Radical media are communication outlets that disperse action-oriented political agendas utilizing existing communication infrastructures and its supportive users. These types of media are differentiated from conventional mass communications through its progressive content, reformist culture, and democratic process of production and distribution.[1] Advocates support its alternative and oppositional view of mass media, arguing that conventional outlets are politically biased through their production and distribution.[2] However, there are some critics that exist in terms of validating the authenticity of the content, its political ideology, long-term perishability, and the social actions led by the media.[3]
The term "radical media" was introduced by John D. H. Downing in his 1984 study of rebellious communication and social movements emphasizing alternative media's political and goal-oriented activism.[3] Radical media manifests new social movements' individualistic, and humanistic socio-political model of disintermediation.[2] While the coverage of this term coincides with other branches of alternative media, namely tactical and activist media, it differs from conventional mass media in terms of its ideological and behavioural practices, making radical media significant in terms of its amplification of social movements. Downing describes Radical Media as being "generally small-scale and in many different forms, that express an alternative vision to hegemonic policies, and perspectives."[1][4] Hence, the term categorizes various forms of alternative media that are progressive, reformist and post-materialistic. Some media that are categorized by radical media include, but are not restricted to, community media, student media, tactical media, subcultural media, social movement media, citizen media, and alternative journalism. Groups that fall under radical media emphasize egalitarian channels characterized by inclusive, action-driven, prefigurative, and marginal practices that challenge conventional media.[1]
A 2010 protests as a part of Project Chanology.Indymedia collective at Mato Grosso Federal University in Cuiabá, Brazil hosting a free radio broadcast in 2004.Occupy the Dáil - We are the 99 per cent. Protesters outside the Oireachtas in Dublin, Republic of Ireland.
Prefigurative media
One way of investigating radical alternative media is through ‘active citizenship.’ Downing argues that its collective ownership, goals, and participation empower the media's political stance. While mass media lessens wider participation due to costly production, radical media provides a more democratic means of two-way communication.[1] Rodriguez’ phrase—“citizens’ media” further explains the development of empowered citizens through self-motivated participation. In her model, like Indymedia, collective participation through the reconstruction of media-ecology empowers “citizenship” and the community.[5] In this discourse, political cognition occurs naturally through self-education.
This non-hierarchical and self-reliant development of political consciousness exemplifies its anarchistic values, which in turn frees collective creation and “rebellious expression” leading to a more democratic means of communication when compared with mass media.[1] Like Downing, most who focus on its participatory discourse link disintermediation to “direct democracy." Radical self-reliant meaning-making will transform the representational politics’ distance from conventional powers.
However, neutral democratic mediation is arguably impossible: When examining the political significance, Lievrouw explores collisions between ‘Collaborative Behavioral’ theory viewing popular-driven social movements as “irrational and contagious behaviour,” and the ‘Resource Mobilization’ theory describing radical alternative media as socially rational and “communal goal driven."[2]
To address these contrasting arguments it is crucial to examine how these media develop ideologically and circulate. Radical alternative media manifests by New Social Movements’ individualistic, and humanistic socio-political model of disintermediation. In politics, collaborative journalism investigation enforces a “permanent campaign” that transforms audiences to investigative “citizen-jurors."[6] Downing explains the discourse with a “prefigurative politic” where media expression reflects their socio-political practice— “Committed speech."[1]
Modes
Participatory radio
Participatory community radio has been employed by radical media groups for easier access and participation by the wider public and to broadcast their alternative voices in one of the most traditional mass media. Similar to community access television, this mode of media serves geographically oriented communities and their localized interests. However, radio often attracts smaller or newer radical media groups than television, as the entrance barrier is a lot lower. Accessibility of the Internet also allows them to set up their broadcast more easily and broadens locality by serving a more global audience.
Community access television
Television as a means of communication has a significant role in effectively disseminating messages to a wide audiences. While many television broadcasts are privately owned and operated, governments around the world have legislated to foster democratized public-access television for non-commercial, alternative, and community oriented content productions.
With the diffusion of Internet access and affordable technologies, radical media has grown rapidly in the past decade. The democratic and instantaneous nature of the Internet, particularly Web 2.0, encouraged denaturalization of the conventional media ecology that used to be driven by media conglomerates, while allowing independent media producers to connect with the public as widely as their contestants.
The Internet allows for much faster and wider communication between media producers and their audience. The nature of this mode urges the appearance of an alternative and radical media ecology that reforms previously monopolized public media. This politically “pre-figurative” and action oriented participatory media activity on the Internet is evident in the revolutionary wave of civil riots in the Arab Spring. During the protests, social media was effectively used to communicate, organize, and stay connected with one another to stand against government repressions.
Online media also works as a great advantage to radical media groups for their financial, organizational, and community sustainability as it allows for broader access to lobbyists, members, and individuals.
