Articulations between citizenship and communication: experience of a citizen radio

Abstract

The purpose of the present work was to inquire into the notion and practice of citizenship that suggest the exercise of community radio. The research was based on a case study with a qualitative approach, in the north of Mexico. The theoretical framework was taken from Latin American communicational thinking, in particular from the contributions made by María Cristina Mata and studies about the community communication. The analysis of the results coincided effectively with Mata’s proposals: the station was formed as a space from which individuals could organize themselves, where they were constituted as political subjects and they created channels of dialogue with political power.

An identified challenge of the research is the effective use of narrative and organizational resources to visualize and mediate the different voices and themes that arise from the heterogeneity of citizenship and articulate them with the approach of respect for human rights and universal democratic values. The media that do not create conditions of diverse participation are likely to reproduce unilateral models of communication and not achieve the purposes of socializing a political culture.