"What really differentiates community media from their local commercial counterparts is that they see themselves, from their foundation, as part of the community. They do not just serve the community, or reflect the interests of the community, they engage directly with the community and the communit ... y engages directly with them – they are inseparable. It is not just about capturing the attention of listeners, it is about listening to the community, being part of the community by engaging in activities, amplifying the voices of diverse groups in the community, opening a space for volunteers to take part directly and indeed to manage and run the station. Most of all it is about contributing to the overall social benefit of the community, as part of and engaging with the wider local empowerment and development infrastructure. The bulk of this document comprises, in the long Annex, a diverse set of stories that describe, concretely, how the community and community stations interacting, in ways that benefit individuals and groups locally, and ultimately the community as a whole." (Page 1) more

"We present a Social Benefit Framework to help understand the kinds of benefits that, in principle, are generated by community radio. It goes through the distinct types, six in all, that have been identified by looking through the literature and research and talking to community radio stations and t ... heir organisation, CRAOL. As well as identifying the types, the Framework gives a summary indication of how a station actually achieved this benefit [...] The Framework thus describes types of benefits and examples of ways that specific community station actions – many of them unique to community radio - can contribute to each type. It is intended to be of practical use, and the next section Putting the Framework to Work gives a flavour of what it can do, but as part of the wider methodology developed in another part of this project. This briefly illustrates the main components of that methodology and where the stories fit in. After this, a more elaborate Theory of Change map is presented. This takes a further step, to look the wider logic and operations of a community station, and of the environment within which it is embedded, intersecting to enable the Station to bring about change. It is called a Theory of Change because it first looks at the overall objectives of a community station, and then, bearing in mind the challenges that it faces, it tries to map out the logical linkages and preconditions of how to get from the here and now, to the final objective sought i.e. to map out a theory of the how change can happen. In this case the final objective is to maximise the benefits that can be brought to the community by the Station, by means of the same six areas identified in the Framework [...] However, the real star of this report is the Stories from the Community Radio Sector. In researching and documenting these Stories, part of a wider process of developing a methodology to be able to measure social benefit of community radio the researcher was struck by two things when visiting radio stations: First how the station’s staff and volunteers would recount, often in passing, arresting anecdotes about people who have been in touch to thank them, and stories about how the Station engaged with all kinds of the amazing things going on in the community. And second, when pressed for detail, how little of this was actually documented." (Pages 6-7) more

"This research project was undertaken with the purpose of exploring the ways in which government mandated programme production schemes may contribute to the capacities and sustainability of the community radio sector. The study involved a critical policy analysis of the Irish Sound and Vision Scheme ... as well as an international comparative analysis of funding schemes as organised in five other jurisdictions [...] The five jurisdictions that were selected for comparison were Austria, Canada, Denmark, France and New Zealand. The choice of schemes was shaped by the ‘method of agreement’ principle, which allows for the selection of varied national contexts (political culture and longevity of scheme, etc.) combined with the relative comparative nature of the policy under consideration. It is important to note the structural differences between the funding schemes. In Denmark, France and Canada the schemes were initiated as dedicated community media/radio production funds and legislation and policy evolved accordingly. In Austria the scheme was legislated for and developed as a dedicated community broadcasting production fund alongside a dedicated fund for the commercial broadcasting sector. In New Zealand the scheme was legislated for as a generic ‘local content’ production fund (open to community, commercial and public television and radio broadcasters) and adapted to enable a dedicated funding policy for access/community radio production within the wider scheme. In Ireland the scheme originated from legislation for a ‘national content’ production fund, open to broadcasters (community, commercial and public) and independent producers. The scheme is ‘generic’ and open to all of these sectors and is thus not a dedicated community media scheme, nor does it contain a separate scheme for community media production funding." (Executive summary, pages v-vi) more