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Resistance and reality: exploring symbolic fracturing, reality construction, and democratic dialogue within the community radio form
Abstract
Government and the private sector persistently prioritise the need to assess the impact of social and political processes against criteria based on capital production and economic efficiency. How valuable is this within media ecologies that seek to prioritise democratic contributions or counter-hegemonic practice? Community radio globally was established to promote participation and increase democratic communication. This study adopts a citizens’ media approach within a critical political economy of communication epistemology to investigate social change impacts related to symbolic fracturing, reality construction, and democratic dialogue within community radio practice. Based on a case study of 3CR Community Radio in Melbourne, Australia, this study identifies social discourse rupture, recoding, and critical participation as key themes that emerge through qualitative interviews with station founders, current practitioners, and listeners. While numerous studies have documented the Australian community radio sector’s contribution to media participation and diversity, this paper considers the counter-hegemonic outcomes of a station that seeks to resist and subvert social injustices and to deepen the democratisation of the media. Results reveal that listeners and practitioners engage in counter-hegemonic media practice through the community radio form.
... While First Nations community media provides a front line service and a vital tool for contestation, policy and funding for the sector is char- acterized by uncertainty and instability (Meadows 2016). This is partly the result of broader questions about community radio's ongoing viabil- ity and validity under digital capitalism (Fox 2017). A 2014 federal gov- ernment National Commission of Audit argued: ...
... While federal funding to public and community broadcasters has not been eliminated, the report has raised uncertainties in regard to policy support and resources for community radio and television (Fox 2017). In this context, the discourse of digital disruption is mobilized in sup- port of arguments for state retreat from support of community media. ...
From the Zapatista’s “netwar” to the “hashtag activism” of Idle No More, Indigenous peoples have pioneered digital media for global connectivity and contestation. This chapter explores the promise and the pitfalls of social media for First Nations protest in Australia. Overall, we find new opportunities for disruption and ongoing challenges with regard to significant social and political transformation. The argument is illustrated with two exemplars. Firstly, the “Recognise” campaign is a state-sponsored public information and awareness campaign with a well-developed social media and branding strategy. Dissenting Indigenous voices have been highly successful in disrupting this campaign and asserting an alternative agenda including Treaty and Land Rights. Secondly, the #IASLottery campaign responded to the new Indigenous Advancement Strategy, with less success in impacting policy debates.
... Program content continues to closely align with the station's original intentions with weekly shows by unionists, women, First Nations people, LGBTIQ community members, people with disabilities, along with a diverse array of community language shows, eclectic music programs, environment, and social justice shows. A focus on issues of political justice and social equality, alongside a democratic organizational structure, allows 3CR to provide greater representation and empowerment to marginalized groups, while politically engaging citizens (Fox, 2017). "It remains at the forefront of social movements across Melbourne and beyond, and continues to tell the stories and air the voices of people and communities disenfranchised by the mainstream" (3CR Community Radio, 2016, p. 279). ...
This article outlines the early history of the Australian community radio sector. It focuses on three of the country’s oldest stations – Radio Adelaide, 4ZZZ and 3CR – to document the establishment and growth of the sector over the past 50 years. Two theoretical lenses are identified from the literature on Australian community broadcasting, loosely categorized as citizens’ media and empowerment media, and these are evident in the narratives of the case study stations. A third framework – social movement theory – is proposed for further understanding the value of community broadcasting and its contributions to the wider media landscape.
A significant body of literature examines the under-representation of people with disability in the media. In news and fictional portrayals, people with disability are often defined by disability first, their personhood second, perpetuating stereotypes of people with disability as different. Activists attempt to change how media portray people with disability. Less well-considered are the challenges of media participation. This article argues that the presence of people with disability in the spaces that comprise media institutions is also a necessary condition for social change, not just improved representation and participation. However, even in Australian community broadcasting, a sector founded in a normative policy commitment to democratising media participation, people with disability encounter a range of barriers to accessing the resources and spaces of community broadcasting. The Australian case study reported here supports broad consideration of how listening to the views of community broadcasting participants with disability contributes to improving their media presence.
Increasingly digital media is the central conduit through which reality is constructed. With the proliferation of digital devices and platforms one could be mistaken in thinking that everyone’s reality is now reflected across the plethora of digital networks. However, for many, especially those marginalised by social, political and economic factors, life presented across the multitude of media platforms does not represent their reality and indeed sits in stark contrast to their everyday experiences. This chapter presents community radio as a dedicated space for the diverse realities, and unheard voices, of those living at the margins. Through the case study examples we see the application of community radio for reality construction, resistance to hegemony, symbolic fracturing, alternative viewpoints and dissenting voices.
