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Community Journalism
Community Media
Defining Community Media
 Jankowski, one of the most cited scholars in electronically
mediated community journalism, used “community media”
as an all-encompassing term to refer to “a diverse range of
mediated forms of communication:
 Print media such as newspapers and magazines,
 Electronic media such as radio and television,
 Electronic network initiatives that embrace characteristics
of both traditional print and electronic media”
Defining Community Media
 The International Association of Media and
Communication Research (IAMCR) explain that
community media “originates, circulates and
resonates from the sphere of civil society.
 This is the field of media communication that exists
outside of the state and the market (often nongovernment and non-profit), yet which may interact
with both”
Defining Community Media
 Fuller’s (2007) definition of community media did not
seem as inclusive;
 She used “community media” to define electronic
media that is operated by citizens,
 Has roots in social justice movements of the 1960s in
North America,
 Has begun to take hold in developing nations through
the support of non-governmental organizations
(NGOs).
Defining Community Media
 Moore and Gillis definition: (2005) contrasted
community media with community journalism,
 Arguing that the latter defines a “process” of doing
journalism
 Which is similar to the advocacy style of journalism
espoused by scholars of civic or public journalism
Community Media
 By community media, it refers to grass roots or locally
oriented media access initiatives predicted on a
profound sense of dissatisfaction with mainstream
media form and content,
 Dedicated to the principles of free expression and
participatory democracy,
 Committed to enhancing community relations and
promoting community solidarity.
Community Media
 If those distinctions between the concepts of
community journalism and community media meant
only differences in the type of media channel, it
would be one thing,
 But those differences may also speak to differences in
the roles those media play in their communities—
 Differences based on those media’s organizational
structures, community relationships,
 and what they consider to be news values.
Characteristics of community media
 Jankowski defined the characteristics of community media
as:
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(a) Empowerment of the politically disenfranchised,
(b) shared, local ownership,
(c) Local content,
(d) Nonprofessional and volunteer ownership,
(e) Electronic distribution,
(f) Geographic distribution, and
(g) Noncommercial finance structure, although they might
also include sponsorship, advertising, and so forth.
Characteristics of community media
 Fuller did not draw on traditional community
journalism,
 Focusing instead on a style of alternative media that
is citizen driven.
 and focuses on providing a means by which
marginalized groups can participate in community
discourse and create their own community identity.
Characteristics of community media
 In many developing nations that have diverse
language groups and lower literacy rates, it is radio
that may do the work of defining community.
 In South Africa, for example, it’s been said that there
are more radios than there are mattresses.
Characteristics of community media
 Jankowski’s proposed that most of the research
examining community media to date falls into four
general themes:
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(a) Democratic processes,
(b) Cultural identity,
(c) The concept of “community,” and
(d) An “action perspective to communication”
Functions of community media
 To provide information transfer for giving community
members access to knowledge
 To watch the community environment
 To mobilize to direct people’s actions
 To establish networks for community members
 To establish community identity
 To create new value and culture
 To transform member’s experiences/problems into a
community’s common experiences/problems