Community Media and Participation: Theoretical discussion with cases from St. Petersburg

This thesis presents a theoretical framework for the study of community media. Communicative actions performed by social and civic organizations are discussed in an attempt to define whether or not these activities can be considered community media. Selected non-governmental organizations from St. Petersburg serve as illustrative cases. The central question is whether or not any symbolic actions of social and civic actors can be considered community media This research is mostly a theoretical effort to locate non-governmental actions within a framework for in-depth media studies. With that in mind, democracy is understood in radical pluralistic democratic terms as a terrain for a multitude of social struggles where each collective action is built through discourse. Under these circumstances, community media are spaces and results of symbols and practices that may cause mobilization and forge social identities. These processes present different levels of participation that can be used as indicators of how effective these actions are. For the development of the analysis, community media are perceived as an articulated circuit. Its three moments ? production, message and reception ? can be scrutinized separately, in their interfaces and/or as an entire process. The empirical data was used to demonstrate the applicability of this framework.ok The illustrative data was collected in St. Petersburg in April 2009. From a factist perspective, non-structured interviews were conducted with four representatives of three non-governmental organizations. Only one of the cases could be considered real community media. The two remaining cases were there merely to illustrate non-participation levels. The identification of different participatory levels in the same case studies suggested that participation does not determine what community media are. Consequently, the main contribution of this study is to present a theoretical framework that can be applied as a tool for further research and generate both practical and analytical results. For practitioners, the measurement of levels of participation can be used as a performance indicator. For media scholars, the participatory issue is a gateway to in-depth investigations of the community media process. The understanding of community media as an articulated circuit opens up a range of possible qualitative approaches as soon as the participatory levels are disclosed. Among other themes, researchers can scrutinize the symbolic construction of the messages, the interpersonal relations and conflicts among participants and non-participants and the effects of the media employed. These studies can provide rich knowledge to support the relevance of strategic plans for the formation, maintenance and success of social and civic groups. Ultimately, community media researchers may effectively contribute to transformations in socio-political life. Asiasanat:COMMUNITY MEDIA, PARTICIPATION, COMMUNICATION, DEMOCRACY, NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, ARTICULATION, RADICAL PLURAL DEMOCRAC