 They serve as a third sector of the media apart from private and public media and are important in giving communities a platform to express their concerns for local issues, engaging in democratic debate and deliver a reliable access to information.However, there is no consensus on a definition as each region displays unique forms of community media.However community media is also mass media but it aims to a much smaller population unlike mainstream media

Community media can take all the forms of other conventional media, such as print, radio, television, Web-based and mixed media.