"Alternative media have historically been a central force in social change. Kenix argues, however, that they do not uniformly subvert the hierarchies of access that have always been fundamental to mainstream media. In fact, their journalistic norms and routines have always drawn on the professional
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standards of the mainstream. Through comparative analysis Kenix posits the perception of 'mainstream' and 'alternative' as a misconception arguing that they've always existed on the same continuum and continue to converge. Her vision recalibrates the media spectrum. This book examines alternative media while being cognizant that they are not situated completely outside the ideological mainstream, carrying distinctive identities excluded from entrenched, elite systems of power. The alternative media can - and do - construct distinct 'alternative communications' but they do so along a strikingly different continuum than hitherto envisaged. Kenix's text will tease out differences and similarities across a range of media. Examples will be drawn from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand." (Publisher description)
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"This book is an anthology of work by critical media scholars, media makers, and activists who are committed to advancing social justice. Topics addressed include but are not limited to international media activist projects such as the Right to Communication movement and its corollaries; the importa
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nce of listening and enacting policies that advance democratic media; regional and local media justice projects; explorations of the challenges the era of participatory media pose to public media; youth and minority media projects and activism; ethical dilemmas posed by attempts to democratize access to media tools; the continued marginalization of feminist perspectives in international policy venues; software freedom and intellectual property rights; video activism in both historical and contemporary contexts; internet strategies for defending dissenting voices; and five accounts by prominent scholar/activists of their lifelong struggles for media justice." (Publisher description)
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"This one-volume encyclopedia features around 250 essays on the varied experiences of social movement media over the planet in the 20th and 21st centuries [...] The guiding principles have been to ensure that experiences from the global South are given voice; that women are properly represented amon
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g contributors; that the wide spectrum of communication formats is included; that further reading is provided where relevant; and that some examples are provided of repressive social movement media, not exclusively progressive ones. Thematic essays address selected issues such as human rights media, indigenous peoples' media, and environmentalist media, and on key concepts widely used in the field such as alternative media, citizens' media, and community media. The encyclopedia engages with all communication media: broadcasting, print, cinema, the Internet, popular song, street theatre, graffiti, and dance." (Sage website)
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"This article examines e gao (online spoofs) as a popular form of political expression which has recently emerged on the Chinese internet. I first introduce a cultural approach to internet-mediated political communication that emphasizes discursive integration and the mutual constitution of communic
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ative activity and subjectivity. I then discuss how these two dimensions are configured in the specific media ecology in China with regard to the emergence of e gao. I will analyse the political implications of e gao through a close reading of the two most influential cases. Granted that these online spoofs neither qualify as rational debates aiming to achieve consensus nor have produced any visible policy consequences, but they constitute a significant component of civic culture that offers both political criticism and emotional bonding for all participants." (Abstract)
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"A rich and accessible overview of the ways in which activists, artists, and citizen groups around the world use new media and information technologies to gain visibility and voice, present alternative or marginal views, share their own DIY information systems and content, and otherwise resist, talk
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back to, or confront dominant media culture." (Publisher description)
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"El objetivo de la Guía es acompañar procesos de formación en teoría y técnica audiovisual, así como en comunicación alternativa, que permitan a colectivos sociales la realización de documentales sociales participativos. La Guía se inserta bajo el paraguas de la comunicación alternativa qu
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e defiende una mayor democratización y justicia social. La comunicación alternativa promueve el derecho a la comunicación para ejercer ciudadanía activa así como la necesidad de incorporar en los medios a la diversidad de voces procedentes del conjunto de sectores sociales. En este sentido, el documental social participativo es una herramienta concreta de comunicación alternativa que facilita el acceso de colectivos sociales al derecho a la comunicación con una calidad conveniente [...] Lo que pretende la Guía es sistematizar los conocimientos y nociones básicas para que estén al alcance de la persona formadora y/o del grupo. También recoge sugerencias acerca de cómo estructurar las formaciones y la realización del documental fruto de la experiencia de decenas de procesos de realización de documentales. Al juntar conocimientos y sugerencias, la Guía espera facilitar que diversos colectivos se embarquen en la experiencia de realizar su propio documental. La Guía se dirige a las personas que facilitan y acompañan los procesos de realización del documental social participativo y/o a los propios grupos. Contar con una persona formadora facilita mucho las cosas y la Guía le permitirá estructurar el proceso. Aunque un grupo también puede asumir el reto de realizar un documental de manera autónoma, es este caso, la Guía puede acompañarle." (Introducción)
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"With contributions from an international team of well-known experts, media activists, and promising young scholars, this comprehensive volume examines community-based media from theoretical, empirical, and practical perspectives. More than 30 original essays provide an incisive and timely analysis