In this paper, I argue that the concepts of the ‘social’, ‘participation’, and political ‘listening’ should be central to projects to capture the value and impact of community media. Each of these keywords is up for debate as the proliferation of digital technologies and social media produce optimistic claims for increased participation and voice. In contrast, a focus on community media demands a more rigorous account of what constitutes ‘maximalist’ participation and effective listening. The challenge is to rearticulate core concepts which underpin community media traditions while engaging the potential and transformations of the digital media environment.
In January 1994 the Zapatista movement in southern Mexico inaugurated a new era of media use for dissent. Since that time, an array of dissenting collectives and individuals have appropriated media technologies in order to make their voices heard or to articulate alternative identities. From Zapatista media to the Arab Spring, social movements throughout the world are taking over, hybridizing, recycling, and adapting media technologies. This new era poses a new set of challenges for academics and researchers in the field of Communication for Social Change (CfSC). Based on examples from Mexico, Lebanon, and Colombia, this article highlights and discusses four such research challenges: accounting for historical context; acknowledging the complexity of communication processes; anchoring analysis in a political economy of information and communication technologies; and positioning new research in relation to existing knowledge and literature within the field of communication and social change.
Paulo Freire's ideas on education, conscientization and participatory development have assumed the status of external and universal truths which can be applied in any developing society. Though Freire's theory of dialogical communcation and action is based on group dialogue rather than the mass media, there is a sense in which this theory can apply to almost any aspect of human communication, in a truly participatory manner. Inspite of the attraction of participatory methodologies, their users are cautioned against uncritical application in all situations.
One of the normative tenets of the Habermasian public sphere is that it should be an open and universally accessible forum. In Australia, one way of achieving this is the provision for community broadcasting in the Broadcasting Services Act. A closer examination of community broadcasting, however, suggests practices that contradict the idea of an open and accessible public sphere. Community broadcasting organizations regulate access to their media assets through a combination of formal and informal structures. This suggests that the public sphere can be understood as a resource, and that community broadcasting organizations can be analysed as ‘commons regimes’. This approach reveals a fundamental paradox inherent in the public sphere: access, participation and the quality of discourse in the public sphere are connected to its enclosure, which limits membership and participation through a system of rules and norms that govern the conduct of a group. By accepting the view that a public sphere is governed by property rights, it follows that an open and universally accessible public sphere is neither possible nor desirable.
In the twentieth century, the media gave whistleblowers a voice, spearheaded the downfall of powerful politicians, and exposed widespread corporate corruption. How will the twenty-first-century media cope with its storied legacy as the watchdog of democratic society? Reclaiming the Media examines the sometimes tenuous, often fraught relationship between media organizations and civil rights in Europe. In sections devoted to citizenship, participation, contemporary journalism, and activist communication strategies, a panel of European media experts makes the case for deepening the mediaâs role in democracy.
This paper is based on the results of a two-year study of the Australian community radio sector. The study, supported by the Australian Research Council, the Community Broadcasting Foundation, the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia and the Federal Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, was designed to provide insight into the operations of the contemporary Australian community radio industry, particularly in terms of its connections to communities, production of local content, and creation of a 'citizens' media. It was also designed to provide an analysis of the people working in community radio -their training levels, skills, personal profile, career goals and so on. Tins paper draws from that larger study, specifically looking at participation, access, and the cultural role of community radio in producing local content for Australian society. It is particularly relevant in light of the recent trials of 'access' radio in the United Kingdom, and the growth of community radio across the European continent. As Australia was one of the few countries to legislate for community radio in the early 1970s, the experience and development of community radio is relevant to the sector's global development.
The influence of media on society is unquestioned. Its reach penetrates nearly every corner of the world and every aspect of life. But it has also been a contested realm, embodying class politics and the interests of monopoly capital. In The Political Economy of Media, one of the foremost media critics of our time, Robert W. McChesney, provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic and political powers that are being mobilized to consolidate private control of media with increasing profit — all at the expense of democracy.In this elegant and lucid collection, McChesney examines the monopolistic competition that has created a global media that is ever more concentrated and centralized. McChesney reveals why questions about the ownership of commercial U.S. media remain off limits within the political culture; how private ownership of media leads to the degradation of journalism and suppression of genuine debate; and why corporate rule threatens democracy by failing to provide the means for an educated and informed citizenry. The Political Economy of Media also highlights resistance to corporate media over the last century, including the battle between broadcasters and the public in the 1920s and 1930s and the ongoing media reform movement today. The Political Economy of Media makes it clear that the struggle over the ownership and the role of media is of utmost importance to everyone.
