ABSTRACT
The intent of this chapter is to shed light on how citizens’ media play roles as political subjects. Framed by Chantal Mouffe’s (1988, 1992) theories of radical democracy, ‘citizens’ media’ have been defined as media which help trigger processes leading to the transformation of individuals into citizens (Rodríguez, 2001). From a communication perspective, citizens’ media act as catalysts for processes of symbolic appropriation and re-coding of the environment and individuals. These processes help people develop identities strongly tied to local realities and deeply committed to new approaches to shaping the collective future of their communities. Citizens’ media open up communication spaces where individuals can use their own languages, signs and codes to re-name the world in their own terms. This appropriation of the naming process is fundamental to the transformation of individuals into citizens who shape their own futures (Rodríguez, 2001). Thus, in this sense, not all community media are citizens’ media; the term citizens’ media applies only to those media which facilitate the processes described here. In this chapter we aim to further develop the concept of ‘citizens’ media’ to
better reflect how, in certain cases, the medium itself becomes a political subject with agency. In addition to the role of these media as tools used by citizens to exert citizenship, the medium also becomes a social subject in itself. In other words, we try to see media as entities, or citizens, having the power to intervene in their communities’ political and cultural everyday life. We seek to present citizens’ media as social subjects participating in decision-making processes at local, regional and national levels, and as subjects playing a significant political role. With this purpose in mind, we will first describe the current Latin American
citizens’ media scene and then propose an elaboration on the concept of citizens’ media. We intend to emphasize the ways these media become social subjects by weaving their own networks of relationships. Finally, we will discuss a study exploring the way in which fifteen Colombian community radio stations practised this, weaving relationship networks to become citizen-like subjects.
