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The growth in interest and research in community radio worldwide over the last few decades is a welcome development. While, as noted by Jankowski (2003), a first generation of research has been largely empirical in nature, describing and analysing the organisation and operation of stations in different contexts, more recently a second generation of work has begun to emerge which aims at grounding empirical studies within broader theoretical frameworks, most notably those relating to democracy and the public sphere. The specific components of the public sphere remain somewhat underdeveloped in these studies however. This article aims to contribute to this literature through an examination of community radio in Ireland within a framework drawn from evolving work of Habermas and associated deliberative, social and media theorists. The article, drawing on a detailed study of four community stations in Ireland, identifies elements of community radio which contribute towards a "defeudalisation" of the public sphere as well as highlighting challenges in this regard. Although situated within a specific context, with Irish community radio operating within a comparable regulatory environment to both that in Australia and the United Kingdom, the article draws lessons of specific interest to researchers and activists in these domains, as well as offering a framework of use to community radio researchers interested in examining the sector's contribution to the re-animation of the public sphere more globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the ways in which efforts aimed at democratising the media system and empowering communities in Indonesia in three discursive periods (the 1998 "Revolution Movement," the "Reform Era" follow-up, and the 2002 Broadcasting Act up till the present time) have ebbed and flowed. The main result of the changing winds so far has been the liberalisation of the market, in line with global media trends. The Government has tried to frustrate the prospects of community media. Hence, the current development of community radio in the country remains stagnant, the main challenge being to create a more visible position in the media landscape, which in turn may bring about a more supportive stance in the government's policies. Our tour d'horizon of the state of affairs of community radio, its complementary status to the mainstream national media scene, and the assessment of current needs are based upon empirical evidence gathered in the Manado and Jogyakarta areas. Departing from the different dynamics of these two cases, weaknesses and critical success factors will be assessed, taking into account the different backgrounds of the regions, radio practitioners as well as their audiences in terms of religion, ethnicity, and life styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]