Over the last decade, political economy has grown rapidly as a specialist area of research and teaching within communications and media studies and is now established as a core element in university programmes around the world. The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications offers students and scholars a comprehensive, authoritative, up-to-date and accessible overview of key areas and debates. •Combines overviews of core ideas with new case study materials and the best of contemporary theorization and research. •Written many of the best known authors in the field. •Includes an international line-up of contributors, drawn from the key markets of North and Latin America, Europe, Australasia, and the Far East
This chapter situates the current crisis in relation to both capitalism and the era of neoliberalism and finance capitalism, stressing in particular how an era obsessed with managing risks failed to come to terms with “systemic risk.” Figuring prominently in this is the question of what would happen to a highly leveraged financial system if liquidity dried up. In order to make deeper sense of it, the chapter argues that the internal contradictions of capital accumulation should be addressed. Capitalism works in part by repeatedly challenging, transcending, or working around limits, barriers to growth. It suffers temporary crises and regains momentum as limits are overcome. As such, there is potential for a renewed capitalist momentum with China in the forefront, but there is also the possibility of trying to create a new and different kind of economy more directly focused on meeting human needs.
This conversation started in Prague, the Czech Republic, during a panel moderated by Irena Reifová at the symposium ‘On Empowered and Impassioned Audiences in the Age of Media Convergence’. The event was organized by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. The text contains a series of discussions. First, there is a conversation about the nature of the participatory democratic utopia and participatory culture and how groups take (or do not take) advantage of the affordances of new and emerging media. It also emphasizes the political nature and potential of popular culture and touches upon its connection to institutionalized politics. Three other key areas are mentioned: the role of different cultures of leadership, the significance of organizations in structuring participatory processes, and the need to enhance civic learning, providing more support for participatory cultures. This is combined with an interlocking discussion about the definition of participation and how it is tied up with power. It covers the differences between participation and interaction, engagement, interpretation, production, curation, and circulation. Finally, there is an underlying strand of discussion about the role of academia, focusing on the relationship between critical theory and cultural studies, the need to deconstruct our own frameworks and the question of which language to use to communicate academic research to the public.
Focusing on issues of access to and participation in community media, this report reviews progress so far and analyzes the difficulties that underlie the transfer and adaptation of community communications media in developing countries. The first chapter contains introductory material on the subject of community media and development and describes a participative model for using media in community development situations. The second chapter discusses the practice of community communications by defining objectives, presenting background information on present projects, and describing criteria for selecting community media. The third chapter examines three community development communications projects in detail to show the development of methods that suit particular tasks and the choice of media that suit particular conditions, and the fourth chapter offers an appropriate methodology for using media in community development, with implications for future projects. (RL)
The first comprehensive study of the Australian community radio sector at the turn of the millennium revealed insights into the contemporary operations of the sector, particularly in terms of its connections to communities, production of local content, and creation of a citizens media. It offered an analysis of the people working in community radio their training levels, skills, personal profile, career goals and so on. This article looks specifically at the processes of the formation of a community public sphere in Australia through the activities of around 25,000 volunteers and 4 million listeners each week in the sector across the country. It is particularly relevant in light of the recent trials and transmission of access radio in the United Kingdom, and the growth of community radio across Europe. As Australia was one of the few countries to legislate for community radio in the early 1970s, the experience and development of community radio here is relevant to the sector's global development. The discussion considers some early findings from the first qualitative audience study of the sector by the authors.
The Political Economy of Communication provides a thorough coverage of an important area of communication studies: the political economy approach to media. This highly successful text has been thoroughly updated, restructured and rewritten in this new edition, clearly demonstrating how power operates across all media, from newspapers to Facebook, and how media power intersects with globalization, social class, race, gender and surveillance. Key Features; Provides a summary of the field of political economy, looking at its history and major schools of thought; Highlights the work of key figures and differences that established the divide between economics and political economy; Explains the necessity of media students to understand the general political economy tradition and the way in which it informs the political economy of communication; Addresses the interdisciplinary nature of the field, with its links to economics, geography and sociology, and cultural and policy studies This book offers a unique overview of the field of political economy of communication and will be of use to upper level undergraduate and graduate students of media and communication.
The networks that comprise cyberspace were originally created at the behest of government agencies, military contractors, and allied educational institutions. Over the past generation or so, however, a growing number of these networks began to serve primarily corporate users. Under the sway of an expansionary market logic, the Internet began a political-economic transition toward what Dan Schiller calls "digital capitalism." Schiller traces these metamorphoses through three critically important and interlinked realms. Parts I and II deal with the overwhelmingly "neoliberal" or market-driven policies that influence and govern the telecommunications system and their empowerment of transnational corporations while at the same time exacerbating existing social inequalities. Part III shows how cyberspace offers uniquely supple instruments with which to cultivate and deepen consumerism on a transnational scale, especially among privileged groups. Finally, Part IV shows how digital capitalism has already overtaken education, placing it at the mercy of a proprietary market logic.
Research interview with 3CR volunteer programmer and committee member by Juliet Fox
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