Other cultural modes
Radical media is, however, not limited in technological means of communication. Downing argues that “the full spectrum of radical media in modern cultures includes a huge gamut of activities, from street theatre and murals to dance and song.” While audiences in conventional modes of media are perhaps more personalized, or domesticated, radical media often take form in cultural activisms in a public sphere, fostering a more active and independent audience.[7]
The political agenda that the media hold is often seen to be rooted in the early 20th century anarchistic political art movement, Dadaism, which rejects logical reasoning, forces irrationality and intuition.[8] While the early social movements focused on anti-war politics, the use of Dadaism in radical media is extended in order to critically illustrate opposing ideas of corporatism, institutionalism, and regulations.[9] To criticize the mainstream culture and politics, radical media employs situationist detournement that remixes and alters the existing mainstream media contents such as political campaign, commercial entertainment, and popular culture.
Criticism
While this idealized view may interpret radical media as sole utopian liberators, a bottom-up reversed hierarchy exists which excludes some—reflective to conventional media.[10] In addition, dependency on existing power structures is inevitable, as the technological production (i.e. hosting servers) is “within the walls of mainstreams” through hosting servers and when reaching out to wider audiences.[11] Further, radical media mainly take place in wealthy regions as the access is granted through possession of sudden info-communication technologies which are ‘taken-for-granted.’[12] Likewise, the physicality of facilitating extensive reciprocal communication and the limitation of accessing institutional information due to political stance can be other obstacles to radical media.
“Perishability”, on the other hand, is a persistent issue raised by both proponents and dissenters.[2] “Cultural contexts and meanings” change rapidly, accommodating the democratic needs and movement the public is demanding. Although the Internet has significantly contributed, independence of “idea circulation” is not guaranteed, as it lacks “reliable” sources of funding and technologies.[2]
Silverstone underlines the need to “understand how meanings emerge”[This quote needs a citation] in media and their interference through mediation. Along with the problems mentioned above, we tend to overlook the contextual reliability issues when focusing on its political significance.
Downing argues that radical media are politically “prefigurative,” openly displaying ideologies in a “populist manner” as an “activist tool.”[1][2] Thus, reliability is compromised by a subjective interpretation of ‘ordinary.’ Atton and Couldry explore the matter in comparison to its counterpart. While mass media establishes symbolic powers based on professionalism and its receptive-spectatorship, radical alternative media's reliability comes from audience's active engagement, ‘participatory-editorship,’ where audiences take part in shaping the story through interaction with the authors.[10]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Downing, John D. H.; Gil, Genève; Stein, Laura (2001). Radical media: rebellious communication and social movements (Newed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. ISBN0803956991.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Lievrouw, Leah A. (2009). Alternative and activist new media (Repr.ed.). Cambridge, UK: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN978-0745641843.
1 2 Atton, Chris (2002). Alternative media (Reprinted.ed.). London: SAGE. ISBN0761967710.
↑ Rodríguez, Clemencia (2011). Citizens' media against armed conflict: disrupting violence in Colombia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN978-0816665846.
1 2 Allen, G. (2013). Power to the people: the graphic design of the radical press and the rise of the counter-culture, 1964-1974. Power to the People - The Graphic Design: University of Chicago Press. ISBN978-0226424354.
↑ Holmes, Brian; Sholette, Gregory (September 2005). "Civil Disobedience as Art Art as Civil Disobedience: A Conversation Between Brian Holmes and Gregory Sholette". Art Papers Magazine. 29 (5): 28.
New media are communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for the influx of interactive CD-ROMs for entertainment and education. The new media technologies, sometimes known as Web 2.0, include a wide range of web-related communication tools such as blogs, wikis, online social networking, virtual worlds, and other social media platforms.
Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information." Similarly, Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism "as an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism". Jay Rosen offers a simpler definition: "When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another." The underlying principle of citizen journalism is that ordinary people, not professional journalists, can be the main creators and distributors of news. Citizen journalism should not be confused with community journalism or civic journalism, both of which are practiced by professional journalists; collaborative journalism, which is the practice of professional and non-professional journalists working together; and social journalism, which denotes a digital publication with a hybrid of professional and non-professional journalism.
Alternative media are media sources that differ from established or dominant types of media in terms of their content, production, or distribution. Sometimes the term independent media is used as a synonym, indicating independence from large media corporations, but this term is also used to indicate media enjoying freedom of the press and independence from government control. Alternative media does not refer to a specific format and may be inclusive of print, audio, film/video, online/digital and street art, among others. Some examples include the counter-culture zines of the 1960s, ethnic and indigenous media such as the First People's television network in Canada, and more recently online open publishing journalism sites such as Indymedia.
Media democracy is a democratic approach to media studies that advocates for the reform of mass media to strengthen public service broadcasting and develop participation in alternative media and citizen journalism in order to create a mass media system that informs and empowers all members of society and enhances democratic values.
