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The Performance of Participation in Russian Alternative Media: Discourse, Materiality and Affect in Grassroots Media Production in Contemporary Russia

Kirill Filimonov

Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet, Doctoral Thesis (2021), 200 pp.

"This doctoral dissertation analyzes participation in alternative media, taking the reader to the Russia of the late 2010s. Bringing together discourse theory, media and communication studies and political theory, it approaches participation in media production through the lens of performativity. Th ... e conceptualization of participation as a performance helps explore the material, embodied and spatial enactments of discourses that sustain the fragile and unstable process of production. The data of this study comprise several months of participant observations, interviews with media producers, and textual analysis of media content. The research employs a case-study method and focuses on media that explicitly delegate their participants the right to co-decide on matters of content production and internal organizing process. The three cases under study are Russia’s oldest anarchist medium Avtonom, the student medium DOXA, and the web-based zine Discours. Data analysis integrates qualitative content analysis and a discourse-theoretical approach, informed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s discourse theory alongside its subsequent developments within the Essex School. The study looks into the distribution of power in alternative media amidst an internal diversity, material constraints, and an antagonistic relationship with the state. The analysis constructs a model of participation, which shows its embeddedness into multiple and partially overlapping communities. A vibrant sociality and the potential for a further expansion of the media communities emerge as two of the key conditions of the participatory process. Furthermore, participation is supported by an ongoing performance of a multiplicity of identities, in which the more elitist articulations of journalism are intertwined with some empowering and counterhegemonic notions of media production, media producers, and the audience. Retaining a critical-explanatory focus, the dissertation explores the limits of power-sharing, such as the persistence of journalistic professionalism, the scarce resources of the media and vulnerability inflicted by the state. The static representation of the state as the major confronting force reveals the paradoxical nature of social antagonism: while mobilizing the limited resources, it also reduces participatory intensities and triggers a politics of trust that restricts access to media production. This dissertation offers a number of theoretical and empirical contributions to several fields. Some of its key insights relate to participation beyond institutional politics, the hybridity of mainstream and alternative media, the interconnection of discourse, materiality and affect, and an empirical applicability of discourse theory." (Abstract) more

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Independent Journalism in Contexts of Shrinking Civic Space: Challenges and Strategies of Media Resisting Shrinking Civic Space in Europe
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Tim Schoot Uiterkamp (ed.)

Amsterdam: Free Press Unlimited (2021), 51 pp.

"In this study, we explore the challenges and strategies of independent media outlets in contexts of shrinking civic space. To this end, we present five case studies on a specific media outlets. These describe the overall political context for the media, the specific challenges that the respective m ... more

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Income Models of Independent Media in Difficult Contexts
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Evaline Schot

Free Press Unlimited (2020), 48 pp.

"Diversification with age: The media in this research are in a constant process of diversifying their revenue streams. Generally speaking, the longer a medium exists, the more income streams a medium has. This shows that diversification of income models takes time and patience. Donor funding remains ... more

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Chinese Independent Animation: Renegotiating Identity in Modern China

Wenhai Zhou

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2020), xii, 222 pp.

"This study of 'independent' animation opens up a quietly subversive and vibrant dimension of contemporary Chinese culture which, hitherto, has not received as much attention as dissident art or political activism. Scholarly interest in Chinese animation has increased over the last decade, with atte ... more

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The Public Sphere in Russia Between Authoritarianism and Liberation

Tatiana Weiser, Greg Yudin (eds.)

Javnost: The Public, volume 27, issue 1 (2020), pp. 2-96

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A revista Paz e Terra: Um lugar da memória da comunicação religiosa, ecumênica e política no Brasil

Magali do Nascimento Cunha

Horizonte: Revista de Estudos de Teologia e Ciências da Religião, volume 18, issue 56 (2020), pp. 513-541

"Este artigo tem por objetivo examinar a relevância de produções de contrainformação desenvolvidas durante a ditadura militar no Brasil por grupos religiosos. O objeto é a revista Paz e Terra, da Editora Civilização Brasileira nos anos 1960, como iniciativa ímpar no campo da comunicação r ... more

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Conveying Truth: Independent Media in Putin’s Russia

Ann Cooper

Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy (2020), 39 pp.

"This study examines the evolution of independent Russian media, from the glasnost era to the pandemic. It describes some of the pandemic coverage and identifies several of the newsrooms that gave Russians reliable, accountability journalism throughout the early months of the crisis. It may seem obv ... more

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Documenting Syria: Film-Making, Video Activism and Revolution

Josepha Ivanka Wessels

London et al.: Tauris (2019), xiv, 321 pp.

"Since the 1970s, Syrian cinema masters played a defining role in avant-garde filmmaking and political dissent against authoritarianism. After the outbreak of violence in 2011, an estimated 500,000 video clips were uploaded making it one of the first YouTubed revolutions in history. This book is the ... more

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Reporting on the Evacuation of Kefraya and Fu’aa: Constructive Journalism Frames in the Coverage of Emerging Syrian Media

Amira Galal, Evaline Schot, Natasha Milton (eds.)

Free Press Unlimited (2019), 15 pp.

