The Decentered Media Exchange sessions are changing their schedule from later this month. The session on Wednesday 14th October 2026 will go ahead as planned. After that, the Media Exchange will move to a new fortnightly pattern, beginning on Wednesday 21st October. The new sessions will run from 4pm to 5.30pm.
One reason for the change is that the conversations taking place through the Media Exchange have become increasingly detailed. We have been moving beyond short introductions to topics and into more substantial discussions about community media practice, policy, sustainability, regulation, participation and the wider development of civic and foundational media.
An hour has increasingly felt too short to give these conversations the attention they deserve. Extending the sessions to ninety minutes should give us more space to explore issues properly, hear from everyone who wants to contribute, and follow useful lines of discussion without having to bring them to an artificial close.
Moving the sessions to a fortnightly schedule also means I can fit them more effectively alongside my other diary commitments while maintaining the time needed to prepare for and facilitate each discussion.
The Media Exchange remains an open and informal space for people interested in community, civic, independent and foundational media. There is no expectation that participants represent a particular organisation or professional role. The aim is simply to create a regular space where people can compare experiences, raise questions, test ideas and learn from one another.
From 21st October, the sessions will therefore take place every two weeks on Wednesdays from 4pm to 5.30pm.
The new Zoom link will be shared through the Decentered Media Forum rather than published openly on the website. Anyone interested in joining the discussions can sign up to the forum and find the meeting information there:
https://forum.decentered.co.uk
Using the forum also gives us somewhere to continue conversations between meetings, share relevant material and suggest topics for future Media Exchange sessions.
If you are interested in the practical development of community media, civic communication, foundational media, media policy or related forms of participatory communication, you are welcome to join the forum and take part.