Community Media

本編「調査のねらい」を下記に示す。

この「アメリカの市民メディア2010」調査報告書は、2010年9月13日～9月17日にかけて、アメリカのワシントンDCとニューヨークにある“市民メディア”関連団体を、日本でそれぞれ市民メディアの領域に関わってきた下記のメンバーが、共同で訪問調査した結果の概要である。
激変する情報・メディア環境を背景に、既存のマスメディアの経営はきわめてきびしくなっており、アメリカでは巨大通信企業の急激な繁殖とは裏腹に新聞社の倒産が相次ぎ、他方パブリック・アクセス（ケーブルテレビでの市民放送局）も危機に立っていると報じられている。日本でも政府やマスメディアの情報の信頼性がゆらぎはじめ、一般市民や地域住民のニーズに応えられなくなっていきている。市民・住民・NPOは、ウェブサイト、ブログ、ツイッター、SNS、ユーチューブなどでさかんに発信しはじめている。
そうした中で、公共的な共同空間をもつ市民メディア（コミュニティメディア、オルタナティブメディア）の役割が期待されつつも、なかなか大きく広がっていかない。政権交代はあったものの、メディア政策は一向に変わらないという状況の中で、参加メンバーの共通の問題意識は、メディア民主主義やパブリック・アクセスの“先進地”であったアメリカの市民メディアの現在/未来を率直に知りたい、ということであった。具体的には以下を想定して、短い日程での調査候補を絞っていった。
（1） ケーブルテレビでの市民のメディア制作やパブリック・アクセスセンターの実態
（2） ケーブル以外の独立系/市民メディアの理念や活動実態、今後の課題
（3） メディア教育、メディアによるエンパワー団体の理念や活動実態
（4） メディア・リフォーム運動の理念や活動実態
（5） メディアの民主化と市民的公共圏についての理論

調査団員  池田佳代（NPO OurPlanet-TV）, 川島隆（滋賀大学経済学部特任講師）, 白石草（NPO OurPlanet-TV）, 宗田勝也（NPO 難民ナウ！）, 津田正夫（立命館大学産業社会学部特任教授）
コーディネータ＆通訳  藤原広美（ニューヨーク大学大学院）
通訳  竹村朋子（立命館大学大学院社会学研究科）
協力  金山勉 （立命館大学産業社会学部教授）, 溝口尚美（ダウンタウン・コミュニティ・テレビジョン･センター DCTV）,  松浦哲郎（龍谷大学社会学部講師）

가짜뉴스는 허위정보, 왜곡보도라는 저널리즘의 영역에 국한되어서는 안된다. 본질은 뉴스, 정보라는 진실의 외피를 쓰고 소수자를 몰아 넣고 소멸시키려고 하는 그 의도, 개인과 공동체를 적대시하며 혐오로서만 존재하게 하는 악의적 선동으로서의 효과와 관련이 되어야 한다. 가짜뉴스는 사건의 징후도 아니다. 오히려 사건의 결과이다. 차별적 선동이 일부에 의해 이제는 윤리적으로 절대적 악이 아니라는 믿음이 세상밖으로 그 실체를 드러낸 것이며 그 이전부터 지속되어 온 차별과 배제 담론의 실효적인 정치적 권력화를 시작하겠다는 의지의 공표이다. 이 글은 최근의 가짜뉴스, 혐오표현에 대한 사회적 논의가 뉴스와 표현이라는 순전히 미디어커뮤니케이션의 현상속에서만 파악됨으로써, 이것들의 본질적인 이념과 가치와 방식 및 그것의 효과에 대한 논의가 부재하여 그 간극을 조금이라도 채우기 위해 작성하였다.

More than 850 million people in developing countries are excluded from a wide range of information and knowledge, with the rural poor in particular remaining isolated from both traditional media and new information and communication technologies, which would improve their livelihoods and development pattern (FAO, 2001).Considering the sociocultural and geographical structure of rural, remote people community radio has been found more effective and inclusive medium to provide equitable information and knowledge among the masses. The aim of this article is to analyze the contribution of community radio (henceforth CR) movement for conscientization and development of deprived rural people in various parts of world in general and south Asia (India) in particular. The analysis indicates that the community radio movement has created grassroots-level participation and horizontal circulation of ideas among the deprived rural communities, which are necessary pre-conditions to democratization...

