This book investigates the fundamental tenets of community radio as a movement through an examination of the experiences of six contemporary Irish community radio stations. The recent development of a strong community radio movement in Ireland provides a wealth of concrete experience which informs new insights into both the theory and the practice of community broadcasting generally. Ten years of academic research, illustrated by examples presented in the words of community radio activists, enables an examination of the following crucial issues: the concept of community and its construction through communication; the role and meaning of public participation in a mass medium; and the creation of the multi-flows of communication.Recent calls for theoretical perspectives on community media illustrate a gap in academic literature, which this book addresses. Current interest in new media, radical media, the human right to communicate, public sphere theory and New Social Movements raise questions that the experience of Irish community radio may help to answer. New frameworks for the evaluation of community broadcasters on their own terms are offered and those should provide useful to community media activists and researchers alike.

This book investigates the fundamental tenets of community radio as a movement through an examination of the experiences of six contemporary Irish community radio stations. The recent development of a strong community radio movement in Ireland provides a wealth of concrete experience which informs new insights into both the theory and the practice of community broadcasting generally. Ten years of academic research, illustrated by examples presented in the words of community radio activists, enables an examination of the following crucial issues: the concept of community and its construction through communication; the role and meaning of public participation in a mass medium; and, the creation of the multi-flows of communication.Recent calls for theoretical perspectives on community media illustrate a gap in academic literature, which this book addresses. Current interest in new media, radical media, the human right to communicate, public sphere theory and New Social Movements raise questions that the experience of Irish community radio may help to answer. New frameworks for the evaluation of community broadcasters on their own terms are offered and those should provide useful to community media activists and researchers alike.