Community Media People, Places, and Communication Technologies

Combining original research with comparative and theoretical analysis, Kevin Howley examines a number of different community media such as radio, television, and print media, and looks at the way they impact on the lives of those who produce and consume them. He also addresses broader theoretical and philosophical issues such as the part community media can play in promoting participatory democracy and giving the socially and economically disadvantaged access to the public sphere.

While transnational conglomerates consolidate their control of the global mediascape, local communities struggle to create democratic media systems. This groundbreaking study of community media, first published in 2005, combines original research with comparative and theoretical analysis in an engaging and accessible style. Kevin Howley explores the different ways in which local communities come to make use of various technologies such as radio, television, print and computer networks for purposes of community communication and considers the ways these technologies shape, and are shaped by, the everyday lived experience of local populations. He also addresses broader theoretical and philosophical issues surrounding the relationship between communication and community, media systems and the public sphere. Case studies illustrate the pivotal role community media play in promoting cultural production and communicative democracy within and between local communities. This book will make a significant contribution to existing scholarship in media and cultural studies on alternative, participatory and community-based media.

Introduction; 1. Locating community media; 2. Tracing the global through the local: perspectives on community media; 3. Finding a spot on the dial: Firehouse Broadcasting from Bloomington, Indiana; 4. Downtown Community Television: cultural politics and technological form; 5. A poor people's press: Street Feat; 6. Victoria's Network: (re) imagining community in the information age; Conclusion; References.

This original and engaging 2005 study of community media combines original research with comparative and theoretical analysis. The author examines a number of different community media such as radio, television and print media and looks at the way they impact on the lives of those who produce and consume them.

Kevin Howley is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at DePauw University. He has published in a number of journals including the International Journal of Cultural Studies, the Journal of Film and Video, the Journal of Radio Studies and Ecumene.