Journal of Alternative & Community Media - Volume 4, Issue 3, 2019

This article focuses on the Wiwa community in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. This community has been reviving its traditional music as part of an effort to reconstruct its social network. Moreover, its members have recently embraced visual arts as a versatile medium in the context of the armed conflict. The local community of Siminke has started using visual tools not only to explicitly address their social and political issues on a regional level, but also to develop a new cultural space for self-expression and social (re)construction. Video and photography are being used here to preserve a cultural knowledge traditionally transmitted from generation to generation, a process disrupted by the armed conflict in the region. Methodology encompasses communicative methods such as interviews, visual analysis and photo-elicitation in order to understand and highlight the community’s internal perspective on the use of visual arts to reinforce their agency in pursuit of political goals.

This article discusses the intervention of the Colombian State in the development of indigenous radio stations, focusing on the case of the Misak and Nasa communities. As shown, these radio stations have had different contributions in these indigenous communities, such as forging a new generation of leaders, promoting their languages, and encouraging political mobilisation. However, these media projects have also brought new challenges for these communities, calling for a more careful consideration of the complexities of state intervention in community radio projects. This article contributes to a better understanding of the impact of state intervention in indigenous media, by focusing on three main features that illustrate some of the unintended consequences of these projects: 1) contradictory state legislation that, instead of empowering indigenous media projects, tamed their political potential; 2) the ‘natural’ role of radio stations as a ‘modern disruptors’ (Appadurai, 1996) that may have positives as well as negative consequence in the changes they generate in indigenous communities; and 3) the internal political struggles within these indigenous communities.

Rural US Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by digital divides, insufficient infrastructures, and health disparities, so that community radio still represents a key medium in the lean mediascapes of these communities. The first US radio stations licensed to American Indian/Alaska Native tribes began broadcasting in 1971, about 50 years after the rise of rural radio in the US, which until then had almost entirely ignored Indigenous news, concerns, and voices. This paper draws on interview data from 2016 fieldwork conducted in Alaska and Arizona with two community radio stations serving the local, mostly Indigenous audience, to highlight how its historical ties to social activism continue to play a role in how tribal radio functions as a medium today. Tribal radio stations value not only traditional journalistic standards, but also advocacy for the community, combating stereotypes, and view themselves as distinct from mainstream and other community media.

The political communication of the Chicana/o student movement of the 1960s and 1970s took place primarily through various forms of print media, with campus based student newspapers figuring prominently within that particular historical moment. At their peak, at least 48 Chicana/o student newspapers were produced on campuses throughout the country, marking these publications as both the principal and ideal format through which the flow of cultural and political information was channeled between movement publics, both on and off college campuses. Yet, the history of these publications has not been thoroughly documented, nor has the discursive legacy of this form of communicative resistance been fully examined. This paper provides a brief history of the emergence and significance of these student newspapers on campuses across the United States, focusing on how campus activists established this form of community media to help advocate on behalf of Chicana/o students and their broader publics.

This article presents ongoing findings of a larger research project oriented towards the analysis of counter-hegemonic narratives produced and shared in digital media by Haitian immigrants during 2015 and 2017. The analysis demonstrates how these narratives evidence racism experienced by these immigrants residing in Brazil. The analytical corpus is comprised of a selection of these media narratives as well as the examination of in-depth interviews conducted with Haitian immigrants in the Southeast, South and Mid-East areas of Brazil. Results show two dimensions in these narratives. On the one hand, the recognition and denunciation of racism marks the insertion and trajectory of Haitians in Brazil; on the other hand, the growing efforts for producing other representations in Haiti and Haitians in Brazil.

South Asians, making 11% of the total population of Metro Vancouver, have established a large number of ethnic media sources including exclusive 24/7 radio stations, several newspapers, magazines, and online media in different South Asian languages for their audience. This qualitative research study of ethnic media of South Asian communities living in Metro Vancouver, reveals that ethnic media, specifically radio, provided active media space for discussion and dialogue on crucial issues concerning their everyday life challenges as ‘immigrant communities’. According to the participants, ethnic media triggered political activism and awareness through their content, especially due to mainstream media’s failure of coverage or negative coverage of ethnic minorities. This qualitative study uses in-depth interviews with thirteen South Asian ethnic media practitioners including media owners, journalists, and anchorpersons, as well as focus group discussions with South Asian audiences in Metro Vancouver. The article discusses the role of South Asian ethnic media, as alternative media, in creating knowledge, engagement, civic and political awareness, and giving a participatory platform to raise the voices of their audiences.

Settlement presents a significant challenge for refugees compared to other migrants, given the forced, and often traumatic, nature of their resettlement, but despite this, many refugees arrive in Australia with the tools to positively face new challenges in their settlement and as a result have a very high chance of making a good life for themselves in Australia. This paper discusses the ways community media production can be utilised to investigate solutions to the resettlement challenges faced by young people of refugee background. It draws on findings from a pilot research project that involved young people with refugee experience in media and radio production, as well as broadcasting on an internet radio station at the University of South Australia. The findings suggest, preliminarily at least, that participation in community media can have a beneficial effect on a young person’s settlement experience, in line with perceptions of what constitutes ‘successful’ resettlement.