본 연구는 내용중심적인 측면이나 매체중심적인 논의에서 벗어나, 공동체미디어 실천의 존재론적인 조건인 구체적인/물리적인 삶의 공간 속에 공동체미디어 실천을 포지셔닝 하고, 장기간의 참여관찰과 심층인터뷰를 중심으로 한 현장연구를 통해 공동체미디어 실천을 공동체의 형성이라는 관점에서 다각적으로 고찰해 보고자 시도하였다. 연구 결과, 참여자들은 공동체미디어 실천을 계기로 또는 공동체미디어 실천 과정을 경유하면서 공동체적 감수성을 환기하게 되는 정서적 변화를 경험하고 있음을 알 수 있었다. 연구과정에서 공동체미디어 실천의 범주를 확장시켜 다각도에서 살펴볼 필요가 있음을 파악하게 되었고, 공동체적 삶을 엮어내는 플랫폼으로서 공동체미디어의 가능성/잠재성도 발견할 수 있었다.
공동체미디어 실천은 추상적인 인식 차원으로서의 공동체가 아니라 구체적인 삶의 공간으로서 의 공동체와 맞닿아 있다. 즉 공동체미디어의 정체성은 공동체와 공동체미디어의 관계 속에서 참여자들이 만들어내는 생성적 커뮤니케이션 과정의 잠정적 산물이다. 본 논문은 공동체미디어 ‘창신동라디오 <덤>’의 사례를 통해, 공동체미디어 실천 현장의 다이나믹을 포착하여 공동체미디어가 가진 다양한 정체성과 다채로운 스펙트럼을 조망하려는 시도를 한 연구로 의미를 부여할 수 있을 것이다.

This study attempts to locate the media practices of community  members within the concrete milieu of local community Chngshin-dong, and then to make sense of what the community media practices mean for them in their everyday lives. Drawing upon the thick data collected from a year-and-a half-long participant observation and in-depth interviews in the field, researchers came up with such key findings as follows. First, community residents -who participate in community media production and consumption as well as other community activities and social events- went through changes in terms of emotions/feelings/affect and experience a new sense of community and belonging. Second, the identity of community media seemed to depend on the outcome of formative communication processes between the community and the community media. This study is an attempt to look into the interwoven dynamics in the field of community media production/consumption and articulate them with other communal activities. It maps out the complex contours and spectrum of community
media within the specific context of quotidian lives of the community residents.

The paper focuses on the TRIZ community, formed around a shared interest in the “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving” as developed by Genrich S. Altshuller during the 1960s and’70s in the Sviet Union. As a theory, TRIZ reached its popularity peak in the 1970s and ’80s, when many local TRIZ communities had been formed in different corners of the Soviet Union. These communities, consisting of both professional engineers and amateurs of inventorism, shared not only a rational algorithm-based approach toward innovation, but also a particular type of socialist morality. For many TRIZ adherents, this theory became not only a professional tool but rather a philosophy of life.
During the Perestroika period and the early 1990s, the increased level of outmigration from the (former) USSR helped to spread the TRIZ approach to innovation far beyond the confines of the Soviet Union. The author places particular emphasis on the tension between the philosophical logic underlying TRIZ and the work ethic characteristic of the community members and demonstrates how moral implications of the theory became a ground for internal conflicts within the community under conditions of capitalist economy. The article is based on ethnographic data collected in 2010 in St.Petersburg.

This research explores the present status of the CR in India in the initial sections. But the main focus has been given on the innovative practices of the community radios scattered in nook and corner of the country. Emphasis has also given to classify the possible innovations in the sector and a list of areas on innovation has been identified. This endeavor would open up new paths to create a robust community radio environment in the country. Dutta, A. (2014). Innovations in Community Radio: With special reference to India. Retrieved from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India website: http://mib.nic.in

Paru le 29 mai 2015 aux Presses Universitaires de Rennes (coll. Res Publica)

