Media Strikes Back is one of few television programs specifically designed to support its city’s local culture. With fears of cultural erosion, selective mainstream trends and the recent disregard and decline of local content in Australian television, the advent of Media Strikes Back has been auspiciously timed.
“Melbourne is globally renowned for its unique and diverse culture. We have in our city something very special, a culture deserving of proper recognition,” states Tristan Manas, Executive Producer of Media Strikes Back.
“Our Media Renegades source this otherwise unrepresented culture and present it to the world. It has been too long Melbourne has been separated from its own culture,” claims Tristan.
The purpose of the series is to close the gap between artist or event and their respective audience, fostering community recognition and also bridging the gap between existing communities.
Further elaborating on the nature of the program, Media Renegade and presenter, JD Ness, states that ‘Media Strikes Back is there to assist our audience in finding and discovering all there is to know and do in Melbourne…as presenters we are consistently amazed by some of our city’s hidden gems!’
It is because of its multi-faceted culture and these ‘hidden gems’ that JD, along with the rest of the Media Strikes Back team, believes that Melbourne is long deserving of its own media platform and that this buried grassroots culture needs to be unearthed and showcased to the world.
In an age of media saturation guided by consumerism, this level of support, passion and authenticity is seldom found in television. Yet Media Strikes Back has made an effort to go above and beyond and present something special that bends traditional media paradigms – building a Media Strikes Back community from the bottom up.
To accomplish this they have taken advantage of the connected experience that has resulted from the relationship between television and social media and are currently finding ways to integrate higher levels of immersion and interactivity into the program.
In the words of Media Renegade, Yana Portnoy, the Media Strikes Back objective is to offer viewers and guests on the show an ‘enlightening perspective on life that leaves them proud to be Melbournian,’ and all whilst offering unprecedented levels of community participation.
Media Strikes Back is a Melbourne based community television program featured on C31 Melbourne (Channel 44 Digital), aired on Mondays at 7pm and brought to you by Project 628. They are currently in the midst of pre-filming their third season and have based their program on putting an end to the underrepresentation of Melbourne’s local arts and culture.
