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- Volume 1, Issue 1, 2016
Journal of Alternative & Community Media - Volume 1, Issue 1, 2016
Volume 1, Issue 1, 2016
- Articles
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Communicative sovereignty in Latin America: The case of Radio Mundo Real
More LessCommunicative sovereignty is emerging as an anchoring concept for community and alternative media in Latin America. The usage of the term is often unclear, however, especially as it relates to the current historical juncture. This article therefore presents a detailed analysis of the work of RadioMundoReal.fm (RMR), a regional alternative news production and distribution service that supplies content to local community media outlets. Findings show that RMR makes national struggles and regional events more visible, but users feel it should support the construction of alternative ways of living and communicating. This suggests that the concept of communicative sovereignty, as it is evolving in Latin America, reflects shifting approaches to both expressions of authority and alternative media work. The challenge is to develop media strategies that support emerging goals.
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Community radio and peace-building in Kenya
More LessIn December 2007, violence broke out after the disputed general election in Kenya, which resulted in the death of 1100 Kenyans and left more than 660,000 displaced. Reports criticised media, especially vernacular media, for inflating the violence by using hate speech and incitement to violence, and suggested that Kenya would benefit from more community media to prevent history from repeating itself. This article focuses on how Koch FM and Pamoja FM, two community radio stations in Nairobi, Kenya, worked during the 2007–08 tumult and 2013 general election. The article is based on observations and interviews with community radio practitioners conducted between 2007 and 2013, and addresses the following questions: How do the community radio stations work during elections – times of increased tensions? How do they discourage ethnic violence in their community? How is participation used in order to bring unity to the community?
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An opposition newspaper under an oppressive regime: A critical analysis of The Daily News
More LessThis study focuses on the unprecedented ways in which newspaper journalism helped the cause of democratisation at the height of the economic and political governance crisis, also known as the ‘Zimbabwe Crisis’, from 1997 to 2010. The research is designed as a qualitative case study of The Daily News, an independent private newspaper. It was based on semi-structured interviews with respondents, who were mainly journalists and politicians living in Zimbabwe. The analytical lens of alternative media facilitates a construction of how The Daily News and its journalists experienced, reported, confronted and navigated state authoritarianism in a historical moment of political turmoil. The study discusses the complex relationships between the independent and privately owned press, the political opposition and civil society organisations. The research provides an original analysis of the operations of The Daily News and its journalists in the context of a highly undemocratic political moment. Some journalists crossed the floor to join civic and opposition forces in order to confront the state. The state responded through arrests and physical attacks against the journalists; however, journalists continued to work with opposition forces while the government enacted repressive media and security law to curtail coverage of the crisis.
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Introducing Community Audio Towers as an alternative to community radio in Uganda
More LessCommunity radio started as an alternative to commercial media. The need for an alternative was clear, with many societal voices unrepresented, indicating the domination of the means of mental production by a few. This article presents two communities in Uganda that use Community Audio Towers (CATs) as an alternative to community radio, and examines why the communities prefer the use of CATs to ‘mainstream’ community radio. Using data collected through observation at two sites in Uganda and 10 key informant interviews from major communication stakeholders, including Uganda’s Minister of Information and Communication Technology, the article presents findings indicating that CATs are self-sustaining, with no NGO influence, and they redefine news to mean local emergencies and occurrences, while having no structures (horizontal/vertical rhetoric) as they are started and run by one community member. The challenges of the new alternative media are also discussed.
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- Book Reviews
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Martínez Hermida, M. & Sierra Caballero, F. (eds) (2012). Comunicación y Desarrollo. Prácticas comunicativas y empoderamiento local [Communication and Development: Communicative Practices and Local Empowerment]. Barcelona: Gedisa
More LessReview of: Martínez Hermida, M. & Sierra Caballero, F. (eds) (2012). Comunicación y Desarrollo. Prácticas comunicativas y empoderamiento local [Communication and Development: Communicative Practices and Local Empowerment]. Barcelona: Gedisa.
ISBN 9 7884 9784 6912, 429 pp.
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Kitchin, Rob (2014). The Data Revolution: Big Data, Open Data, Data Infrastructures & Their Consequences
By Arne HintzReview of: Kitchin, Rob (2014). The Data Revolution: Big Data, Open Data, Data Infrastructures & Their Consequences. London: Sage. ISBN: 9 7814 4628 7484.
Elmer, Greg, Ganaele Langlois and Joanna Redden (eds) (2015). Compromised Data: From Social Media to Big Data. New York: Bloomsbury. ISBN: 9 7815 0130 6518.
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Robie, D (2014) Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Rights in the Pacific
More LessReview of: Robie, D (2014) Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Rights in the Pacific. Auckland: Little Island Press. ISBN 9 7818 7748 4254, 208 pp.
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