"This study presents a snapshot of the framing used in reporting on Syria. To ensure a diverse representation, the sample includes a selection of domestic (Syrian) and pan-Arab media organisations, whose alleged preferences towards the dominant parties in the Syrian conflict are mixed. The findings ... more

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Dialogue Between Absentees? Liberation Radio Engages its Audiences, Namibia, 1978-1989

Robert Heinze

Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, volume 16, issue 2 (2019), pp. 489-510

"Liberation radios, the propaganda stations operated by the anti-Apartheid and anticolonial movements Southern Africa, provide us with a unique lens on the relationship between broadcasters and their audiences. Most importantly, they conceptualized audiences in a specific, two-pronged way to mobiliz ... more

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Cultural Dissent in Soviet Belarus (1968-1988): Intelligentsia, Samizdat and Nonconformist Discourses

Tatsiana Astrouskaya

Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag (2019), xv, 232 pp.

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A Clash of Cultures: Pirate Radio Convergence and Reception in Africa

Hayes Mawindi Mabweazara

In: The Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media

Chris Atton (ed.)

London; New York: Routledge, paperback ed. (2019), pp. 494-504

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Medios emergentes en Cuba: Desafíos, amenazas y oportunidades

Elaine Díaz Rodríguez

SembraMedia (2018)

"Surgieron entre 2001 y 2017, y ya son 14 los medios que toman relevancia dentro y fuera de la Isla. La mayoría de sus equipos no rebasa una docena de empleados, muchas veces voluntarios. Todos estos medios tienen periodistas que trabajan desde La Habana, pero el 50% tiene oficinas o redacciones en ... more

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Heterogeneity in Alternative Media Spheres: Oppositional Media and the Framing of Sectarianism in the Syrian Conflict

Yazan Badran, Kevin Smets

International Journal of Communication, volume 12 (2018), pp. 4229-4247

"The 2011 uprisings in the Middle East have deeply shaken the traditional media landscape in the region. They have also reinvigorated scholarly interest in the role of the media in the region’s conflicts. Alternative media has emerged as an important avenue for investigation—in particular with r ... more

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Behind the Screen: The Syrian Virtual Resistance

Billie Jeanne Brownlee

CyberOrient, volume 11, issue 2 (2017), pp. 4-34

"Six years have gone by since the political upheaval that swept through many Middle East and North African (MENA) countries begun. Syria was caught in the grip of this revolutionary moment, one that drove the country from a peaceful popular mobilisation to a deadly fratricide civil war with no appar ... more

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Online Activism in the Middle East: Political Power and Authoritarian Governments from Egypt to Kuwait

Jon Nordenson

London: Tauris (2017), xiv, 402 pp.

"This book provides empirical analysis of the day-to-day use of online platforms by activists in Egypt and Kuwait. The research evaluates the importance of online platforms for effecting change and establishes a specific framework for doing so. Egypt and Kuwait were chosen because, since the mid-200 ... more

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Digital Resistance in the Middle East: New Media Activism in Everyday Life

Deborah L. Wheeler

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2017), xi, 194 pp.

"This book argues that Internet diffusion and use in the Middle East enables meaningful micro-changes in citizens’ lives, even in states where no Arab Spring revolution occurred. Using ethnographic evidence and taking a comparative perspective, it presents a grass roots look at how new media use f ... more

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Emergent Voices and Evolving Agendas: Writing Realities in Cuba’s New Media Landscape

Mariela Morales-Suárez

Philadelphia, PA: Annenberg School for Communication, Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC) (2017), 25 pp.

"This paper aims to understand the motivations, decision-making processes, and missions of the producers of new Cuban media using interviews with journalists recruited from the wider group of twenty non-governmental publications. In ten semi-structured interviews, participants described their person ... more

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The death of B92: How it survived Milosevic’s authoritarianism but didn’t survive democracy

Dragan Stavljanin, Rade Veljanovski

International Journal of Digital Television, volume 8, issue 2 (2017), pp. 261-276

"This article examines how broadcaster B92, once the top-billed independent media in Serbia that resisted Milosevic’s authoritarianism, could not survive democracy. Although it withstood the crackdown and censorship of the war regime, it was eventually sunk by what could be considered ‘market ce ... more

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Money Under Fire: The Ethics of Revenue Generation for Oppositional News Outlets

Clare Cook

Ethical Space: the International Journal of Communication Ethics, volume 13, issue 2-3 (2016), pp. 66-80

"This paper critically assesses the ethical challenges not-for-profit oppositional news outlets face when generating revenues. Both media in exile (out-of-country news outlets feeding independent information into the country of origin) and those in restrictive environments (in-country providing coun ... more

Independent Journalism in Contexts of Shrinking Civic Space: Challenges and Strategies of Media Resisting Shrinking Civic Space in Europe Top Insights

Income Models of Independent Media in Difficult Contexts Top Insights

Independent Journalism in Contexts of Shrinking Civic Space: Challenges and Strategies of Media Resisting Shrinking Civic Space in Europe
Top Insights

Income Models of Independent Media in Difficult Contexts
Top Insights