ABSTRACT
From the perspective of international research, it is not possible to give unequivocal definitions of the broadcast activity in the third media sector. Community media is the most commonly used term, but in a global perspective it includes a widely ranged diversity of terms and practices. A specific national or regional context often appears in the term, used in national languages. In Europe, for instance, we find ‘associatif’ and ‘libre’ (France and Italy), in Spain ‘comunitarias’ and in the five Nordic countries ‘lokal’ (local) and ‘near to you’/neighbourhood media. This diversity in national terminology reflects the specific legislative conditions, and the political, social and cultural contexts for locally based and often ‘alternative’ media (Rodríguez, 2001; Carpentier, Lie and Servaes, 2007; Howley, 2013).