L'usage des « réseaux sociaux » par des mouvements protestataires récents (du « Printemps arabe » aux « Indignados ») a suscité un déferlement d'analyses et de commentaires soulignant les vertus intrinsèquement démocratiques des « nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication ». La thèse de la « démocratisation 2.0. » souffre cependant d'un déterminisme technologique qui va généralement de pair avec un oubli des conditions sociales et historiques de possibilité de ces pratiques militantes.
L'étude de Benjamin Ferron propose de revenir sur les stratégies politiques et médiatiques d'un réseau transnational de militants, le zapatisme mexicain, souvent considéré, après son émergence en 1994, comme le principal initiateur des mobilisations altermondialistes qui ont marqué les années 1990 et 2000. L'auteur compare les stratégies déployées par les militants de ce réseau pour construire publiquement une cause « globale » centrée sur la lutte contre la mondialisation néolibérale et, progressivement, le problème de la démocratisation des médias au Mexique et dans le monde. Comment les acteurs du réseau zapatiste sont-ils parvenus à construire et diffuser un discours de lutte contre le néolibéralisme auprès de publics géographiquement et politiquement très hétérogènes qui les ont érigés en emblème de « l'autre mondialisation » ? Comment et pourquoi la question des médias a-t-elle été inscrite dans l'agenda politique de nombre d'organisations militantes qui le composent, au point de constituer la principale activité d'une partie d'entre elles ?
Optant pour une sociologie constructiviste des problèmes publics, l'étude rend compte au plus près des mécanismes de la circulation transnationale du zapatisme et de ses acteurs. Elle montre que la convergence partielle des cadres de mobilisation collective est le produit d’une série de choix tactiques et de contraintes intériorisées favorisant, chez les militants et sympathisants de l'Armée Zapatiste de Libération Nationale (EZLN), la production de discours contestataires relativement indépendants de leurs conditions sociales de production.

Critique parue dans Le Monde Diplomatique (septembre 2015) : "Tiré de sa thèse de doctorat, le livre de Benjamin Ferron revient sur les stratégies politiques et médiatiques du néozapatisme mexicain, considéré comme l’un des précurseurs de la mouvance altermondialiste à l’orée des années 2000. Mobilisant une sociologie constructiviste des problèmes publics, s’appuyant sur un matériau empirique et une littérature très denses, l’auteur analyse la structuration d’un réseau transnational de militants autour de l’édification d’une cause globale : la lutte contre le néolibéralisme. L’examen du répertoire du zapatisme met en évidence « la corrélation négative entre l’évolution de sa couverture médiatique et l’investissement des militants dans des réseaux de “médias alternatifs” ». Loin du « rapport amoureux à l’objet » qui caractérise trop souvent nombre de publications sur ce phénomène, cet essai est un outil précieux pour comprendre le rôle joué par les médias dans l’internationalisation des mouvements contestataires"  (Nils Solari).

Community media are a natural extension of the various lives of communities within this world. They serve as a platform for sharing content, ideas and views which the communities deem important. They are equally important to the content creator himself and the information recipient. The uniqueness of community content creation begins with the process of creating as such; as the authors are usually the same people as the recipients , the situation in question is very unlike the production processes we know from mass media. This case study aims to map one of the communities situated in the city of Trnava that calls itself SpodNás. It analyses the whole process of creating a zine and related community activities via participant observation of the content creation related to this community's everyday life. The author also strives to define the boundaries which divide a passive and an active recipient, primarily through directly surveying the content creators themselves.

Australian queer (GLBTIQ) university student activist media is an important site of self-representation. Community media is a significant site for the development of queer identity, community and a key part of queer politics. This paper reviews my research into queer student media, which is grounded in a queer theoretical perspective. Rob Cover argues that queer theoretical approaches that study media products fail to consider the material contexts that contribute to their construction. I use an ethnographic approach to examine how editors construct queer identity and community in queer student media. My research contributes to queer media scholarship by addressing the gap that Cover identifies, and to the rich scholarship on negotiations of queer community.

