Commentary and Debate

Abstract

In this article the differences between 'journalism in a democracy 9 and 'democratic journalism' are elaborated. Freedom of the press, it is argued, is not necessarily synonymous with democratic journalism. 'Journalism in a democracy 9 is something imposed upon a community, whereas 'democratic journalism 9 arises from it. Five steps derived from work around Participatory Democratic Communication are described in the context of community radio. This discussion leads to a number of policy and action statements relevant to persons involved in such small-scale media initiatives. IntroductionThe planning of new media systems, especially within social and political systems undergoing major transformations, is a daunting task. It not only requires the construction of the technological infrastructure necessary for the creation of such media, but, even more critically, it involves the desire and abilities of many people to take power for themselves to speak and to act, while this was not legitimated in the past. This is true not only for those who, in the past, were politically or economically disenfranchised from the formal systems of power, but also those who, traditionally, were socially and culturally silenced. It requires not only a restructuring of media systems within states, but also a rethinking of power relationships between people. Who gets to speak, and who gets to hear, and who gets to mediate these issues are as crucial in conceptualizing the planning for democratic media systems as is deciding where radio stations and transmitters are built and who gets to own them. This paper argues that there are differences between journalism in a democracy and democratic journalism. 1 Practitioners have been conceptualizing democratic media in a number of social, political and cultural contexts. When establishing democratic media, specifically community radio, in emerging democratic political systems, planners and practitioners in these media will confront a number of contentious issues: who gets to participate; how competing interests within a community will be mediated; how problems and action plans are identified and developed. Examples will be provided from the expe-Communications 24 (1999) 4