Conceptualising The Small-Scale Public Sphere

2011

Javnost - The Public

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.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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

Gaynor

2011

Javnost - The Public

“…Work in this latter vein demonstrated the failure of mainstream broadcasting to contribute to any kind of public sphere and contrasted this with the aspirations that underpinned community sector broadcasting. Studies in this genre include Stiegler (2009), which draws on Barber’s model of ‘strong democracy’ to elucidate what small-scale public spheres might look like within the context of community radio within the US (Barber, 1984, after Stiegler (2009: 5–51)). In a similar way, Meadows et al ., argue that, by providing communities with ‘alterNative’ ideas and assumptions (2005: 183), the community radio sector in Australia has extended the idea of the mainstream public sphere.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community radio, democratic participation and the public sphere

Gaynor

Irish Journal of Sociology

2017

Community radio is unique when compared to its commercial and public service counterparts in that, as a non-profit activity, it is owned, managed and controlled by local communities, In theory therefore, community radio offers the potential for more broad-based participation in deliberation and debate within the public sphere engaging multiple voices and perspectives and contributing towards progressive social change. Drawing on a study of four community radio stations in Ireland within a framework drawn from the evolving work of Habermas and associated deliberative, social and media theorists, in this article we examine the extent to which this is the case in practice. We find that democratic participation is still not optimised within the four stations studied. We argue that the reasons for this lie in four main areas: a somewhat limited policy framework; a focus within training programmes on technical competencies over content; the weakness of linkages between stations and their local community groups; and the failure of the latter to understand the unique remit of community radio. The article draws lessons of specific interest to researchers and activists in these domains, as well as offering a framework to those interested in examining community media’s contribution to the re-animation of the public sphere more broadly.

“…Community radio research has focused on a number of themes that reflect the unique characteristics of the sector (Jankowski and Prehn 2003). For instance, scholars have examined the contribution made by community radio to the maintenance of a healthy public sphere (Forde et al 2002;Stiegler 2009). Various studies have explored the social capital and benefits that derive from the operation of community radio (Barlow 1988;Day 2009;Sussman and Estes 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Community radio and governance: Leadership, relationship and organizational identity

Radio Journal:International Studies in Broadcast &Amp; Audio Media

2017

This study examines the challenges of good governance for community radio stations. It does this by exploring how volunteers, managers and members of the Boards of Directors at four community radio stations in Ireland view governance issues. The article finds that there are three key requirements for effective governance in the context of non-profit community radio stations. First, participants described the importance of the Board's leadership role in acquiring expertise in specific, necessary areas, such as finance, human resources and compliance. The Board was also seen to require a capacity to generate positive relationships between the station and its constituent communities. Second, participants outlined a number of practices that proved useful in achieving positive internal relationships between the Board, the volunteers and management. Third, participants described how a collectively shared ethos of community radio was useful in overcoming potential divisions by generating a shared sense of the organization for its members. The findings highlight the need for further research and analysis of the organizational uniqueness and consequent governance requirements of community media.