Celestia-R1---OverlayTitleHD.png PUBLICS, PARTICIPANTS AND POLICIES: EXAMINING COMMUNITY BROADCASTING IN AUSTRIA AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC HENRY G. LOESER MASARYK UNIVERSITY Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png AIMS AND QUESTIONS •Volunteer participants are a key component of community broadcasting, and thus an important source for understanding the phenomenon. • • - Question #1: “What values of community broadcasting are important?” • •Media policy is recognized as a major factor in the efficacy of community broadcasting, so evaluating policy can be a useful tool. • •- Question #2: “To what extent do media policies in Austria and the Czech • Republic align with participants’ values? Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png RESEARCH PROJECT SUMMARY •Online surveys by volunteer participants in Austria (n=340) and the Czech Republic (n=85): • - Measure the importance of community broadcasting values • - Evaluate alignment of community broadcasting policy • •Findings reveal that surveyed participants in Austria and the Czech Republic consider most (but not all) widely-recognized values of community broadcasting as important. •Findings reveal that community broadcasting policy documents from both countries show some elements of positive alignment with surveyed participants’ views. • Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png COMMUNITY BROADCASTING •Definitions, Descriptions and Values • - IAMCR, Jankowski, Lewis, Howley • - Radio & TV orgs, AMARC, CBA, NFCB, CMFE, UNESCO, COE, VFRO • - National policy & regulatory texts / guidelines •Worldwide History • - The Americas, Australia, Africa, Europe Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png AUSTRIA 14 FM Community Radios; 3 Community Televisions Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png CZECH REPUBLIC ap No FM Community Radio / No Television (6 online community radios) Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png THEORY AND LITERATURE • •Community •Toennis: “gemeinschaft” / Williams: “knowable communities” / Deleuze, La Tour: “rhizome effect” / Putnam: “community networks” • •Civil Society •Aristotle: “society apart from family & government” / Hegel: “burgerliche gessellschaft” / Heller: mosaic of identities” / Habermas: “communicative action in possibility spaces” / Bordieau, Giddens: “media reproduces culture in civil society” • •The Public Sphere •Habermas: “forum for culture and politics co-opted” / Edwards: “multiple public spheres” / Fraser: “issues of class & gender” / Foucalt: “multidirectional power generation from discourse” / Herbst: “mobilize political resources” • • Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png THEORY AND LITERATURE COMMUNITY BROADCASTING •Publics •Ibrahim: “90% community” / Carpentier et al: “Rhizome effect within/without civil society” / Herman & Chomsky: “vs. dominant media” •Participation •Melucci: “as actor and member” / Lewis: “access” / Carey: “defines social roles” / Rodriguez: “promotes democratic ideals” / Carpentier: “supplement mainstream media content, seek to provide accurate representations, and resist dominant paradigms” •Policy •Buckley: “has a profound effect” “should be developed in consultation with civil society” / Hallin & Mancini: product of larger political paradigm” / EPRA: “community media are essential to pluralism” • • • • Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png METHODS: TEXT ANALYSIS •Austria Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png METHODS: TEXT ANALYSIS •Czech Republic Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png METHODS: POPULATION AND SAMPLE • •- Austria: 340/2600 (est.) = 13% • - Czech Republic: 85/390 (est.) = 22% Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png METHODS: SURVEY INSTRUMENT •1KA University of Ljubljana • - 17 questions, 92 variables, 4 languages • - demographics • - “importance” of organizational attributes, values • Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png METHODS: DATA ANALYSIS •Data Analysis (SPSS) (MS Excel) • - demographic/organizational data cross tabulations • - ranking of values by “importance” scores • - overlay of policy terms • Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png FINDINGS: DEMOGRAPHICS •Austria • - Age: <26 years = 9% • - Participation: <2 years = 27% • - Importance: Facebook = 52% • •Czech Republic • - Age: <26 years = 45% • - Participation: <2 years = 65% • - Importance: Facebook = 94% Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png FINDINGS: VALUES (AUSTRIA) Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png FINDINGS: VALUES (CZECH REPUBLIC) Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png FINDINGS: POLICY ALIGNMENT (AUSTRIA) Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png FINDINGS: POLICY ALIGNMENT (CZECH REPUBLIC) Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png CONCLUSIONS: PUBLICS AND PARTICIPANTS •Austria • - Legitimate and sustainable community broadcasting sector supported by government • - Mixed-model broadcasters providing social, cultural and political programs • - Concerns about age of participants and technology • •Czech Republic • - No terrestrial community broadcasting sector • - Online sector small but growing • - Young digital natives embracing the community radio concept • • Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png CONCLUSIONS: VALUES •Findings emphasize the overall importance participants place on the role of community broadcasting as a unique and legitimate space for communicative action. •Findings support theoretical approaches that contend community broadcasters supplement mainstream media content, seek to provide accurate representations, and resist dominant paradigms. •Low scores for some values perhaps reflect the respective societal paradigm in each subject nation, but also inform the body of knowledge about community broadcasting, and suggest the need for further research to better understand the views of participants. •The issue of gender balance is highlighted by the fractured composition of support, and the conspicuous absence of the term from both policy documents. • • Celestia-R1---OverlayContentHD.png CONCLUSIONS: POLICY ALIGNMENT •Austria •The policy document “Funding Guidelines for Non-Commercial Broadcasting” is well-aligned with the views of Austrian survey participants, suggesting an endorsement of the collaborative process by which it was enacted, and informing the body of knowledge about best practices in policy development. • •Czech Republic •The ”Proposed Community Broadcasting Policy and Plan for the Czech Republic” exhibits a positive, yet mixed, picture of alignment with the views of Czech survey participants. This suggests its adequacy as a foundation for community broadcasting legislation, and informs the discourse regarding establishment of a legitimate ”third pillar” community broadcasting sector. • Celestia-R1---OverlayTitleHD.png PUBLICS, PARTICIPANTS AND POLICIES: EXAMINING COMMUNITY BROADCASTING IN AUSTRIA AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC HENRY G. LOESER MASARYK UNIVERSITY HLOESER@RADIOEXPERT.ORG