"This study investigates a battle over music and identity at Radio Zapotitlán, a community radio station in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. An analysis of over 20 interviews with station organizers, volunteers and listeners conducted in 2009 and 2010 indicates that while organizers and older listener
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s celebrated Ranchera music as the station’s predominant musical content, younger listeners fought to broadcast contemporary Banda music. An historical and theoretical analysis of Ranchera music explores its cultural role in mediating experiences of migration and nostalgia. This study finds that Radio Zapotitlán organizers promoted Ranchera music in order to engage the national and transnational nostalgia of Zapotitlán’s displaced migrants, and to meet the expectations of government regulators and transnational nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). It concludes that local, regional, national and transnational interests cannot be disentangled in musical articulations of identity at Radio Zapotitlán." (Abstract)
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"The book discusses the socio-historical contexts which allowed community radio to thrive in India. It highlights its potential to create alternative spaces of representation, and opportunity and its importance in preserving and disseminating local knowledge and traditions. The author weaves togethe
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r ethnographic research and literature, as well as personal narratives and stories of those involved in the field. Further, the monograph critically examines the impact of development agendas on community projects and processes, discussing in detail the pervasiveness of the development discourse in every aspect of community radio and how it manifests on air. It also illustrates the limitations of community radio, within the context of its participation in the 'spectacle of development'." (Publisher description)
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"The two objectives that this compilation set for itself were documenting community radio best practices and creating a robust sector through knowledge sharing and collaborative learning. The 96 stories [from Bangladesh, India and Nepal] included in the compilation capture the various ways in which
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the diverse sector is identifying, prioritizing, and addressing concerns in the community’s vis-a-vis the SDGs. These stories describe the creative ways in which content has been developed by using the folk format, engaging the community through discussions, games, and cultural events, and innovative outreach activities. Further, they also highlight collaborations with local institutions and civic administrations and the way in which CRS’ core strengths like youth power especially in educational institutions are harnessed to provide inclusive community programming that truly provides a voice to the voiceless. Finally, the stories also highlight how social media and internet have been co-opted for a wider and on-demand access. The stories embody within them elements worthy of replication and emulation. Several community radio stations are already networking and sharing content and ideas. If these stories are also shared across content aggregation platforms and through the community radio networks, they could reach much wider audiences and initiate new conversations and exchange of ideas building a robust community of practice." (Way forward, page 34)
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"The COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown have made community radio broadcasting more important than before. Using case studies and interviews, we explored the kind of programming adopted by selected community radio (CR) stations in India during the pandemic and how they fight fake news. We
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also analyzed other issues they addressed during this period. We identified more dedicated programming services concerning COVID-19, fake news, and mental health using two-way communication by CR stations. The latter shared personalized and fact-checked information disseminated to the community. Issues related to rising domestic violence and mental health were also highlighted in their broadcast during the nationwide lockdown. Fake news percolated quickly in the communities where most members are illiterate and have little access to fact-checked information. CR stations indeed play a pivotal role in engaging the community in verifying fake news through personalized storytelling, using folk and traditional media, and engaging COVID-19 warriors from the community to authenticate the information." (Abstract)
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"As the most widespread and popular form of communication in the country, radio occupies an essential space in the deliberation and the construction of public opinion in South Africa. From just a few state-controlled stations during the apartheid era, there are now more than 100 radio stations, reac
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hing vast swathes of the population and providing an important space for citizens to air their views and take part in significant socio-economic and political issues of the country. The various contributors to this book demonstrate that whilst print and television media often serve elite interests and audiences, the low cost and flexibility of radio has helped it to create a ‘common’ space for national dialogue and deliberation. The book also investigates the ways in which digital technologies have enhanced the consumption of radio and produced a sense of imagined community for citizens, including those in marginalised communities and rural areas." (Publisher description)
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"The study aims to gather information and develop a better understanding of the community radio landscapes in different parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, in order to identify needs, opportunities and potential partners for developing a programme of support for community radio on the continent. The envisa
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ged programme of support should be based on a productive model that takes into account the range of circumstances in Sub-Saharan Africa, its subregions as well as the selected countries. This report presents a descriptive analysis of the community radio landscape in 11 francophone, lusophone and anglophone countries from West, East and Southern Africa." (Purpose of the study, page 12)
