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This article, within the context of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Community Media Association (CMA) in 2023, and its role within the context of British radio history, will draw on grey literature from the CMA digital archives, including policy statements, policy briefings and background material for the lobbying actions during the period 1997–2007. First-hand material to be discussed will draw on interviews with key actors involved in policy-making until the introduction of Community Radio into legislation, as well as on press releases, statements and policy documents of the regulators Radio Authority and the Office of Communications, policy statements and documents published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, statements from the BBC and commercial radio representatives and parliamentary records of the debates on community radio legislation. The analysis and discussion of this material will help to establish the role of the main players in policy-making and regulation and how events unfolded between the outcome of 2 May 1997 general election, when the Labour Party took power, and 20 July 2004, when the Community Radio Order (CRO) was approved. It will also trace the development of the lobbying action of the CMA, the discussions and the tensions preceding the government's approval to go ahead with a new sector. It will argue that, despite having the merit of introducing a new sector in licensed radio broadcasting, after three decades of community media activists campaigning, the Labour Party fell short on its promises of funding the sector in its initial phase, denying it a solid and sustainable start. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FUTURES on Air was a public engagement project delivered as part of FUTURES2020, a European Researchers' Night event, which consisted of a series of co-produced radio conversations between community programme makers and researchers, which was broadcast across stations in the southwest of England, November 2020. FUTURES on Air explored the role of community media, specifically community radio, in relation to alternative forms of public engagement with researchers, and as impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For most Americans, public service media (PSM) are synonymous with National Public Radio for radio and audio and Public Broadcasting Service for television and video. However, these national services do not fully circumscribe the PSM sphere in the United States. US community media are non-commercial, locally controlled outlets that produce content intended for local audiences, most often focused on local concerns associated with housing, education, government and the arts. This study provides an overview of the present state of community media in the United States. It draws on a variety of sources, including data from the industry, and from the professional press, as well as a series of extensive informational interviews with community media leaders around the United States. The subjects include representatives from community radio and community television outlets that serve urban, suburban and rural markets. After compiling and analysing the quantitative and qualitative data, several key indicators emerge that help to describe the current state of community media in the United States and point towards challenges and opportunities ahead for the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Connectivity made possible by the diffusion of digital technologies has offered new possibilities for the public to interact with media, including radio. However, interactions are often framed by globally managed platforms, owned by companies with values based on maximizing profit, rather than prioritising Illich's forms of conviviality. In this article, we draw on experiences from the Grassroot Wavelengths project that introduces an innovative peer-to-peer platform to support the creation and management of community radio stations. We offer insight into the practices of participation in community media, where the users influence decisions concerning the technology, the content, the actors and the organization policy of the radio station, through a participatory design approach. These collaborations between researchers and users, together with a focus on the development of relational assets in local contexts, are fundamental in an attempt to design a platform that fosters conviviality and offers an alternative way to consider participation in community media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Argentinian Law 26.522 on Audiovisual Communication Services (currently under reform) aimed at democratizing the media arena by recognizing multiple actors such as community broadcasters, school and indigenous media, among others. According to the legal classification, community broadcasters were regulated as private non-profit media, despite having specific objectives, programming, organizational logic and economic conditions. Conversely, school and indigenous media merged into the public sector, even if they may act as community media. The article compares results arising from two research projects carried out in Northern Argentina through in-depth interviews with key informants from two indigenous radio stations and two school radio stations. The theoretical framework mainly draws on literature about community, alternative and popular communication. Results show that communities participate in such media foundation or management and that media content deals with cultural and political issues related to their interests or needs. Indeed, emerging features allow considering such broadcasters as community media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature about community radio in Kenya has focused on sustainability challenges, but not much on existent production practices and audience evaluations of the station. Koch FM is a community radio station located in Korogocho, a slum in Nairobi, Kenya. The station aims to provide alternative information, education and entertainment content. Producers at the station and community members who make up the station's audience have different perceptions of Koch FM's role. While the producers envision Koch FM as the provider of information and a space for community voice, the community evaluates the station's performance based on parameters drawn from commercial broadcasters. Consequently, the station acts as a space where sometimes-contradictory ideals play out. In exploring these contrasting viewpoints, this article highlights contextual production practices and the shifting audience expectations facing community radio in Kenya's vibrant radio broadcast environment. The data are the outcome of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2014 and 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community radio in Australia is now well established and considered an important part of the radio sector, however, in today's economically driven world it is at the bottom of the media money pile. In order to argue for its continuing existence, funding and development in an ever-changing media landscape, some means of capturing its value is essential. This article describes the development of a theoretical framework of value for community radio. The content of the framework was achieved by, first, examining, community media/radio literature through five relevant lenses of analysis. Secondly, a subsequent meta-analysis was applied to consolidate the framework. In order to test the utility of the draft theoretical framework of value, three case studies were conducted with different types of community radio stations in Perth, Western Australia. Two primary research methods were used: interviews with staff and audience focus groups. The testing exercise provided a multimodal insight into the values of community radio as reflected in real life practice. The analysis revealed how value was perceived by participants across three stations as personal motivations, and second, that value at individual stations was contingent upon the characteristics of the individual community radio stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community radio is one of the resources that can give ordinary or disenfranchised people a voice. This opportunity can be increased through the combination of community radio and mobile phones. Using focus group discussions, face-to-face interviews and observations, this article examines how this combination can improve ordinary people's participation in media production and in public life in Malawi. It also examines the extent to which marginalized people are using mobile phones to voice their concerns through community