While transnational conglomerates consolidate their control of the global mediascape, local communities struggle to create democratic media systems. This groundbreaking study of community media, first published in 2005, combines original research with comparative and theoretical analysis in an engaging and accessible style. Kevin Howley explores the different ways in which local communities come to make use of various technologies such as radio, television, print and computer networks for purposes of community communication and considers the ways these technologies shape, and are shaped by, the everyday lived experience of local populations. He also addresses broader theoretical and philosophical issues surrounding the relationship between communication and community, media systems and the public sphere. Case studies illustrate the pivotal role community media play in promoting cultural production and communicative democracy within and between local communities. This book will make a significant contribution to existing scholarship in media and cultural studies on alternative, participatory and community-based media.

Drawing on case studies, this collection offers international perspectives on how community media serves their audiences. The contributors present perspectives on the ever-burgeoning area of grassroots. Their research represents participant observation, hands-on community involvement, boards of directors, content analysis, and ethical inquiries.

This concise text will help readers understand the ongoing fascination with do-it-yourself media around the world. Ellie Rennie explains how community media has, since its beginning, challenged the mainstream. A clear and useful guide for students, Community Media lays out the terrain in which community media theory and advocacy have located themselves, including the ideals of participation, community, and social change.

With original contributions from an international team of well-known experts, media activists, and promising young scholars, this comprehensive volume examines community media from theoretical, empirical, historical, and practitioner perspectives. Organized thematically, this collection explores the intersection between community media and issues of democratic theory and the public sphere, cultural politics and social movement theory, neoliberal communication policy and media reform efforts, as well as media activism and international solidarity building. Foregrounding the relationship between symbolic and material relations of power in an increasingly interdependent world, this collection examines the role of alternative, independent, and community-based media in the global struggle for communicative democracy. Understanding Community Media explores a wide range of media forms and practice. Each essay considers the particular and distinctive ways local populations make use of various technologies for purposes of community communication. Taken together, this distinctive collection provides an incisive and timely analysis of the relationship between media and society, technology and culture, and communication and community. * Features more than 35 original, cutting-edge essays * Provides a comprehensive overview of community media around the world including essays on women's video collectives in India, indigenous radio in Colombia, street newspapers in Canada, and independent media in Nigeria. * Makes a timely and important contribution to a burgeoning sub-field of media and cultural studies.

Drawing on both theoretical and practical case studies, this collection moves from developing attempts at local media to case studies and on to cyber-examples. The contributors, all distinguished international communications scholars, present a range of perspectives on the ever-burgeoning area of grassroots, local media.

The Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media provides an authoritative and comprehensive examination of the diverse forms, practices and philosophies of alternative and community media across the world. The volume offers a multiplicity of perspectives to examine the reasons why alternative and community media arise, how they develop in particular ways and in particular places, and how they can enrich our understanding of the broader media landscape and its place in society. The 50 chapters present a range of theoretical and methodological positions, and arguments to demonstrate the dynamic, challenging and innovative thinking around the subject; locating media theory and practice within the broader concerns of democracy, citizenship, social exclusion, race, class and gender. In addition to research from the UK, the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, the Companion also includes studies from Colombia, Haiti, India, South Korea and Zimbabwe, enabling international comparisons to be made and also allowing for the problematisation of traditional - often Western - approaches to media studies. By considering media practices across a range of cultures and communities, this collection is an ideal companion to the key issues and debates within alternative and community media.

This book explores how Ireland’s community media outlets reflect and shape identity at the local level. While aspects of its culture date back centuries, the nation-state of Ireland is less than one hundred years old. Because of this and other elements of the island’s history, Irish identity is a contested topic and the island is a place where culture, identity and geography are tightly intertwined. By addressing how community media serve as agents for community building, the book examines how they in turn influence the way individuals connect with their communities.

How do community, alternative and citizens media activists and advocates interact with global media policy processes? Are their concerns recognised, and do new forms of multi-stakeholder governance offer a place for them? Focusing on the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society, "Civil Society Media and Global Governance" examines agendas and strategies of media actors, traces successes and failures, and proposes a new conceptual framework for the relation of these media with global policy processes.

Bringing together scholars, journalists, and researchers from 27 European countries, this book provides a comparative and longitudinal analysis of the evolution of conditions and standards relevant for sustainable, free, and plural media and journalism in Europe in the last ten years. Approaching the challenging and ever-changing concept of media pluralism from various complementary and sometimes conflicting angles, combining legal, economic, social, and political perspectives, chapters provide a holistic account of the concept of media pluralism, a key condition for a well-functioning democracy. This book draws on data from the Media Pluralism Monitor project, a scientific tool designed and implemented on a regular basis to document the health of media ecosystems, to provide insights into central dimensions of media systems across the EU and candidate countries. These include: the fundamental protection of freedom of expression and safety of journalists and the independence of media authorities; market plurality, transparency of ownership, media concentration, media viability, competition enforcement, and digital platforms’ dominance; disinformation, media literacy, and digital challenges; political independence, conflicts of interest, editorial autonomy, and the independence of public service media; social inclusiveness, including access to media and representation of women and community media. Offering a comprehensive overview of key areas of EU media policy, causes and solutions for the media economic struggle, and innovative examples of business models for journalism in the digital age, this book is recommended reading for advanced students and researchers of media policy and regulation, as well as policymakers.