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"This chapter examines the role played by community radio in social change through the lens of participatory communication and locates it within the context of the globalization of media. At present, even though there are multiple media outlets, much of the grammar of creating content feeds into the
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production values of a globalized marketplace and to an oligopolistic control of media by big multinational companies, resulting in a democracy deficit. In this chapter we argue, through a conceptual and empirical survey of community radio in many countries, that to build a robust civil society that can effectively negotiate with those in power for inclusive development and sustainable social change, it is necessary to create decentralised and democratic discursive spaces that promote freedom of expression and equitable access to media. Community radio is one such institutional space that has been effectively used by historically marginalised groups to make their voices heard." (Abstract)
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"¿Qué papel tuvieron las radios comunitarias durante la pandemia? Los autores de esta publicación analizan el contexto y los desafíos de la comunicación popular en Ecuador. La infodemia, la proliferación de noticias falsas, las dificultades de los medios de comunicación tradicionales en llega
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r con información clave en la prevención de la enfermedad reactivó la importancia de las radios comunitarias. A través de ellas, en los lugares más apartados, sobre todo en la ruralidad, la población se enteró de las medidas de prevención, de las convocatorias para las pruebas de detección del virus e incluso de los decesos ocurridos a causa del Covid-19 en sus territorios. Así mismo, la radio ha tenido una importancia fundamental en la modalidad virtual de educación durante el confinamiento." (Descripción de la casa editorial)
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"Hacer comunicación participativa en Radio Vilardevoz es aprender a tomar la palabra, una palabra que ha sido encerrada y empastillada por ser considerada “delirante” o “falta de valor”. Aquí aprendemos que nuestra palabra vale y hacer radio nos permite buscar la forma de hacer llegar nues
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tro mensaje, informarnos, discutir y generar una posición colectiva. Como medio de comunicación, tenemos una intencionalidad política: liberar la locura de la enfermedad mental, cerrar los manicomios, visibilizar las condiciones de atención de la Salud Mental en Uruguay y desarrollar un dispositivo alternativo de psicología y comunicación participativa. Como radio, tenemos un proyecto comunicacional, que es la forma en que expresamos nuestros propósitos. Para esto contamos con espacios de discusión, de producción y de salida al aire. La producción radiofónica, desde una perspectiva comunitaria, supone pensar el modo en que traducimos nuestro Proyecto Político Comunicacional (PPC) en lenguaje de radio. Por eso en Vilardevoz estamos en producción permanente (se produce en los rincones del patio, en la fonoplatea, en los espacios del sábado de tarde), pero además, dentro de la radio, tenemos espacios diseñados para esa tarea. Es el caso del Taller de Producción y Sala de Redacción. La salida al aire en vivo se da los días sábados y tiene dos formatos. Desde las 9 a las 13 horas es una trasmisión con fonoplatea abierta. Esto le da características especiales a la trasmisión ya que se reciben visitas y se plantea una dinámica de diálogo entre las personas que realizan sus programas y las personas que concurren a la fonoplatea. Desde las 14 hasta las 17, la “tarde de Vilardevoz”, realizamos una salida al aire en estudio, a puertas cerradas y con programas más estructurados que se sostienen sábado a sábado." (Capítulo 1)
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"In 2020 Internews launched the Rooted in Trust project to counter rumors and misinformation about COVID-19. They commissioned Translators without Borders (TWB) to map community radio stations and investigate the language and translation challenges community radio broadcasters face when relaying off
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icial COVID-19 risk communication to their audience. To better understand these challenges, TWB conducted a survey and interviews with 65 community radio broadcasters, representing a quarter of all community radio stations across Afghanistan. Based on our survey, we mapped community radio stations and the reach of each radio signal to estimate overall radio coverage across the country. Where possible, we triangulated our findings with data from Internews’ Information Ecosystem Assessment in Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat. Community radio stations remain an important source of information, especially for rural populations, less literate individuals, and in remote provinces. During public health emergencies, broadcasters can turn into health communicators and support the relay of risk communication, but they face several challenges.
• Radio signals don’t cover all provinces: Based on the radio signals we were able to map, radio coverage doesn’t reach people equally across the country. Speakers of marginalized languages have especially limited access to radio broadcasts. Relative to population density, speakers of Turkmeni, Brahui, Balochi, and Uzbeki have especially limited access to radio broadcasts.
• Few broadcasts are in languages other than Dari and Pashto: Dari and Pashto are the main broadcasting languages, but not everyone understands them. Broadcasts in other languages are largely limited to adverts, short audio clips, and sporadic language mixing in talk shows and call-in shows. Dedicated programs providing in-depth information in another language are rare.
• Language barriers reduce the quality and timeliness of broadcasts: Community radio stations lack resources and translation capacity to broadcast in languages other than Dari or Pashto. As a result, some important information is delayed, and some is never broadcast at all. The quality and level of detail of broadcasts in other languages is also reduced.
• Broadcasters face difficulties accessing available information: Most community radio stations have limited access to the internet and experience electricity failures. This makes accessing and validating available information on COVID 19 extremely difficult. Also, background information is often passed to broadcasters in English, but with limited internet access this information can’t readily be translated.