radio in Malawi. I argue that the proliferation of mobile phones can accord community radio stations increased ability to give people a voice through use of text messaging and phone-in programmes. It can also expand the resources with which ordinary people have a voice. When people are accorded the right to voice their concerns and be heard, they can remove a major communication barrier that prevents them from enjoying the life they value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melbourne is Australia's second most populated city, and in many ways a microcosm of broader Australian society. As a city, Melbourne is the proverbial 'melting pot' of cultures. This diversity is evident in the breadth of community radio stations that service the Melbourne community. From 'generalist' stations serving a plethora of marginalized audiences to ethnic stations, youth stations, stations for seniors and Indigenous stations, Melbourne community radio is a vibrant and active mix of much that represents Australia - and the contemporary global condition. This article draws on data collected during two national studies of Australia's community media sector (Forde, Meadows and Foxwell 2002; Meadows et al. 2007) that focused on stations and subsequently their audiences. The research used a mixed methodology of surveys, focus groups and interviews to build a picture of the role these stations perform for individual participants, local community groups, businesses and other organizations and audience members. The article engages with Melbourne fieldwork from these national studies, offering an analysis of community radio in an Australian metropolitan centre. While not without their problems, Melbourne's community radio stations and their audiences have created and developed a space and place for diverse groups to connect in ways that foster the sense of belonging so central to the well-being of individuals and their communities. In this way, these stations perform a particular role in metropolitan Melbourne by combating the sense of isolation and anonymity that so often characterizes the urban experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has neglected to address the question of whether practitioners and the community groups served by community radio see it as a conduit of community empowerment and social change. This article explores this question through in-depth analysis of four community radio stations in Ireland. The central finding is that, while community stations subscribe to most of the ideals of community radio, practitioners do not generally see the stations as sites of social and political empowerment. Moreover, this outcome is not recognized as a benefit by the communities served by the stations. This is the case because of the policy framework, cultural traditions and training programmes central to community radio in Ireland, the weakness of linkages between stations and community groups and the failure of the latter to understand the unique remit of community radio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of community radio in Ghana's media sphere has changed the political economy of communications in Ghana. The participatory platform of the medium has led to citizens' empowerment and facilitated the political, economic and social development of this new democracy. Marginalized communities are now able to question policies. The views expressed during these participatory programmes like live phone-in have helped to promote accountability and transparency within government circles and the corporate world. However, concerns have been raised over the serious allegations and mischievous remarks made on community radio stations and how they can be regulated. This article shall argue that the complex and intricate nature of the regulatory mechanism and the conceptualization of community radio have made it difficult for the regulatory body, National Media Commission (NMC) to regulate the community radio. Seeing that Ghana is a multi-ethnic state, her democracy may be endangered if the content from community radio stations which could heat up the polity is not regulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to the radio spectrum most often has become tightly controlled by nation-states and military bodies around the world, available to citizens only under stringent licensing and leasing frameworks. This article examines one aspect of the growing global community radio movement which makes an alternative ownership claim on this resource. Taking place at a small-scale grass-roots level, this movement is nevertheless worthy of attention from media scholars. By considering the example of community radio development in Thailand, we can see this movement represents a new communications paradigm in formation, one that fundamentally alters the manner in which the broadcast frequency spectrum is monopolized by state and commercial interests and, consequently, the manner in which people will allow themselves to be governed, as radio becomes a vehicle for marginalized communities to stake a claim in territory heretofore unquestionably ruled by the centre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is about the role played by Brazilian community radio stations as public spaces, including different action rationales and places where there are political, social and cultural discourses from various genres such as informative and opinionative, especially the latter. Such spaces are embedded by communicative and instrumental actions as Habermas notes, manifest in the tensions and approximations between public and common spaces. Based upon a cross-case study from these media, the action rationales and the dynamics of the spaces are analysed. Stemming from the way such radio stations work, it is possible to assess whether they are a ‘locus’ for public debates, involving the community and favouring communication which addresses the common interest, or, to a large extent, social arenas for welfare appeals and criticisms and fulfilling immediate needs from members of a particular locality. Data collection included unstructured and episodic interviews, radio programmes and analysis of documents from fifteen community radio stations in the Federal District and surroundings. After that, for more in-depth information, five case studies were carried out in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars tend to agree that the weak implementation of affirmative localism in US media is primarily due to either the failure of regulators to enforce the principle, or the unworkability of the concept of localism itself. By ‘affirmative localism’ I refer to efforts to foster geographically based local identities and local public spheres through a licensee's program service. This study revisits the history of localism to demonstrate that early regulators were not primarily concerned with fostering affirmative localism, but instead used discourses and structures of localism as part of a class-based project of cultural and economic modernisation of local communities through radio. In this view, regulatory concepts such as local program service and local trusteeship were used to reduce local distinctiveness, limit program diversity, and retain content control with nationally minded regulators in Washington. These regulators' corporate and cosmopolitan vision of modernity is problematic in many ways, but their relative success in using localism to advance that vision calls into question the Federal Radio Commission's reputation for weakness and incompetence. It also suggests that affirmative localism, since it was actively suppressed by regulators in the formative years of US radio, cannot be considered a failed or unworkable concept for broadcasting policy in itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impact assessment is one of a variety of monitoring tools available to ensure that a community radio effectively works towards set objectives and aspirations. In Mozambique a 'bare-foot' impact assessment methodology has been designed, tested, revised and implemented with eight community-owned stations between 2000 and 2005. The present article 1 explores the three separate areas of attention focused upon in this methodology: (1) an internal assessment of the radio's way of functioning as an organism; (2) an assessment of the capacity of the community producers through their programmes to meet the needs and desires of the community; and (3) the overall objective of it all: assessing the extent to which impact can be registered vis-à-vis a positive development change within the community, empowerment, mending of the social tissue, etc. resulting from the work of the community radio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]