Indonesia lies at the meeting of three major tectonic plates of the world, the Eurasian Plate, Indo-Australian, and the Pacific so that Indonesia has a high potential for disaster. In fact, the United Nations also states that Indonesia is the world's most disaster-prone country. Indonesia has high potential to encounter natural disasters such as floods. It should involve the attention of the public and the government in taking care of the environment. Media has important duties to educate and socialize environmental issues to the public since they play the significant role in educating and supervising social conditions within the country. Media is easier to disseminate the message more widely to the public through online media in the digital era as it is today.
Meanwhile, people also could consume a wide selection of messages from various media channels. Ultimately, online media becomes an extension of mainstream media to reach more diverse audience. Besides, there is also citizen journalism as an alternative media that also struggles with environmental issues. This study tries to show how the characteristics of mainstream online media and citizen journalism as an alternative media in carrying out their functions with environmental news. Features of the news analyzed by looking at each framing.
The subject of this research is the news that exists in each mainstream online media and citizen journalism. They were analyzed using the Framing Approach, especially the Robert N. Entman Model. The results of this study indicate that news on mainstream online media tends to package environmental news to carry out surveillance function. Meanwhile, citizen journalism tends to lead transmission of the social heritage service by giving the educational content of environmental care to their audience.

Radio remains one of the most popular mediums through which people experience music.Yet there have only been a few studies examining the dynamic effects of radio on music. In this innovative study of community radio, Charles Fairchild uses a novel combination of critical analysis, interdisciplinary theory and ethnographic writing to compare commercial and community radio institutions and practices. By situating community radio in the dominant context of consumerism, Fairchild shows how people can create democratic discourses by speaking through other people’s music. He argues that the social relations produced by playing music on the radio, and the inherent ambiguity of music itself, hold the potential for cultural democracy. The book shows how community radio’s aesthetic practices accord with the ideals of an open and equitable public sphere, contributing to civil society and a potentially democratic aesthetics in which the ‘old medium’ of radio holds profound lessons for ‘new media’.

이 연구는 마포 FM에 대한 사례연구를 통해 대안 미디어, 테크놀로지, 그리고 콘텐츠 중심의 논의로 치우쳐져 있는 기존의 공동체 라디오 연구의 한계를 넘어서려는 시도를 한다. 지역 공동체의 구성원들이 방송 제작에 직접 참여함으로써 스스로 문화적 정체성을 재구성해낸다는 측면에서 공동체 라디오는 구성원들의 문화적 실천을 엮어내는 역할을 한다고 할 수 있다. 즉 지역 공동체 구성원들이 공동체 라디오를 전유하고 이를 통해 스스로 정체성을 재구성해내는 양상들은 공동체 라디오의 정체성을 재조명할 수 있게 하는 단초를 제공해준다. 심층 인터뷰를 동원한 현장연구 결과에 따르면, 공동체 라디오는 참여형 제작과정이라는 문화적 실천을 통해서 엮이게 되는－즉 지역 공동체 구성원들과의 상호작용이라는 측면에서－삶이 묻어나는 매체인 동시에, 지역성과 대안성이라는 특성을 넘어 시민성과 공동체성과 관계망의 형성에 기여하는 미디어, 즉 사회적 유대감과 연대를 형성하는 데에 기여하는 미디어라고 재정의 할 수 있다.

This study, by proposing a case study of community radio, attempts to expand the horizon of academic and social discussion on the medium that has been disproportionately skewed towards discourses on alternative media, technology, and programming content. As residents of local community actively participate in the production process, they reconstruct their cultural identities. In that sense, community radio is a medium that makes it possible the re-negotiation and reconfiguration of cultural identities of local residents. That is to say, a case study on the specific ways in which community residents appropriate community radio in reconstructing their identities offers us some entry points where we may come up with a new perspective on the identity of community radio. The results of fieldwork show that community radio, as it is closely intertwined with the residents’ participatory cultural practices, is a medium of ‘lived culture’ -i.e., a medium that contributes to the making of civility, communitarianism, and social network. Community radio, then, may be redefined as an interactive medium that contributes to the formation of social rapport and solidarity.

Although a growing number of studies are examining the relationship between Internet use and political participation, varying study characteristics make the overall effect size difficult to estimate. Using a meta-analysis, we estimated the mean effect size and tested whether the effect size was influenced by study characteristics. Data for this meta-analysis were derived from 56 papers reporting 63 independent studies. Results revealed that Internet use had a weak relationship with political participation (rc = .22). Moderator analyses demonstrated that type of Internet use, Internet use measure, Internet use for news, type of political participation, sample origin, and survey year significantly moderated the relationship between Internet use and political participation. For instance, Internet use including news (rc = .27) had a significantly stronger relationship with political participation than did Internet use excluding news (rc = .19). European samples (rc = .27) had the largest mean correlation followed by North American samples (rc = .23) and Asian samples (rc = .18) in decreasing order of strength of relationship. The theoretical and methodological implications of the findings are discussed.

