESENT.

By Anatoly Blinkin
6.95 paperback

4391 COMMERCIAL DRIVE
VANCOUVER, B.C. VSL 3X5
TELEPHONE: 253-6442

lery.

The show, containing 200 images circu-
lated by the National Gallery of Canada, is
on view until Sept. 3. Subjects include Fidel
Castro, Jean Cocteau, Karen Kain, Stephen
Leacock, Helen Keller, Robertson Davies
and Albert Einstein.

aE

The Tube: KCTS U.S. public television
airs, on American Masters, John Cassa-
vetes, a one-hour examination of the life and
work of one of the U.S.’ most noted inde-
pendent filmmakers (Husbands, Woman
Under the Influence). Includes interviews
with Cassavetes’ regular cast members Gena
Rowlands and Peter Falk. Sunday, July 15,
10 p.m. Closed-captioned.

Knowledge Network presents The
Celts: They Paint Horses, Don’t They?, an
exploration of Celtic heritage, on Sunday,
July 15,8 p.m. Also, on Artsworld, is Fela:
Music is the Weapon, concerning a Nig-
erian music star who is also a “rebel cult
hero.” Friday, June 20, 8 p.m.

LOUL,

And many thanks to her for doing so. In
The Barefoot Channel, Goldberg convinc-
ingly shows the great potential of user-con-
trolled community access TV, explains how
its development has been held back, and
shows how it can be moved forward.

There are now nearly 300 community
access cable TV stations in Canada, reach-
ing the 70 per cent of Canadians who sub-
scribe to cable TV. This makes community
TV our most prevalent form of alternative
media, each week airing thousands of hours
of Canadian content, “produced not by
monolithic corporations delivering a mass
audience of consumers to other corpora-
tions, but by ordinary people. By us.”

But this great resource has not achieved

its full democratic potential and “has, in

most cases, slipped into that well-wom
groove of ’safe’ programming carved out by
commercial broadcast television.” Why has
this happened? In exchange for their local
monopolies, cable TV companies must pro-
vide equipment, training, and transmission
for citizen-produced programming. But
these companies have provided more than
technology: “No one drives up to a power
pole these days to plug in and sign on. And
the people who run the community channels
are no longer defiant mavericks, but fully
integrated staff members of their cable com-
panies.”

Goldberg sketches the history of com-
munity TV from the early 1970s, when a
flood of enthusiastic amateurs began to pro-
duce their own programs, to the present day,
when the professional employees of the
cable companies are the directors, produ-
cers, and decision-makers. But if commu-
nity channels now tend to resemble com-
mercial channels both in form and content,
predictable and non-controversial, Gold-
berg does not blame the staff programmers
so much as the structure they must work in,
since “a fundamental problem has always
dogged community access television: It is a
democratic concept without a democratic
structure ... The pluralistic, democratic
ideals of community access television can
never be realized as long as the licence and
legal control over the programming is in
private hands.”

Clearly, “granting guardianship over the
community channel to a multi-million dollar
private industry places an insuperable ob-
stacle between the dream of community ac-
cess television and its realization.” And for

Goldberg, it is equally clear that community
activists must regain this guardianship. Fur-
thermore, she argues, the struggle for com-
munity control of community TV must be
carried out through actual participation in its
use.

“The long-term solution for community
access television is to restructure the channel
by redrafting the CRTC regulations govern-
ing it so that community groups, instead of
private companies, are licensed to control
the channel ... But it would be a mistake to
postpone using the community channel as a
tool for social change until the regulations
are rewritten. Even in the channel’s present
form, there is much we can do to reclaim
control over this resource and over use of it
by changing our assumptions about who
should be in control.”

Goldberg knows that community acti-
vists will need more than political will or
organizing ability — often present in abun-
dance — but also the particular skills neces-
sary to produce television programs, which
are limited to those few people with direct
experience. The question then is, how to
begin to get this experience?

To this end, she provides a clear and
concise guide to producing successful com-
munity programs, pointing out the classic
pitfalls and how to avoid them, and giving
sound advice on how to organize to work
with and, when necessary, against, the cable
companies — all of this with a well-struc-
tured format for easy reference.

Goldberg writes in a lively and readable
style, entirely without the annoying conceit
that sometimes mars sourcebooks on com-
munity activism. She enthusiastically cre-
dits the experience of many people across
the country and clearly describes their good
work, to give us the best models for success
in community TV programming.

This brief review cannot do justice to
Goldberg’s fine work, which indeed may
prove to be the “mythic sourcebook” for
community access TV which she herself
looked for. She not only provides the basic
information that eager user-participants
need to get started, but also the many lessons
that have been learned by the pioneers of
community TV. The Barefoot Channel is a
quick and painless antidote to ignorance,
and a convincing call to action.

— Glen Bullard

Classified Advertising

NOTICES

DIRECTORY

KAMLOOPS
TRIB LENDING LIBRARY: 242 Larch
Ave. Lots of labour and progressive litera-

ture for your reading enjoyment at no cost. .

For info 376-7110. Kamloops.

& COMPANY

Trial Lawyers
Uncontested divorce $200*
Conveyancing $200*
Incorporations $200*
Probate of will $500*
Separation agreements $300*
Wills $50*
ICBC contingency fee agreement
Welfare,UIC appeals No fee*

* All prices plus disbursements

Divorce and Family Law
Criminal Law
(including impaired driving)
108-2182 West 12th/732-7678
Tim Louis / Angela Accettura

COMMERCIAL

GRAMMA PUBLICATIONS. Complete
printing services. Brochures, menus, leaf-
lets, etc. Aunion shop. 2089 Commercial
Dr. Vancouver. Hours: Mon-Fr. 9:30 a.m.
sae p.m. Sat., 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 254-

AUTOPLAN, GENERAL INSURANCE,
Early Agencies Ltd. 5817 Victoria Dr.
Home, tenants, business, trade unions.
Call Dave Morton, 321-6707.

VICTORIA ©
BILL HARTLEY your AutoPlan man. All
types of insurance. Mail in or phone in.
2420 Douglas Street, Victoria, V8T 4L7.
388-5014.

LEGAL SERVICES
CONSTANCE FOGAL. Family law, wills

and estates. #401, 207 W. Hastings St.
687-0588.

COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA office
located at 1726 E. Hastings St. Van., V5L
1S9. Phone: 254-9836. Offices hours:
9:30 to 12 noon; 1 -5 p.m. Mon to Fri. For
information on political issues or assis-
tance in political activity.

COPE. Working for Vancouver. #206, 33
East 8 Ave., Vancouver, B.C. V5T 1R5.
Phone: 879-1447.

HALLS FOR RENT

MARITIME LABOUR CENTRE. Auditor-
ium and boardroom for meetings and ban-
quets. Phone: 254-9550.

RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME: Available
for rentals. For reservations phone
254-3430.

UKRAINIAN CANADIAN CULTURAL
CENTRE — 805 East Pender St. Van-
couver. Available for banquets, weddings,
meetings. Phone 254-3436.

Classified Advertising rates $1.25 per line
per week. Deadline for insertions: Monday
of week prior to publication.

Pacific Tribune, July 2, 1990 + 7