Conceptual Contributions of New Social Movements to Development Communication Research

Self-determination in practice: the critical making of indigenous media

“…What many UNESCO and other similar projects in communication and media for development seem to lack is a deeper understanding or reference to the social movements in which these projects are grounded, or a more profound acknowledgement of the key role of civic agency in social and cultural change. As Huesca (2001), Feek (2005), and Downing (2001) -among many others -suggest, studying social movements is critical to understanding the possibilities of alternative media practices. Initiatives that don't regard the importance of social movements will certainly appreciate the importance of tackling issues of cultural survival and recovery, but might not be able to dig deep into the politics of self-representation.…”

Conceptualizing Global Justice Audiences of Alternative Media: The Need for Power and Ideology in Performance Paradigms of Audience Research

“…As a whole these movements are typically known as the "anti-globalization" movement (Warcry, 2001) or the movement for "globalization from below" (Brecher, Costello, & Smith, 2000;Huesca, 2001). I find neither of these titles accurately portrays the movements, as the term "anti-globalization" would indicate that activists are against globalization.…”

“…The term "global justice" reflects these ideals as the term describes democratic participation in the globalization process. Global justice movements are representative of "new social movements"-different than movements of the past because global justice movements are a culmination of many different groups or movements which have come together for a common purpose (Huesca, 2001). This common purpose is typically to voice concem and outrage over the domination of globalization processes by corporate elites, and corporate abuses of human rights and democracy (Brecher, Costello, & Smith, 2000;Sassen, 1998;Starr, 2000).…”

“…As audiences of alternative media, global justice activists and protesters use media content which is rich in ideology and power issues. Past research on alternative media has focused on issues of production and dissemination (Atton, 2002;Downing, 2001), the framing of issues within social movements and in mainstream society (Atton, 2002;Huesca, 2001;Owens & Palmer, 2003), and explored the blurring of roles in alternative media-audiences as producers (Atton, 2002). Essentially, the study of alternative media has been largely disconnected from the study of audience performance.…”

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

“…To accomplish this task, we engaged in an empirical study of alternative media and alternative media audiences who are activists in social justice movements-movements that work to advocate for people who are economically, socially, or politically marginalized in local communities and global society (see Frey, 1998;Frey, Pearce, Pollock, Artz, & Murphy, 1996;Ryan, Carragee, & Schwerner, 1998). Social justice activists who are audiences of alternative media represent an important illustration of performances of resistance through the use of media (Atkinson, 2005a;Huesca, 2001). For the purposes of this essay, we defined alternative media as any media that are produced by noncommercial sources and that attempt to transform existing social roles and practices by critiquing and challenging power structures (see Atton, 2002;Downing, 2003;Downing, Ford, Gil, & Stein, 2001;Hebdige, 1979;Jakubowicz, 1991).…”