Alternative media and public sphere: democracy and recognition in community radios in France and in Brazil

Abstract

This dissertation is about the role played by French associational radios and Brazilian community radios as public spaces including different action rationales and where there are political, social and cultural discourses from various genres such as informative and opinionative, especially for the latter. Such spaces are embedded by communicative and instrumental actions as of Habermas, manifest in the tensions and approximations between public and common spaces. Based upon a cross-case study from these media, the recognition process and the dynamics of the spaces are analyzed. Stemming from the way such radios work, it is possible to assess whether they are a locus for public debates, involving the community and favoring communication which addresses the common interest, or, to a large extent, social arenas for clientelist appeals and criticisms, fulfilling immediate needs from members from a particular locality. Data collection included unstructured and episodic interviews, radio programs, analysis of documents from 22 associational radios in the north of France and 15 community radios in the Federal District and surroundings. After that, for a more indepth study, five case studies in Brazil and five case studies in France were carried out.