RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

groups with an opportunity to relaunch the struggle to put an end to the government monopoly on radio and television broadcasting , and to denationalize this sector." However , tendencies to de-regulate radio and television in several European countries often cause tensions anđ conflicts with the state which wants to license radio in order to control it. Low-cost technology opened not only a way for alternative programming and rađio stations in developed countries , but also for the development of more traditional forms of radio broadcasting in underdevelopeđ countries . Although a humber of problems of the development of radio broadcasting (e.g. public vs . private ownership , forms of control and management, centralization vs . decentralization) seem to be rather similar in different cultural, political and economic settings, it woulđ be rather guestionable to limit the perspectives of radio to those currently dominating in the West and , thus , to đisregard functional non-equivalence of radio m different political, economic and communication systems . The importance of radio for the development of national and cultural identity , its role in multilingual and muitinational societies , cultural , educational and political functions of radio programs , and changes of communication policy (e.g. pressures to de-regulate radio) obviously depend not only on the (technological) development of radio (relative to other media) but primarily on specific social circumstances . Thus, it is a privilege to have several contributions to the Colloquium which concentrate on the problems of radio broadcasting in developing countries . 7 . A possible common denominator of the present stage of the development of rađio in theory and practice is the role of radio in the development of the (new) puhiic sphere in both capitalist anđ socialist societies. From the theoretical point of view , we may speak about a Kind of rediscovery of the significance of critical thought for communication theory and research - an idea which was partly discussed at the 1987 Colloquium on Communication and Culture m Dubrovmk and which certamly deserves a more ekhaustive elaboration. From the practical point of view , radio is closely related to the public sphere , particularly through the processes of đeregulation and development of l commumty radio' as ап alternative to pnvate (commercial) and state-owned rađio and other media. In western societies , radio owned ог controlled by the state is often labeled as public radio although , m the stnct sense , iT would be more ргореПу to assign this attnbute to the new class of 'alternative' media . However , it is more important to bear in mmd the đifferences in the role of radio between sociahst and capitalist systems , particularly m relation to the press . While m capitalist societies newspapers are , as a rule and often contrary to the electromc media, pnvately owned , m

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