This article sets out explore the role of community broadcasting in enhancing the emotional and social wellbeing of its diverse audiences. We argue that community-based broadcasting is having a positive impact on the state of mental health of its audiences. We make our argument by reviewing audience research data from a two-year study of the Australian community broadcasting sector 2004-2007. The findings reveal that the community radio and Indigenous television sectors are making a significant contribution to managing community mental health by empowering audiences to better understand and control issues that impact on their emotional and social wellbeing. This suggests opportunities for health care agencies to consider the potential of enlisting community broadcasting in future mental health campaigns. The study reinforces a claim that mainstream media need to be more aware of a growing dissatisfaction with their inability to 'connect' with their diverse audiences on such issues. It also provides further evidence for community radio as a key cultural resource meeting its expected outcomes in contributing to social gain.

The Great Barrier Reef is the most recognizable of the Australian properties on UNESCO's World Heritage List. At the time of its inscription in 1981, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature noted that '… if only one coral reef site in the world were to be chosen for the World Heritage List, the Great Barrier Reef is the site to be chosen'. The listing followed the 'Save the Reef' campaign, which ran through the 1960s and 1970s and highlighted threats from rapid industrialization and a nation riding a resources boom. Nevertheless, in recent years, the Reef has teetered on being named a 'World Heritage Site in Danger', with similar economic conditions driving its deterioration. This paper juxtaposes recent media activism to protect the Reef against the earlier campaign in order to compare and better understand how these campaigns engaged publics and policy makers by representing and communicating threats, and concludes by considering their capacity to influence long-term conservation policy.

The first comprehensive study of the Australian community radio sector at the turn of the millennium revealed insights into the contemporary operations of the sector, particularly in terms of its connections to communities, production of local content, and creation of a 'citizens' media. It offered an analysis of the people working in community radio -their training levels, skills, personal profile, career goals and so on. This article looks specifically at the processes of the formation of a community public sphere in Australia through the activities of around 25,000 volunteers and 4 million listeners each week in the sector across the country. It is particularly relevant in light of the recent trials and transmission of 'access' radio in the United Kingdom, and the growth of community radio across Europe. As Australia was one of the few countries to legislate for community radio in the early 1970s, the experience and development of community radio here is relevant to the sector's global development. The discussion considers some early findings from the first qualitative audience study of the sector by the authors.

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