Salvatore Scifo

Community media in the context of European media policies

In the last three decades the emergence and development of community media across Europe has been mainly characterised by the political and social contexts at the national levels and, consequently, the sector is shaped by a range of opportunities and challenges that depend on the status of current policy, legislation and funding regimes in each country. Where at the pan-European level, since the 1970s, the Council of Europe has been supporting community media as a means for pluralism and diversity in the media, as well as a tool to promote social cohesion, in the European Union audiovisual and media policies, community media have been largely overlooked. In 2008 the Culture and Education Committee of the European Parliament promoted a report to support community media in the Union, signalling a new development pursuing to influence media policy discussion in the member states. This article aims to trace the contours of community medias route across European media policies to assess how its practice has been shaped so far and discuss the emerging issues that are likely to influence its near future.

Communication Rights as a Networking Reality: Community Radio in Europe

Historical accounts (Lewis & Booth, 1989; Prehn, 1992) explain that the term ‘community radio and television’ has been exported to Europe from the North American experience. The US radio stations established in the late 1940s (such as KPFA in Berkeley), the Challenge for Change programme promoted by the Canadian National Film Board and the (francophone) Quebec project Societe Nouvelle in the 1970s all inspired community media activists on the other side of the Atlantic.

Conference report: Community media at ECREA's ECC08

On 25-28 November 2008 the second European Communication Conference took place in Barcelona, bringing together media and communication researchers from across the continent. Hosted by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the event is co-organised by the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). Among the thematic sections of the Association, Radio Research, and Communication and Democracys panels discussed a wide range of recent research in the area of community media. The findings emerging from the presentations did highlight the contributions of community radio stations operating in Europe and Africa to the plurality of voices available at the local level and their empowering potential for social groups often underserved by mainstream media. Moreover, the discussed case studies in the areas of alternative and radical media did help to map out emerging practices of both progressive and conservative social movements, including television and internet-based platforms across Europe.