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In recent years, community radio stations have been mushrooming in Indonesia as a consequence of the democratization of the media system in post-Soeharto Indonesia. In Indonesia community radio is used by the civil society at grassroots level to empower people who have little opportunity to voice their interests. By providing a forum for capacity building, community radio enhances people’s participation in the decision making process.
Recently, the existence of community radio has been supported by new media. Internet and social media have demonstrated the strength of community radio. Activists of community radio have used blog, twitter and facebook to support their actions. By using the new media, activists can communicate and support each other in national scope. Working in networks, they can share their knowledge and experience. It is important for the existence of community radio within a situation which is not conducive for media of people at grassroots level. In this way, community radio accommodates the interests of marginal social groups and draws them into the public sphere. Community radio stations encourage diversity, challenging the tendency of commercial radio to erase diversity of contents and ownership through their conceptualising of audiences as markets.
This article is important to understand the way in which the Indonesian people’s movement creates grassroots democracy by using community radio as a tool for participating in social communication processes. To discuss its findings this article uses participatory communication and public sphere theories.
A case study is used in order to build a comprehensive picture of the use of new media and community radio in Indonesia as a tool for promoting participation of people.