Community media and the third sector

The history of community media contains such extreme episodes because of its challenge to the dominant paradigm of broadcasting control. In this essay, I look at what it means to construct a separate media sphere for community use. The campaign for community media has been a battle for resources and legislative provision for nonprofit, accessible media outlets, designed to serve those who are not otherwise represented in the media. The 'third sector' of media requires laws and organisational structures significantly different from those of commercial and public service broadcasting. Of course, there is much more to community media than the policy limitations imposed upon them. Starting from the policy perspective, however, uncovers two broad themes: Firstly, it can help us to understand how community media fit within broader structures of the media and society. Secondly, digital media are radically altering the playing field in terms of community media's core principles: access and participation. The guidelines that determine what we have until recently thought of as 'community media' arose in the second half of the twentieth century when the broadcast media reigned. As the Internet becomes the dominant communicative platform, it is worth revisiting that history in order to determine whether community media is still a relevant concept