This research is aimed at discussing the impact of participatory communication on empowering, increasing agency, and mobilizing citizenship that fosters social change. I conducted my fieldwork with a group of 21 youth (seven women and 14 men), with ages ranging from 15 to 30 years, who reside in Ataúro, Timor-Leste. This group participates in a community wall-newspaper founded in 2008. The methodologies applied were participant observation and qualitative interviews. The text is divided into three chapters; the first explores the societal structure and the constructing of youth, and the process of resignification of youth roles and identities from the work of young people in the community newspaper. In the following chapter, the internal dynamic of the newspaper group is analysed through the participatory communication framework, elaborating on empowerment processes and showing how this promotes changes and continuities in traditional structures. Finally, the last chapter looks at interactions of the group with their community and the way the negotiation between new and traditional practices develops. Youth are more empowered and the changes occurring throughout the participatory process suggest that ruptures and continuities between conserving and changing traditional practices, and the perception of ‘youth’ in the community, are occurring.

This research explores to what extent the community newspaper, Fourways Review, which is distributed to a geographically demarcated area in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, is fulfilling the community’s expectations; how community members use the newspaper and how Fourways Review’s community journalists define their roles. The research uses a qualitative approach to collect data through face-to-face, in-depth interviews with a sample of 30 community members and eight news team members; and one week of participant observation in the newsroom. Data is analysed through a constant comparative technique. The research finds Fourways Review is accepted in the community but is not as community-minded as a community newspaper should be, which affects how the community members use the publication. Community member respondents attribute the criticism to the influence of a market-driven approach to reporting. This is echoed by the news team respondents who say news production is influenced by community, advertising and inter-departmental pressures. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Studies)