Between Public and Private Media: Toward a Definition of “Community Media”

Abstract

Constitutional reforms in Ecuador and Bolivia and the subsequent laws on communications have opened up the media space to new social and political actors: public and community media. While the former tend to be associated with the state in form and with governments in substance, the latter are not clearly defined and occupy a place in the midst of the hegemonic struggle between the public and private sectors to enable citizens to actively intervene in the competition for shaping public opinion. It is therefore necessary to lay the groundwork for a definition of “community media” that includes both its legal and sociopolitical dimensions. Indeed, operationalizing such a definition might allow community media to recognize themselves in it and to take the measures required to fully project themselves as subjects of the law. Las reformas constitucionales de Ecuador y Bolivia, y las siguientes leyes de comunicación, han abierto el espacio mediático a nuevos actores sociales y políticos: los medios públicos y los comunitarios. Si los primeros tienden a ser referibles al Estado en la forma y a los gobiernos en la sustancia, los segundos se quedan indefinidos e irrumpen en la lucha hegemónica entre los sectores público y privado, para que la ciudadanía intervenga de forma activa en la disputa por la generación de opinión pública. Por lo tanto, es necesario sentar las bases para una definición del concepto de “medio comunitario” que sepa mantener unidas las dimensiones de significado legales y socio-políticas. Traducir en términos operativos esta definición podría permitir a los medios comunitarios reconocerse en los rasgos observables del concepto y, por ende, tomar medidas para proyectarse plenamente como sujetos de derecho.

Evangelical indigenous radio stations in Colombia: Between the promotion of social change and religious indoctrination

“…As I show in the next section, the case of the Misak community demonstrates that evangelical radio stations, not only replicate practices traditionally praised as 'progressive' by alternative/community media scholars, such as grass-roots control and participation (Rodríguez, 2001) and autonomous financial sustainability (Cerbino and Belotti, 2018;Hayes, 2018), but they can also be agents for 'social change'. The Misak evangelical radio stations, for example, have a history of promoting active community participation in administration and media production, although this role is decreasing due to the radicalization of evangelical organizations within this indigenous community.…”

“…These services range from venues for social connections outside of the Misak community to emotional support for alcohol addiction and domestic violence. To carry out this social function, these evangelical radio stations developed similar practices to those praised in functional community media projects, including open doors for community participation (Rodríguez, 2001), 'translocal' autonomy (Hayes, 2018) and self-sustainability (Cerbino and Belotti, 2018). Due to the progressive growth of evangelicalism after the 1991 constitutional recognition of the right to freedom of worship, a new generation of more radical Evangelicals started taking control of the evangelical radio stations, promoting less tolerant positions, even against the Misak political and cultural agenda initiated in the 1970s.…”

Políticas de comunicación y sostenibilidad de los medios comunitarios

“…La Constitución reconoce a los medios comunitarios, como uno de los sectores de la comunicación junto con el público y el privado. El Estado ecuatoriano asume así la deuda histórica hacia estos medios y los respectivos colectivos de los que son emanaron, los que siendo parte de la historia constitutiva del país, han sido -sin embargo, ignorados por los gobiernos ecuatorianos (Cerbino;Belotti, 2018).…”

Are the indigenous media community media? Experiences of native peoples’ media practices in Argentina

“…Community media can thus be also considered as originating in Hardt and Negri’s commonwealth (2009); they are media spaces, processes and, at the same time, products generated through and among those interactions bringing together those who autonomously construct a bottom-up media counter-power (Cerbino and Belotti, 2018). Such communities are subject to economic and political contradictions (Gumucio-Dagron, 2001b; Howley, 2005), and so singularities commonly act by maintaining their differences.…”