Community radio in Ireland: "defeudalising" the public sphere
Gaynor, NiamhORCID: 0000-0001-5645-7032
(2014)
Community radio in Ireland: "defeudalising" the public sphere.
Javnost, 18
(3).
pp. 23-28.
ISSN 0163-660X
The growth in interest and research in community radio worldwide over the last few decades
is a welcome development. While, as noted by Jankowski (2003), a first generation of
research has been largely empirical in nature, describing and analysing the organisation and
operation of stations in different contexts, more recently a second generation of work has
begun to emerge which aims at grounding empirical studies within broader theoretical
frameworks, most notably those relating to democracy and the public sphere. The specific
components of the public sphere remain somewhat underdeveloped in these studies however.
This article aims to contribute to this literature through an examination of community radio in
Ireland within a framework drawn from evolving work the work of Habermas and associated
deliberative, social and media theorists. The article, drawing on a detailed study of four
community stations in Ireland, identifies elements of community radio which contribute
towards a “defeudalisation” of the public sphere as well as highlighting challenges in this
regard. Although situated within a specific context, with Irish community radio operating
within a comparable regulatory environment to both that in Australia and the United
Kingdom, the article draws lessons of specific interest to researchers and activists in these
domains, as well as offering a framework of use to community radio researchers interested in
examining the sector’s contribution to the re-animation of the public sphere more globally.