• Information needs to be provided in plain language: Broadcasters don’t relay information that uses complicated language or technical and medical terms. New terms and complex new information around medical issues need to be rewritten and presented in plain language for a general audience. Yet community radio stations often can’t provide plain-language editing, so don’t relay more complex information." (Overview, page 1)
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"El artículo aborda las reconfiguraciones de la identidad política colectiva de las radios comunitarias, populares y alternativas argentinas desde su surgimiento en la década de 1980 hasta diciembre de 2015. Para eso se parte de la siguiente hipótesis: la Ley de Servicios de Comunicación Audiov
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isual de 2009 no sólo enfrentó a las radios a una nueva situación legal, sino también a la reconfiguración de las significaciones que las dotaron de identidad. El análisis político del discurso iniciado por Laclau y Mouffe es el enfoque desde el cual comprendemos las lógicas de constitución de la identidad política de las emisoras argentinas."(Resumen)
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"This doctoral dissertation analyzes participation in alternative media, taking the reader to the Russia of the late 2010s. Bringing together discourse theory, media and communication studies and political theory, it approaches participation in media production through the lens of performativity. Th
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e conceptualization of participation as a performance helps explore the material, embodied and spatial enactments of discourses that sustain the fragile and unstable process of production. The data of this study comprise several months of participant observations, interviews with media producers, and textual analysis of media content. The research employs a case-study method and focuses on media that explicitly delegate their participants the right to co-decide on matters of content production and internal organizing process. The three cases under study are Russia’s oldest anarchist medium Avtonom, the student medium DOXA, and the web-based zine Discours. Data analysis integrates qualitative content analysis and a discourse-theoretical approach, informed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory alongside its subsequent developments within the Essex School. The study looks into the distribution of power in alternative media amidst an internal diversity, material constraints, and an antagonistic relationship with the state. The analysis constructs a model of participation, which shows its embeddedness into multiple and partially overlapping communities. A vibrant sociality and the potential for a further expansion of the media communities emerge as two of the key conditions of the participatory process. Furthermore, participation is supported by an ongoing performance of a multiplicity of identities, in which the more elitist articulations of journalism are intertwined with some empowering and counterhegemonic notions of media production, media producers, and the audience. Retaining a critical-explanatory focus, the dissertation explores the limits of power-sharing, such as the persistence of journalistic professionalism, the scarce resources of the media and vulnerability inflicted by the state. The static representation of the state as the major confronting force reveals the paradoxical nature of social antagonism: while mobilizing the limited resources, it also reduces participatory intensities and triggers a politics of trust that restricts access to media production. This dissertation offers a number of theoretical and empirical contributions to several fields. Some of its key insights relate to participation beyond institutional politics, the hybridity of mainstream and alternative media, the interconnection of discourse, materiality and affect, and an empirical applicability of discourse theory." (Abstract)
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"Este volumen tiene como objetivo crear un espacio transdisciplinario y abrir un diálogo crítico en torno a las posibilidades de la representación del subalterno en la edición cartonera. El fenómeno de las editoriales cartoneras surge en el contexto de la poscrisis en Argentina, cuando un grupo
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de artistas decide producir libros por su propia cuenta, con tapas de cartón reciclado, involucrar a los cartoneros —personas que colectan cartón en las calles para venderlo—, y así dar vida al proyecto “Eloísa Cartonera”. Este modelo de editorial alternativa y artesanal proliferó de manera impresionante en América Latina y fue incluso asociado —desde la academia— con una democratización y desjerarquización cultural. En un formato híbrido que reúne tanto contribuciones académicas como testimonios directos de los editores de cartoneras, esta colección invita a conocer a algunos de estos proyectos y reflexionar sobre su papel en el discurso dominante de la academia." (Editorial)
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"La comunicación alternativa –también denominada comunitaria, libre, ciudadana, del tercer sector o para el cambio social– es percibida como una hermana menor en las ciencias de la comunicación hasta padecer una triple invisibilización: en la historia social del campo, en relación con los m
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edios públicos y comerciales, y en las propias teorías de la comunicación. Desde esta premisa, el presente volumen se adentra en su conceptualización y en sus principales hitos, debates y prácticas en España desde la Transición democrática hasta la actualidad y poniendo el foco en distintos soportes mediáticos: desde la radio comunitaria al vídeo participativo y el activismo digital." (Cubierta del libro)
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"There is a growing public and academic debate on the societal impacts of the internet and, in particular, social media. For its proponents, social media is a force for change, which can challenge entrenched hierarchies, redistribute power, democratize information, support mass mobilization and cont
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ribute to the building of global movements. Increasingly such positivist arguments are being questioned. Critics argue that it has become a sinister force, facilitating the spread of ‘fake news’, providing an instrument for citizen surveillance and re-enforcing neoliberal hegemony. The community development literature has barely engaged in those debates around social media that appear urgent in other disciplines. Social media has been seen as a value-free tool for broadcasting and dissemination, and neither evaluated as a force for change nor examined as an instrument of neoliberal intents. Although there is a community development literature on neoliberalism and globalization, it often accepts these, rather than critiques them, as the contexts within which community development operates. Challenging established power imbalances and enhancing citizen participation in democratic processes are purposes central to community development values. Analysis of wider literature raises questions with regard to the values embedded in the technologies from which enhanced levels of participation and engagement are expected to flow. It also raises questions about who benefits most from the affordances of these technologies. This article, drawing on an extensive literature review, presents the case for community development values to be asserted in these debates." (Abstract)
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"'Listening in' analyses political voice and political listening against the backdrop of the media diversity debates. We focus on community media in Australia with its’ stated commitments to media diversity and to amplifying voices that are rarely heard in the mainstream. We ask to what extent the
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political voice enabled by community and alternative media is heard by decision-makers and opinion leaders in key democratic institutions of government and media." (Introduction, page 7)
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