Media and Civil Society

One of the focal points of CMCS research has been on civil society engagement with policy processes and participation in public discourse. In addition, the realm of community, alternative and civic media has long been a particular interest of CMCS researchers, dating back at least as far as its 2007 conference Broadcasting Community.

In collaboration with the Community Media Forum Europe and the World Association of Community Radio (AMARC), the CMCS supports research and activities to better network community media research on policy, practice, impact and sustainability. CMCS Executive Director Kate Coyer has published widely on community media, (co-)authoring a 2011 book chapter on Community Media in a Globalized World, a 2010 book chapter on Community Radio in Bosnia and Herzegovina (with Joost van Beek), a 2009 book chapter on Community Media: The Need for an Enabling Environment and a 2008 essay on Community Media: Scholarship, Policy Advocacy, and Power Tools for the Social Science Research Council. Kate is also the co-author of The Alternative Media Handbook (2007).

The CMCS participated in the research project CivicWeb: Young People, the Internet and Civic Participation, which was funded by the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme. In October 2010, the MIT's International Journal of Learning and Media (IJLM) published an article by CMCS’s Eva Bognar and CEU’s Judit Szakács called "Making Sense of Zhoriben: The Story of a Romani Social Networking Site in Hungary".

CMCS Research Director Public Policy Kristina Irion and CMCS Research Fellow (and former Program Director) Arne Hintz have both conducted research about the role of civil society in policy-making processes. Kristina wrote a journal article about The International Telecommunications Union and Civil Society and contributed to successive meetings of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Arne's book Civil Society Media and Global Governance: Intervening into the World Summit on the Information Society was published in 2009, and together with Stefania Milan he authored the article At the Margins of Internet governance: grassroots tech groups and communication policy. In 2011, Palgrave Macmillan published a book by CMCS Research Fellow Lina Dencik on Media and Global Civil Society.