Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Around four million listeners in an average week tune into community radio stations around Australia, primarily to hear local news and information. It has created arguably the highest per capita listenership globally for a national community broadcasting sector. This article argues that community journalism is playing a crucial role in addressing the ‘democratic deficit’ by fostering citizen participation in public life in many different ways. This suggests the failure of mainstream – and so-called ‘citizen’ journalism practices – in many respects and emphasises the central place of audience research in understanding the nature of journalism’s multifarious ‘discursive formations’. It suggests that the nature of community journalism aligns it more closely with complex ‘local talk’ narratives that foster the meaning-making process at community level, playing a crucial role in recreating a ‘public conversation’ and a heightened sense of citizenship.

Keywords

alternative media citizen journalism citizenship community media democratic deficit journalism practice

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adam

(1989) Journalism knowledge and journalism practice: The problems of curriculum and research in university schools of journalism. Canadian Journal of Communication 14(2): 70–80.

Adam

(1993) Notes towards a Definition of Journalism: Understanding an Old Craft as an Art Form. The Poynter Papers: No. 2. St Petersburg: Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Alia

(2010) The New Media Nation: Indigenous Peoples and Global Communication. New York: Berghan Books.

Allan

Thorsen

(2009) Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives. New York: Peter Lang.

Anderson

(1984) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.

Atton

(2002) Alternative Media. London: Sage.

Australian Press Council (2006) State of the News Media Report. Australian Press Council. Available at: http://www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/ch07.html

Barker

(2008) The liberal foundations of environmentalism: Revisiting the Rockefeller-Ford connection. Capitalism Nature Socialism 19(2): 15–42.

Bovee

(1999) Discovering Journalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

10.

Carey

(1980) The university tradition in journalism education. Carleton University Review 2(6): 3–7.

11.

Carey

(1997) The press, public opinion, and public discourse: On the edge of the postmodern. In: Stryker Munson

Warren

(eds) J Carey: A Critical Reader. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

12.

CBOnline (2008) Value our Voices: Strengthen Community Broadcasting. Community Broadcasting Sector 2008/09 Federal Budget Submission. Available at: http://www.cbonline.org.au/media/ValueVoicesOct08amended.pdf (accessed 7 September 2010).

13.

Chand

(2004) Ethnic media and Fijian Indians in Sydney. Australian Journalism Review 26(1): 145–154.

14.

Chomsky

(1997) What makes mainstream media mainstream? Z Magazine, from a paper delivered to the Z Institute, June. Available at: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710--.htm

15.

Coben

(2005) Common sense or good sense? Ethnomathematics and the prospects for a Gramscian politics of adults’ mathematics education. Available at: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/csme/meas/papers/coben.html (accessed 13 September 2010).

16.

Couldry

Livingstone

Markham

(2010) Media Consumption and Public Engagement: Beyond the Presumption of Attention. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

17.

Davies

(2008) Flat Earth News. London: Chatto and Windus.

18.

Deuze

(2005) What is journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered. Journalism 6(4): 442–464.

19.

Deuze

(2006) Ethnic media, community media and participatory media. Journalism 7(3): 262–280.

20.

Deuze

Bruns

Neuberger

(2007) Preparing for an age of participatory news. Journalism Practice 1(3): 322–338.

21.

Downing

(2001) Radical Media: Rebellious Communication and Social Movements. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

22.

European Parliament (2008) The State of Community Media in the European Union. Policy department Structural and Cohesion Policies, Brussels. Available at: http://www.cmfe.eu/index.php?/the-state-of-community-media-in-the-european-union.html (accessed 10 September 2010).

23.

Ewart

(2002) Overlooked and underused: How Australia’s first public journalism project treated women and Indigenous people. Australian Journalism Review 24(1): 61–82.

24.

Ferguson

(1992) The mythology about globalisation. European Journal of Communication 7(1): 69–93.

25.

Föderl-Schmid

(2010) Keynote address by the Editor-in-chief, Der Standard, Austria. International World Press Freedom Day, University of Queensland, Australia, 4 May.

26.

Forde

(1997) A descriptive look at the public role of Australian independent alternative press. Asia Pacific Media Educator 3: 118–130.

27.

Forde

(1998) The development of the alternative press in Australia. Media International Australia 87: 114–133.

28.

Forde

(2011) Challenging the News: The Journalism of Alternative and Independent Media. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

29.

Forde

Foxwell

Meadows

(2003) Through the lens of the local: Public arena journalism in the Australian community broadcasting sector. Journalism 4(3): 317–342.

