Editorial: discussing local and community media: positive experiences and impacts on societies

Abstract

This special issue of the Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, ambitiously subject to the title “Discussing local and community media: positive experiences and impacts on societies”, tries to emphasize the role of local media (press, radio, television and online) with audiences. Following several perspectives from different geographical contexts, all authors involved in this publication did stress out the relevance of local communication framework for communities, often left excluded from the mainstream media. As to globally describe the scientific purpose within the following pages, this special issue includes seven articles, written by 12 authors, from Portugal, Brazil, Ireland, England and Spain, reflecting on the abovementioned perspective, focusing mainly not only in the local radio scope, but also in digital and printed media. Before presenting the general grasp of the scientific outcomes of this issue, a visual approach (Figure 1) clinging on the most represented words by the authors in the abstracts provides insights of the possible approaches in the scientific texts.