The document discusses the concept of community in community media. It provides several definitions of community from dictionaries as a social group sharing common characteristics, locality, government, or interests. Community media is defined as being operated in, for, about, and by the community. However, defining community is complex, as it can refer to a social unit of any size sharing a common identity, whether geographical, political, cultural, or virtual. The document concludes that community comprises both commonalities and unity among a group of people.

1. Commonwealth Educational
Media Centre for Asia
Who is a “Community” in
Community Media?
Dr Ankuran Dutta
Programme Officer
CEMCA, New Delhi

2. Concept of Community Media
 Community media is any tool of
communication that is made and
controlled by a community. The
characteristics differentiate community
media from commercial media, state
run media, or public media.

3. Concept of Community Media
“Community media are characterized by their
accountability to the communities they serve. They
emerge as a result of popular movements that strive to
attain an important space in citizen participation and
demand the right to own and operate free from political or
commercial interference.”- UNESCO
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/media-development/community-media/

4. The Question
Community media is one that is operated:
• in the community,
• for the community,
• about the community and
• by the community.
But, who is a community in community media?

5. Understanding Community
• What dictionaries define--.
• A group of people living in the same place or having a
particular characteristic in common (OUP)
• Montreal’s Italian community
• the gay community in London
• the scientific community
• A particular area or place considered together with its
inhabitants
• a rural community
• local communities.

6. Understanding Community
• What dictionaries define--.
• A social group of any size whose members reside in a specific
locality, share government, and often have a common cultural
and historical heritage.
• A social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common
characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as
distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it
exists
• Self-organized network of people with common agenda, cause,
or interest, who collaborate by sharing ideas, information, and
other resources.
• Virtual communities consist of participants in online
discussions on topics of mutual concern, or of those who
regularly visit some websites.

7. Understanding Community
“A community is a group that shares a
sufficient commonality of interests such that
its members are motivated to engage in
collective action”
-Brinkerhoff and Azfar 2006

8. Who is a community?
• A social unit of any size
• Having a particular characteristic in common or
that shares common values
• Having an identity, may be geographical,
political, economic, religious, cultural, or virtual

9. Understanding Community
Defining the term community is a complex concern,
with various diverging perspectives and outlooks.
How can we define the term 'community' in a
simplest yet most comprehensive way?
As we try to understand the term with a slightly
different approach it’s observed ‘community’
comprises of two distinct yet intricately imbibed
phrases- Common and Unity
(Common + Unity = Community)
http://comcomm.blogspot.in/

10. Understanding Community
Commons, simply refers to people or masses
Unity stands for the state or feature of being one, uniformity, being
in accord, harmony with one another or towards a particular
cause.
So, Community is a group of people with unification of some
specific genre, may be geographical, political, economic, cultural,
identity real or virtual.
For example, a Facebook or other social network’s community is
a virtual community. Similarly, the concept 'C3' finds its bases
primarily on geographical community. But it may also be identified
with socio-cultural identity!
http://comcomm.blogspot.in/

11. http://comcomm.blogspot.in/

12. References
• Community media - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_media
• Community media | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (n.d.). Retrieved January 24,
2015, from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/media-development/community-media/
• Community | Define Community at Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/community
• community: definition of community in Oxford dictionary (British & World English). (n.d.). Retrieved January 21,
2015, from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/community
• Dutta, A. (2014, October 12). Community Communications: Defining 'Community'. Retrieved from
http://comcomm.blogspot.in/2014/10/defining-community.html
• Gilani, S. K. (n.d.). Defining Community Media. Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://wpmu.mah.se/nmict122group2/defining-community-media/
• Meadows, M., Forde, S., Ewast, J., & Foxwell, K. (n.d.). An audience study of the Australian community
broadcasting sector. Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/239345/Susan-Ford-Community-Media-matters-Exec-Sum-
and-Chapt-1.pdf
• Mrutu, E. K. (n.d.). Development of Community Media. Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://sockom.helsinki.fi/commedia/MRUTHU%20COMMUNITY%20MEDIA.doc
• Rancovic, L. (2010, June 11). The Role of Community Media in Development. Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/the_role_of_community_media_in_development/
• Various forms of community media. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://www2.amk.fi/digma.fi/eetu/www.amk.fi/opintojaksot/0702010/1204871263088/1204871755653/12048718601
82/1204874765272.html
• What is community? definition and meaning. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/community.html
• Why Community Media? (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2015, from http://mcom.aimcy.eu/index.php/why-
community-media

13. Thank You
You may contact-
adutta@col.org
ankurandutta@gmail.com
Blog: comcomm.blogspot.in
Web: www.cemca.org.in