Abstract
Chiiki, tentatively rendered as"local community", has been an important keyword in the development of empirical communication studies in Japan. Since 1970s on, Chiiki Media ron, or"community media studies" has deliberately established the concept of chiiki Media, or"ccommunity media", as a sort of mass media with their readers/audience sharing the common experience of their geographical space. Those community media, often more public in their nature than merely being profit-seeking businesses, have been viewed and discussed from localistic perspectives. During 1980s, however, community media were often more commonly speculated from universal viewpoint of industrialism, in the framework of national governments' Chiiki Joho-ka, or"community informationization" policies, which promoted diffusion of various types of newly invented communication media. Recent academic discussion tends to emphasize the need of revisiting, renewing, and revitalizing localistic perspectives.
