Issue No. 10 (February 2005) — Media Communities: Local Voices

abstracts

By Kevin Howley

This paper places a discussion of community radio in the context of ongoing debates surrounding 'globalization.'At first blush, this may seem an odd tack to take given community radio's theoretical relevance to and practical application in local settings. Indeed, community radio is generally defined in terms of its service to populations within discrete geographic locations (Price-Davies & Tacchi 50-51). Yet, as media scholar David Hendy reminds us, radio, an ostensibly local medium, is very much a global phenomenon inasmuch as radio technology is ubiquitous, the medium is pervasive in industrialised and developing societies alike, and the industry is increasingly transnational in its scale and scope.

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By Jon R. Pike

The Independent Media Center Movement, an international media activist movement born during the World Trade Organization protests in 1999, has since grown to more than 100 local collectives in over 40 countries. It is dedicated to the production of media texts, mostly on the Internet, organized along non-hierarchical, consensual lines. Their production of media can best be understood through the radical education theories of Freire and the new social movement theories of Melucci. From a Freirean perspective, this movement educates people in creating media relevant to their own lives and frees them from a consumer-based media economy which regards them as mere objects to be exploited. From Malacca, this movement shows evidence of “hidden networks” that maintains a movement collective identity, affective bonds and periods of latency and mobilization. This study examined one Indy media collective through the use of ethnographic techniques.

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By Charles Fairchild

Community radio in the United States has been struggling from crisis to crisis throughout most of the last decade. Yet, the community radio sectors in many other countries have not experienced anything like the difficulties faced in the U.S. In some countries the opposite is true. There are three main causes of the problems community radio faces in the U.S.: a hostile broadcasting environment defined by an extreme form of deregulation and the absolute dominance of commercial media over broadcasting law and policy, the lack of a clear and effective policy to define and govern community radio and the lack of effective community outreach and mobilization of existing community support. When compared with community radio in Australia and Canada , solutions to the difficulties faced in the U.S. become easier to envision and the lessons of the American experience can be made useful for those participating in community radio in other countries.

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By Chris Capel and John Cokley

Residents of the remote central-western Queensland town of Blackall (pop. 1,833) watched their last locally reported and produced newspaper close in 2001. The nearest newspapers in the intervening years had been and continue to be controlled and produced from Longreach, 200km to the north-west, and in Charleville, another 300km to the south-east. In 2002, a group of Blackall residents formed a committee and asked local officers of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries (DPI) to help them in a project to start a new locally controlled and produced newspaper. Through the DPI, they also approached journalism lecturer John Cokley at James Cook University, Townsville, for advice and assistance. This article documents subsequent preparation for, and publication of, a pilot newspaper called The Barcoo Independent on October 24, 2003, and evaluation by survey, email and telephone interview.

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By Tanja Bosch

This paper deals with the community in "community radio", with specific reference to community radio station Bush Radio, located in Cape Town, South Africa. Firstly, this paper provides a history of Bush Radio, tracing its roots as a cassette production facility, to one of South Africa's new community stations after the end of apartheid. Looking at different conceptions of "community", this paper traces how Bush Radio approaches and perceives the concept; and how through its rhizomatic nature, it both builds community and builds bridges between artificially constructed communities. Using Deleuze and Guatarri's theory of rhizomatics, and Victor Turner's concept of communitas, this paper argues that community radio, and the community within, is best understood through an alternative theoretical framework. In particular, rhizomatics help us to understand community radio as a network of connections across which things flow and disperse.

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By Robert C. Moore and Tamara L. Gillis

Changes in the media landscape of sub-Saharan Africa and possibilities for increased citizen empowerment and social interaction are facilitated through the integration of community journalism and community media as process and mechanism. Citizens of the world are experiencing greater news and information services that affect the decisions of everyday life. Yet, in Sub-Saharan Africa, for the first time in their lives, citizens have the opportunity to engage in a partnership with media that allows people in diverse geographic settings to share in decision-making concerning issues that affect their future. This paper defines the concepts of community journalism and community media and shows how these concepts are able to make a difference in the lives of people.

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By Pantelis Vatikiotis

The paper explores diverse grassroots media practices that are implemented 'on the margins' of the conventional public domain in Greece, drawing both on their contribution to the wider public sphere (what is called here the 'spatial' aspect), and on their intervention in the sphere of politics (what is called here the aspect of 'agency'), pointing out their implications for Greek civic life. By evaluating the practice of these projects (originated from 'below') in a resonant context that prioritises the 'agents', the paper highlights both the challenges and the limits of these initiatives in their own terms.

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By Andy Opel and Rich Templin

This paper examines the Internet server traffic reports of eight North American Indymedia websites from January to May 2003 in an attempt to address the question of audience research and alternative media. The traffic reports indicate a significant increase in traffic at all of these websites beginning in March 2003, the month when open hostilities broke out in Iraq. These results suggest a connection between Indymedia and mobilization. In addition, further research based on Internet server traffic reports is described and encouraged.