While mainstream corporate and state media are growing in power and reach, they are increasingly contested by a wide range of alternative media. Contesting Media Power contains a series of studies of alternative media and their funding, practices, and often contradictory effects. Covering a broad array of media and locations, the collection attests to growing anti-corporate globalization movements and a promising proliferation of alternative forms, strategies, practices, and movements. Written by scholars and activists from around the world, this book provides state-of-the-art reports on media activism and alternative media.
Douglas Kellner, UCLA; author of Media Culture and Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy This collection helps move the discussion of alternative media away from abstract puffery toward concrete appraisals. Many of the essays are especially useful for bringing political assumptions to the surface—and for exploring new media that originate in less developed parts of the world. All in all, a vigorous step forward.
Todd Gitlin, Professor of culture, journalism and sociology, New York University Edited collections that bring together examples of alternative media are far from new but this one is substantially different and merits praise on several grounds. Of particular importance is the attempt to provide a comparative look at how media power is challenged in different places under different political and social conditions. I liked this book—it lifts the spirits while retaining a sense of political realism and critical evaluation. May there be more like it.
Natalie Fenton, Professor of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths University of London
European Journal Of Communication