Community Radio in Ireland: “Defeudalising” the Public Sphere?

Abstract

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 fi rst generation of research has been largely empirical in nature, describing and analysing the organisation and operation of stations in diff erent 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 specifi c 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, identifi es 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 specifi c 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 specifi c interest to researchers and activists in these domains, as well as off ering 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.

Community radio, democratic participation and the public sphere

“…Moreover, for community groups within the stations’ catchment areas, the service aspect of their stations overrides its process function. In other words, community actors engage with the ‘lower’ level forms of participation offered by the stations, rather than the ‘higher’ levels of direct control and access to the airwaves advocated in the theoretical frameworks that advocate a central role for community media in the democratisation of the public sphere (see for example, Day, 2009; and for an adaptation of this Gaynor and O’Brien, 2010). In short, the stations tend to work ‘for’ rather than ‘with’ their communities, and the information and publicity service approach dominates any more radical or transformative political end of democratising the public sphere.…”

The perception of community radio as public sphere and its potential impact on political action: lessons from Tanzania

“…As noted above, advocates of community radio point to its capacity to stimulate information acquisition or create political awareness as a major contribution to community development (Gaynor & O'Brien, 2011). Studies show that political awareness is a critical predictor of mass attitude change (see Zaller, 1989).…”

“…As a non-commercial media, community radio's audience is not in the ordinary sense of casual listeners, but rather, actual broadcasters and producers, actively engaged in managing and planning of a local communication project (Gaynor & O'Brien, 2011). Unlike public radio, community station changes the relationship that exists between it and its listener by creating real possibility of a collective control over the means of mass communication to those to whom it had been denied.…”