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of the relationships between media and society, technology and culture, and communication and community. Key Features: provides vivid examples of community and alternative media initiatives from around the world; explores a wide range of media institutions, forms, and practices—community radio, participatory video, street newspapers, Independent Media Centers, and community informatics; offers cutting-edge analysis of community and alternative media with original essays from new, emerging, and established voices in the field; takes a multidimensional approach to community media studies by highlighting the social, economic, cultural, and political significance of alternative, independent, and community-oriented media organizations; enters the ongoing debates regarding the theory and practice of community media in a comprehensive and engaging fashion." (Publisher description)
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"This chapter examines journalism that is produced not by professionals but by those outside mainstream media organizations. Amateur media producers typically have little or no training or professional qualifi cations as journalists; they write and report from their position as citizens, as members
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of communities, as activists, as fans. This chapter will show how key writers in the subject area have understood the activities of these amateur journalists. The chapter places these activities in three categories: social movement media and citizens’ media; local alternative journalism; fanzines and blogs. It examines the major studies to show how different theoretical and ideological perspectives have infl uenced the nature of those studies." (Abstract)
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"The Yearbook 2009 focuses on youth as a generation of actors and citizens who are increasingly exposed to and making use of media/ICT for entertainment and informational purposes, for social networking and mobilization, and for knowledge sharing. At the core of this creativity and these innovative
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practices is media and information literacy. Young people’s competence in using media, their ability to produce, understand and interact with the multiplicity of both new and old media formats and technologies have been instrumental in the manifestation of social processes of change. This book seeks to explore theoretical assumptions as well as empirical evidence of media and information literacy in action. But it also gathers examples of how youth in developing countries have used their skills to bring about change." (Publisher description)
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"Die achtziger und neunziger Jahre bringen eine Blüte der Alternativbewegung. Thomas Daum wertet das 1981 im Katalog zur 6. Mainzer Minipressen Messe so: „Die Alternativbewegung zeichnet sich aus durch Offenheit und Vielfalt, sie kann andere, parallel laufende Bewegungen integrieren.“ Von nun a
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n wird aus der Gegenöffentlichkeit die neue Öffentlichkeit: Es reicht nicht, dagegen zu sein, man will für die eigenen Utopien überzeugen. Nach den Stadtzeitungen entstehen nicht kommerzielle Lokalradios, offene Kanäle, Foren, Communities und Plattformen im Internet. Was heute alternativ ist, kann morgen schon etabliert und kommerziell sein. Und das ist gerade der Reiz an der Sache. Adrian Reinert, Geschäftsführer der Stiftung Mitarbeit, sieht 2002 beim Forum „Die Bürgergesellschaft in der Diskussion“ rundum positive Aspekte alternativen Engagements: „Zivilgesellschaftliche Netzwerke tragen nicht nur wesentlich zur Bildung von Sozialkapital bei, sondern sind wichtige Lernorte politischen Lernens.“ Alternativmedien sind damit als neue Medien zum einen Medienalternativen und zum anderen Wegweiser für neue gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen. Der Alternative Medienpreis wird diese spannende Entwicklung begleiten, unterstützen, aber auch kritisch hinterfragen." (Vorwort, Seite 7-8)
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"A major limitation in the development and protection of people’s media in Thailand is the unstable and highly polarized political environment in which governments are short-lived and the constitution is not taken seriously as the fundamental law of the land. As a result, media have become tools i
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n larger political struggles. This analysis demonstrates that while several foundational elements necessary to promote people’s media are emerging in Thailand, others are still lacking. A clear understanding of people’s media as distinguished from both state and commercialmedia has recently gained strength. Yet, constitutional protections for people’s communication rights are nevertheless undermined by politicized media laws that in practice carry more weight than the constitution and prevent people from acting on their communication rights with confidence. This article explores these issues, and discusses two forms in which people’s media have found a space to operate – community radio and Internet-based people’s media. The analysis finds that while these media still find themselves struggling to survive a complex and constantly shifting policy environment, the basic concept of communication rights has taken hold, in the process providing lessons for people’s media elsewhere." (Abstract)
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"Lo que le vamos quitando a la guerra" documenta cómo en Colombia la guerra no lo es todo. Más que “divulgar” que la paz es mejor que la guerra, que “hacer actos de fe” sobre que los buenos somos más, que “vamos ganando la guerra” y demás obviedades políticas, mediáticas y académi
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cas… este texto documenta que la ciudadanía es experiencia. Y la comunicación es una experiencia de producir paz desde y en sí misma. Sólo que esta experiencia debe ser producida desde las estéticas y relatos que habitan la gente, no desde los códigos de la máquina mediática y la máquina del desarrollo. “Lo que le vamos quitando a la guerra” es más que medios, aquí hay experiencias de ciudadanía desde la comunicación de la gente. Más que teorías, aquí encontrará crónicas y testimonios de una nación que se teje con otros. Más que evaluar, presenta una metodología que produciendo memoria conoce; una investigación que produce conocimiento pero respondiendo las preguntas formuladas por los mismos actores de la comunicación local." (Presentación, página 3)
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"Alternative Journalism is the first book to investigate and analyse the diverse forms and genres of journalism that have arisen as challenges to mainstream news coverage. From the radical content of emancipatory media to the dizzying range of citizen journalist blogs and fanzine subcultures, this b
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ook charts the historical and cultural practices of this diverse and globalized phenomenon. This exploration goes to the heart of journalism itself, prompting a critical inquiry into the epistemology of news, the professional norms of objectivity, the elite basis of journalism and the hierarchical commerce of news production. In investigating the challenges to media power presented by alternative journalism, this book addresses not just the issues of politics and empowerment but also that of the journalism of popular culture and the everyday." (Publisher description)
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