FUNDAMENTAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMMUNICATION AND COMMUNITY
ICT- Information and communication technologies
Diversity of Initiatives
-Geographic
-Cultural
-Technological

DEFINING COMMUNITY MEDIA
Often identified in terms of context
Assumes many forms and meanings

WHY STUDY COMMUNITY MEDIA?
 Media influence and impact on human culture and society –especially communities
Culture and society influence on media – especially communities

MEDIA OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL
CM are an intervention into the structural inequalities and power imbalances of modern media
systems
Vs. Public Service
Vs. Commercial
Serving the underserved
Access and participation
Media literacy

MEDIA POWER
Resources and opportunity to tell their story,
Defending cultural identity
Alternative to elite corporate journalism – “citizens’ journalism”
Revitalizes the public sphere and provides conversations of democracy

GLOBAL COMMUNICATION
Dominant media and cultural imperialism
Right to communicate is a human right
CM activists fight for communication rights at intergovernmental level

PLACE MATTERS
Technologies make the world smaller
We are global, but are we local?
Relationship between place and community is an essential feature of everyday life
Intimately tied to cultural forms, practices and traditions
Mediated within and through communication

KNOWABLE COMMUNITIES
Collective consciousness of the relations of significance and solidarity – Raymond Williams
It takes a village
Dominant media tend to conceal the interconnected and mutually dependent character of social
relations
CM work to reveal this fundamental aspect of human communities

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
Access and participation
Radical and Alternative media
Community media

CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE
Relationship between media institutions, public discourse and civil society
Communities and CM help form the public sphere and democracy

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHIES
Relationship between place, culture and collective identity
Minorities and indigenous groups

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
ICT4D


 CM & SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
CM role in popular movements for social and political change
Facilitating cultural expression that informs social movements

COMMUNICATION POLITICS
Communication policies enable or constrain debate?
CM promotes counters dominant media and promotes structural reform

GLOBAL STRUGGLES AND LOCAL MEDIA
International networks of CM
IndyMedia