30.

Forde

Foxwell

Meadows

(2010) Developing Dialogues: Indigenous and Ethnic Community Broadcasting in Australia. London: Intellect.

31.

Forde

Meadows

Foxwell

(2002) Culture, Commitment, Community: The Australian Community Radio Sector. Brisbane: Griffith University. Available at: http://www.cbf.com.au/Content/templates/sector.asp?articleid=43andzoneid=13

32.

Gramsci

(1971) Selections from the Prison Notebooks. Trans. and ed. Hoare

Nowell Smith

. London: Lawrence and Wishart.

33.

Gramsci

(1988) The Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916–1935. Trans. and ed. Forgacs

. New York: Shocken Books.

34.

Grossberg

(1987) Critical theory and the politics of empirical research. In: Gurevitch

Levy

(eds) Mass Communication Review Yearbook 6. London: Sage.

35.

Grossberg

(1988) Putting the pop back into postmodernism. In: Ross

(ed.) Universal Abandon? The Politics of Postmodernism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

36.

Haas

Steiner

(2006) Public journalism: A reply to critics. Journalism 7(2): 238–254.

37.

Hackett

Carroll

(2006) Remaking Media: The Struggle to Democratize Public Communication. New York: Routledge.

38.

Hall

(1982) The rediscovery of ‘ideology’: Return of the repressed in media studies. In: Gurevitch

Bennett

Curran

Woollacott

(eds) Culture, Society and the Media. London: Methuen.

39.

Hall

(1992) Cultural studies and its theoretical legacies. In: Grossberg

Nelson

Treichler

(eds) Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge.

40.

Hamilton

(2004) All the News That’s Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms Information into News. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

41.

Holmes

(2010) More to journalism than he said, she said. I think. The Drum, ABC Online, 17 June. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/17/2929131.htm

42.

Howley

(2005) Community Media People, Places and Communication Technologies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

43.

Internet World Stats (2010) Internet Usage Statistics: The Internet Big Picture. Available at: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

44.

Katz

(1977) Can authentic cultures survive new media? Journal of Communication 27(2): 113–121.

45.

Lawson

(1987) The Archibald Paradox: A Strange Case of Authorship. Ringwood: Penguin.

46.

Lewis

Williams

Franklin

(2008) Four rumours and an explanation. Journalism Practice 2(1): 27–45.

47.

Lewis

(2008) Promoting Social Cohesion: The Role of Community Radio. Report prepared for the Council of Europe’s Group of Specialists on Media Diversity, Strasbourg, Council of Europe. Available at: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/standardsetting/media/doc/H-Inf(2008)013_en.pdf

48.

Lowrey

(2006) Mapping the journalism-blogging relationship. Journalism 7(4): 477–500.

49.

McCallum

(2003) Walking and talking reconciliation: An analysis of the role of local talk as a construction of public opinion on Indigenous issues in Australia. Australian Journal of Communication 40(3): 115–132.

50.

McCallum

(2007) Public Opinion about Indigenous Issues in Australia: Local Talk and Journalistic Practice. Australian Journalism Monographs 8. Brisbane: Griffith University.

51.

McChesney

(2003) The problem of journalism: A political economic contribution to an explanation of the crisis in contemporary US journalism. Journalism Studies 4(3): 299–329.

52.

McChesney

(2011) That was now but this is then: Walter Lippmann and the crisis of journalism. In: McChesney

Pickard

(eds) Will the Last Reporter Please Turn out the Lights: The Collapse of Journalism and What Can Be Done to Fix it. New York: New Press.

53.

McChesney

Pickard

(2011) Will the Last Reporter Please Turn out the Lights: The Collapse of Journalism and What Can Be Done to Fix it. New York: New Press.

54.

McNair Ingenuity (2004) Community Broadcasting Audience Survey. Available at: http://www.cbonline.org.au/index.cfm?pageId=44,149,2,0

55.

McNair Ingenuity (2006) Community Broadcasting Audience Survey. Available at: http://www.cbonline.org.au/index.cfm?pageId=44,149,2,0

56.

McNair Ingenuity (2008) Community Broadcasting Audience Survey. Available at: http://www.cbonline.org.au/index.cfm?pageId=44,0,1,0

57.

McNair Ingenuity (2010) Community Broadcasting Audience Survey. Available at: http://www.cbonline.org.au/index.cfm?pageId=44,184,3,2062

58.

