Alternative Media and Social Justice Movements: The Development of a Resistance Performance Paradigm of Audience Analysis

Abstract

This study examined the performances of social justice activists who were audiences of alternative media-media that are defined by their resistance to social and corporate power structures. Contemporary performance-oriented audience paradigms do not take into account power and ideology, which are integral to the content of alternative media. Through interviews with 27 social justice activists and qualitative analysis of the alternative media content that they used to gain information about social justice and corporations, we explored performances of alternative media audiences to develop a new performance-oriented audience paradigm. With the resulting data, we developed a resistance performance paradigm that accounts for (a) different critical worldviews and interactions of audiences with alternative media production within (b) intertwining ''theatres'' shaped by alternative media content, (c) which were coordinated by common visions and goals and separated by the differing themes in the alternative media content.

Activist Media and Biopolitics: Critical Media Interventions in the Age of Biopower

“…For instance, through qualitative content analysis of alternative media texts used by activists in a town called Mystical City, I searched for examples in which the producers of the texts described so-called enemies along with the alleged problems that they posed to society. The results of the analysis demonstrated that the alternative media used by those activists entailed overarching themes of 'human rights' and 'democracy'; for example, corporations (such as Enron) stood as enemies who threatened both human rights and democracy through their actions and their contributions to political candidates (Atkinson, 2005;Atkinson, 2010;Atkinson and Dougherty, 2006). My past RP research demonstrated the backdrop against which the Communicative Resistance was carried out in local communities.…”

“…RP has emerged from those efforts (Atkinson, 2005;Atkinson and Dougherty, 2006). The concept of RP focuses on the role of alternative media in the construction and co-performance of resistance against dominant power structures in local level communities.…”

“…In addition, we outline the difficulties scholars may face if they seek to fully utilize the concept of Resistance Performance in any future research concerning right-wing alternative media and organizations; these difficulties are based on our attempts to interview grass roots alternative media producers affiliated with various right-wing organizations. To illustrate the themes embedded within the narratives found in right-wing websites and publications, and used by self-proclaimed Tea Party activists, we applied the Resistance Performance perspective established in my past research (Atkinson, 2005;Atkinson and Dougherty, 2006). Within this particular essay, we looked to right-wing alternative media content that focuses on issues of religion and ethnicity, as those concepts most directly relate to the concept of biopower.…”

What Is Citizen Journalism?: A Critical Analysis from the Perspective of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation

“…Bolin (2012) suggests that ordinary people are capable of creating their own meaning of media content and of using it for a variety of purposes. Because the media tends to focus on a certain group of people, marginalising the rest, the marginalised people engaging in the news media often emerge as social activists, illustrating the performance of resistance to the rational media (Atkinson and Dougherty, 2006). Such resistances initiated by activists -who use alternative media to express their views -often lead to social justice movementsmovements that work to advocate for people who are economically, socially, or politically marginalised in their own communities and global societies (Frey 1998, cited in Atkinson and Dougherty, 2006).…”

Narrative Capacity, Resistance Performance, and the “Shape” of New Social Movement Networks

“…Such research has demonstrated how activists pass information framed within nebulous narratives characterized by themes such as ''be the media'' (Pickard, 2006a) or ''democracy'' (Atkinson & Dougherty, 2006) through the use of media produced exclusively within their networks. The narratives appeal to a range of activists, who can then merge together and construct short-term protest communities when those broad themes seem to be threatened (e.g., Best, 2005).…”