The Community Media Portal

The Community Media Portal is a gateway to audio-visual media created by community media centres across Canada.  These include traditional community TV and radio stations, as well as online and new media production centres.

Community media are not-for-profit production hubs owned and operated by the communities they serve, established both to provide local content and reflection for their communities, as well as media training and access for ordinary citizens to the latest tools of media production, whether  traditional TV and radio, social and online media, virtual reality, augmented reality or video games.

The design and launch of the Community Media Portal has been funded by the Local Journalism Initiative (the LJI) of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) in partnership with the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec (the Fédération. Under the LJI, over 200 journalists have been placed in underserved communities and asked to produce civic content that underpins Canadian democratic life.  

Initially, the Community Media Portal will focus on showcasing LJI-funded content.  Over time, contributing community media organizations will be encouraged to link any content they produce (not just “civic”) and non LJI-funded community media organizations and citizen journalists will be able to link content for a national audience.  

Other media organizations or individuals that wish to redistribute LJI-funded content may reuse the content under a Creative Commons Attribution license.  The videos can be downloaded for free with a single key stroke using the "DOWNLOAD" button beneath each one.  The text can be copied.  Anyone wishing to republish the content (however reconstituted) must acknowledge the source community media organization (listed to the right of each video).  Please see our Terms of Use for more information. 

Individuals may also comment on stories they see on the Portal or suggest story ideas.  The Local Journalism Initiative is intended to foster Canadian democracy by supporting access to and encourage dialog about civic issues.

Finally, a newsletter highlighting stories that our editors believe have interest beyond their communities of origin is e-mailed to news editors across the country on a regular basis.   If you would like to be added to the newsletter list, please email us.

If you would like to suggest ways this Portal serve you better, please don't hesitate to contact us via our Contact Form.