The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has opened a public consultation on *Watch this space: a new strategic direction for UK media*, a Green Paper setting out proposals for the future of UK television, public service media, trusted news, media literacy, and the wider information environment.
This consultation matters for civic, community and independent media providers. The Green Paper asks important questions about accuracy, trust, media literacy, public service media, platform prominence, and the ability of audiences to find reliable information. However, these questions should not be answered only by large public service broadcasters, commercial media groups, technology platforms, regulators and policy officials.
Civic, community and independent media providers also have direct experience of how trust is built in practice. They work with local knowledge, lived experience, practical participation, independent editorial judgement and forms of accountability that are often closer to the communities they serve. They also demonstrate that media literacy is not only about helping people interpret information. It is also about helping people make media, ask questions, verify sources, organise civic conversations and develop editorial responsibility through participation.
Decentered Media is supporting Better Media to host a short series of online consultation sessions for people and organisations who want to discuss the Green Paper and consider how civic, community and independent media might respond.
The sessions will be held on Zoom. Sign-ups are managed through Luma:
4pm 15 July 2026 https://luma.com/9c0c3vsc
4pm 22 July 2026 https://luma.com/jpjgaack
4pm 29 July 2026 https://luma.com/w4ki0hkh
4pm 5 August 2026 https://luma.com/9loe5vb4
Additional discussion and shared notes will be supported through the Better Media Forum: https://forum.bettermedia.uk/
The aim is to help participants understand the consultation, identify shared concerns, compare practical experience, and consider possible points for individual or collective responses. Participants do not need to attend every session, though continuity will help us build a clearer set of themes across the series.
The DCMS consultation closes at 11:59pm on 31 August 2026. Responses can be submitted through the government’s online consultation platform. Extended responses can also be sent by email to [watchthisspace@dcms.gov.uk](mailto:watchthisspace@dcms.gov.uk).
These sessions will consider how future media policy can support a plural, accountable and resilient media ecology. We will ask how accuracy can be strengthened without narrowing public debate, how community and civic media can be recognised as part of democratic infrastructure, how media pluralism can be protected in an algorithmic environment, and how media literacy can be developed through participation, not only consumption.
Anyone working in, supporting, researching or advocating for civic, community, local, independent, participatory or public-interest media is welcome to take part.
Discussion points for the consultation sessions
The discussion calls will focus on the main themes raised by the DCMS Media Green Paper and how civic, community and independent media providers might respond. The aim is to identify practical examples, shared concerns and possible recommendations that can inform consultation responses.
1. Accuracy, trust and accountability
The Green Paper raises questions about trustworthy news, reliable information and the role of recognised media providers in helping audiences find accurate content. This creates an important policy question about how accuracy is defined, who gets to define it, and how public trust can be strengthened without narrowing debate or excluding smaller providers.
- How should accuracy be understood in a plural media system?
- What standards of editorial accountability should apply to civic, community and independent media?
- How can correction processes, complaints handling and transparency help build trust?
- How should misinformation be addressed without creating a closed system of approved voices?
- What role should community-based media play during periods of crisis, public tension or local uncertainty?
2. Community and civic media
Community and civic media are often overlooked in national media policy, despite their practical role in supporting participation, local information, community voice and democratic engagement. The sessions will consider how these providers can be recognised as part of the UK’s civic media infrastructure.
- How should DCMS recognise community, civic and independent media in the Green Paper process?
- What public value is created by community radio, local podcasts, civic blogs, neighbourhood newsletters, community reporting and participatory media projects?
- How can community media support democratic engagement, social cohesion and local accountability?
- What support is needed for training, governance, editorial standards, safeguarding, legal awareness and sustainability?
- How can civic media be treated as more than a supplement to public service broadcasting?
3. Media pluralism and public voice
A healthy media ecology depends on plurality, not only in ownership, but also in geography, format, participation, cultural experience and editorial perspective. The sessions will consider how public policy can support a wider range of media voices without concentrating attention and resources around established institutions alone.
- What does media pluralism mean in practice for local, civic and independent media?
- How can policy support diversity of supply, not just diversity of content?
- How can smaller providers gain visibility in an environment shaped by platforms, algorithms and search systems?
- Should prominence rules include eligible community and independent media providers?
- How can pluralism be protected without weakening standards of accuracy and accountability?
4. Media literacies through participation
The Green Paper places renewed emphasis on media literacy, but media literacy should not only be understood as the ability to consume and interpret information. Community and civic media demonstrate that people also learn by making media, checking sources, interviewing others, producing stories and taking responsibility for publication.
- How can media literacy policy move beyond individual critical consumption?
- What can people learn through participation in community media production?
- How do practical media-making, source-checking and editorial discussion build public understanding?
- How can civic media projects support media literacy across age groups and communities?
- What role should public service media, civil society, education providers and independent media play together?
5. Possible response themes
The sessions will also consider how participants might frame their own responses to the consultation. This may include recommendations that DCMS should recognise civic and community media as part of the wider public-interest media system, include smaller providers in future policy development, and support participatory approaches to accuracy, trust, media literacy and pluralism.
- Should public service media be understood as a function, not only as a set of institutions?
- How can civic and community media be included in future DCMS policy work?
- What evidence should be gathered from local and independent providers?
- What practical recommendations should be made to government?
- Is there scope for a shared response from civic, community and independent media advocates?