Henry Jenkins III is an American media scholar and Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He also has a joint faculty appointment with the USC Rossier School of Education. Previously, Jenkins was the Peter de Florez Professor of Humanities as well as co-founder and co-director of the Comparative Media Studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has also served on the technical advisory board at ZeniMax Media, parent company of video game publisher Bethesda Softworks. In 2013, he was appointed to the board that selects the prestigious Peabody Award winners.
Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer flyers, posters, zines, pamphlets and books for sale or donation. Other items such as badges, locally produced artworks and T-shirts are also often available. Infoshops can also provide printing and copying facilities for people to produce their own literature or have a meeting space.
Social peer-to-peer processes are interactions with a peer-to-peer dynamic. These peers can be humans or computers. Peer-to-peer (P2P) is a term that originated from the popular concept of the P2P distributed computer application architecture which partitions tasks or workloads between peers. This application structure was popularized by file sharing systems like Napster, the first of its kind in the late 1990s.
Citizen media is content produced by private citizens who are not professional journalists. Citizen journalism, participatory media and democratic media are related principles.
Anthropology of media is an area of study within social or cultural anthropology that emphasizes ethnographic studies as a means of understanding producers, audiences, and other cultural and social aspects of mass media.
Democratic media is a form of media organization that strives to have the principles of democracy underlying not only the production of content, but also the organization of the entire project. Civic media is another term with similar concept and therefore can be used interchangeably in many contexts. The mission of the defunct Center for Civic Media of MIT is to design, create, deploy, and assess tools and processes that support and foster civic participation and the flow of information between and within communities, working at the intersection of participatory media and civic engagement.
Participatory media is communication media where the audience can play an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating content. Citizen / participatory journalism, citizen media, empowerment journalism and democratic media are related principles.
Clemencia Rodriguez is a Colombian US-based media and communication scholar recognized for her role in establishing and promoting the field of alternative media studies in English language media studies, notably through her work on 'citizens' media,' a term she coined in her 2001 book Fissures in the Mediascape and through co-founding and facilitating OURMedia/NUESTROSMedios, a global network of researchers and practitioners of alternative media, community media and citizens' media, currently the biggest network of its kind with over 500 members in over 40 countries.
In the sociological sense, recuperation is the process by which politically radical ideas and images are twisted, co-opted, absorbed, defused, incorporated, annexed or commodified within media culture and bourgeois society, and thus become interpreted through a neutralized, innocuous or more socially conventional perspective. More broadly, it may refer to the cultural appropriation of any subversive symbols or ideas by mainstream culture.
Prefigurative politics are the modes of organization and social relationships that strive to reflect the future society being sought by the group. According to Carl Boggs, who coined the term, the desire is to embody "within the ongoing political practice of a movement [...] those forms of social relations, decision-making, culture, and human experience that are the ultimate goal". Besides this definition, Leach also gave light to the definition of the concept stating that the term "refers to a political orientation based on the premise that the ends a social movement achieves are fundamentally shaped by the means it employs, and that movement should therefore do their best to choose means that embody or prefigure the kind of society they want to bring about". Prefigurativism is the attempt to enact prefigurative politics.
Participatory culture, an opposing concept to consumer culture, is a culture in which private individuals do not act as consumers only, but also as contributors or producers (prosumers). The term is most often applied to the production or creation of some type of published media.
Radical democracy is a type of democracy that advocates the radical extension of equality and liberty. Radical democracy is concerned with a radical extension of equality and freedom, following the idea that democracy is an unfinished, inclusive, continuous and reflexive process.
Brian D. Loader is currently Co-Director of the Centre for Political Youth Culture and Communication (CPAC) at the University of York, UK. Brian joined the Department of Sociology at York in January 2006 to pursue his scholarly interests into digital media communication and democratic governance. His overarching interest is in new media communications technologies, and the social, political and economic factors shaping their development and diffusion, and their implications for social, economic, political and cultural change. He has published widely in these areas and is the founding Editor of the international journal Information, Communication and Society whose aim and scope is to critically explore these issues in depth.
Dr Christopher Frank Atton is the retired Professor of Media and Culture in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University. His work focuses on Alternative Media where his contribution has concentrated on the notion of alternative media not as an essentialised political position but as a set of socio-cultural processes that redraw the boundaries of expert culture and media power. His research interests include popular music, the creative economy, infoshops, and teaching and learning in higher education. Atton has also written on censorship and media ethics.
Politics and technology encompasses concepts, mechanisms, personalities, efforts, and social movements that include, but are not necessarily limited to, the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs). Scholars have begun to explore how internet technologies influence political communication and participation, especially in terms of what is known as the public sphere.
Self-managed social centers, also known as autonomous social centers, are self-organized community centers in which anti-authoritarians put on voluntary activities. These autonomous spaces, often in multi-purpose venues affiliated with anarchism, can include bicycle workshops, infoshops, libraries, free schools, meeting spaces, free stores and concert venues. They often become political actors in their own right.
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