Meadows

(2001) Voices in the Wilderness: Images of Aboriginal People in the Australian Media. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

59.

Meadows

Foxwell

(2008) Community Broadcasting and Mental Illness. Report for the Response Ability Academic Research Scheme, Centre for Public Culture and Ideas, Griffith University, Brisbane, October.

60.

Meadows

Foxwell

(2011) Community broadcasting and mental health: The role of local radio and television in enhancing emotional and social wellbeing. The Radio Journal 9(2): 89–106.

61.

Meadows

Forde

Ewart

Foxwell

(2007) Community Media Matters: An Audience Study of the Australian Community Broadcasting Sector. Brisbane: Griffith University.

62.

Meadows

Forde

Ewart

Foxwell

(2009) Making good sense: Transformative processes in community journalism. Journalism 10(2): 154–169.

63.

Meikle

Redden

(2011) News Online: Transformations and Continuities. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

64.

OECD (2010) The Evolution of News and the Internet. Working Party on the Information Economy, Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy, Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, 11 June. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/30/24/45559596.pdf

65.

Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism (2010) Community Journalism. Special Report, State of the News Media 2010. Available at: http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2010/specialreports_community_journalism.php

66.

Pickard

(2011) Revisiting the road not taken: A social democratic vision of the press. In: McChesney

Pickard

(eds) Will the Last Reporter Please Turn out the Lights: The Collapse of Journalism and What Can Be Done to Fix it. New York: New Press.

67.

Purcell

Rainie

Mitchell

Rosenstiel

Olmstead

(2010) Understanding the Participatory News Consumer. Pew Internet, Pew Research Center. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Online-News.aspx

68.

Readers Digest (2007) Professions: How They Scored. Available at: http://www.readersdigest.com.au/content/40144/

69.

Reese

Rutigliano

Hyun

Jeong

(2007) Mapping the blogosphere: Professional and citizen-based media in the global news arena. Journalism 8(3): 235–261.

70.

Robinson

(2006) The mission of the j-blog: Recapturing journalistic authority online. Journalism 7(1): 65–83.

71.

Rodriguez

(2001) Fissures in the Mediascape: An International Study of Citizens’ Media. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

72.

Rodriguez

(2009) Media poetics and cattle ranching: Making community radio relevant to language and power. Upstream Journal 22(3): 14–16.

73.

Rodriguez

Kidd

Stein

(eds) (2009) Making Our Media: Mapping Global Initiatives toward a Democratic Public Sphere. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

74.

Roth

Valaskakis

(1989) Aboriginal broadcasting in Canada: A case study in democratisation. In: Raboy

Bruck

(eds) Communication for and against Democracy. Montreal: Black Rose Books.

75.

Roy Morgan Research (2007a) Media Bias. Finding No. 4195, August. Available at: http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2007/4195/

76.

Roy Morgan Research (2007b) Television Remains Main Source of News and Current Affairs – NineMSN Leads the Way in Internet News. Finding No. 4182, June. Available at: http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2007/4182/

77.

Roy Morgan Research (2010) Image of Professions Survey 2010: Nurses Most Ethical for 16th Year in a Row; Car Salesmen still Least Ethical. Finding No. 4518. Available at: http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2010/4518/

78.

Schudson

(1998) The public journalism movement and its problems. In: Graber

McQuail

Norris

(eds) The Politics of News and the News of Politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

79.

Sydney Morning Herald (2007) Believe Me: I’m a Journo. Available at: http://blogs.smh.com.au/sit/archives/2007/08/credibility_believe_me_im_a_jo.html

80.

Tomaselli

Prinsloo

(1990) Video, realism, and class struggle: Theoretical lacunae and the problem of power. Continuum 3(2): 140–159.

81.

Tsagarousianou

(2004) Rethinking the concept of diaspora: Mobility, connectivity and communication in a globalised world. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 1(1): 52–66.

82.

Turkle

(2011) Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Ourselves. New York: Basic Books.

83.

Turner

(2005) Ending the Affair: The Decline of Television Current Affairs in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press.

84.

Usher

(2011) Professional journalists, hands off! Citizen journalism as civic responsibility. In: McChesney

Pickard

(eds) Will the Last Reporter Please Turn out the Lights: The Collapse of Journalism and What Can Be Done to Fix it. New York: New Press.

85.

Williams

(1977) Marxism and Literature. London: Oxford University Press.

86.

Young

(2009) The decline of traditional news and current affairs audiences in Australia. Media International Australia 131: 147–159.

Putting the citizen back into journalism

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References