En este texto quiero proponer una reflexión sobre los procesos de comunicación local. De entrada no tengo un interés de etiquetarlos con alguno de los tantos nombres que Benjamín Ferrón (2006) ha coleccionado para definirlos, dentro de los cuáles los más comunes podrían ser comunicación alternativa, comunitaria o participativa. Simplemente hago referencia a procesos localizados bien sea en un municipio, una comuna, un barrio o por qué no, una región, y generados desde sus propios habitantes. Procesos de comunicación materializados ya sea en medios, como lo son los periódicos, las radios o televisiones comunitarias; o en colectivos de comunicación, nucleados alrededor de la producción audiovisual, la creación artística, o la divulgación comunitaria del cine o del vídeo.

"Hyperlocal media has expanded significantly in the UK in the past 12 to 18 months, notes Damian Radcliffe. Supported by new funding and training initiatives, interest from academics and policy-makers, as well as the increased take-up of internet-enabled mobile devices, the result has been a step-change in activity and interest in the hyperlocal scene."

Contribution to “What do we mean by local? The rise, fall and possible rise again of local journalism” – published Sept 2013 by Abramis Academic Publishing and edited by John Mair, Richard Lance Keeble, Neil Fowler: http://www.abramis.co.uk/books/bookdetails.php?id=184549593

This study investigates the role of Turkish commercial local radio in the construction of youth community in the city of Şanlıurfa, which is located in the poor rural southeastern region near the Syrian border. Through in-depth interviews with radio listeners and analysis of their interactions via radio, this paper also examines young people’s attempts to overcome traditional restrictions and social norms through talk radio. By doing so, this study aims to highlight the social role of radio, which is often underestimated in media studies (Scannell 1996), and to challenge Western-centric scholarship on talk radio, which ignores talk radio’s role in community formation. By drawing from Downing’s concept of ‘radical media’, Atton’s definition of ‘alternative media’, and Couldry’s theorization of the ‘symbolic hierarchy of media power,’ this study will discuss why some local commercial stations in Şanlıurfa function as alternative media for the Turkish youth and how they cross the boundary between the ‘media’ and ‘ordinary’ worlds to create a space for themselves.

Keywords: Alternative media, talk radio, local media, Turkey

This thesis examines the alternative media landscape at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. It builds on understandings of major sport events, such as the Olympic Games, as important aspects of a media domain where geopolitical issues are played out. The Olympic Games are characterized by competing narratives between the Olympic movement, media institutions, politicians and the public. Examples from the Vancouver alternative media scene are cited, combined with ethnographic stories from Vancouver 2010 and analysis of the online platforms from several case study communities working as self-defined alternative media collectives during Games time. Together, this data provides a preliminary theoretical assessment of alternative media in the context of media events.
The study focuses on two major dimensions of the alternative media and major events phenomena. Firstly, it explores how selected case communities identify themselves and recognise each other. Second, it assesses the opportunities arising through participation with the community.
The study findings demonstrate that questions remain about whether a meaningful transference of media power is actually occurring within the Olympic Games infrastructure, despite an increase in the prevalence of alternative media responses. Indeed, it is unclear whether new communities of “citizen reporters” who are beginning to occupy the privileged position that accredited Olympic media has previously enjoyed are genuinely an expression of transformative media culture. The findings suggest that citizen journalists may use a range of different (and often conflicting) methods of reporting and of political interest, making the accountability of their activities difficult to assess. In a space where justice and media equality are dominant themes, it is important to reflect on the consequences of those who act on the periphery of a media event such as the Olympics and consider their responsibility as reporters within a widening digital media landscape, rather than reaffirming the existing status quo.

El presente manual es el resultado de dos años de investigación en los que, a partir de la sistematización de la experiencia, se identificaron elementos esenciales presentes en el modelo que permitan a otros interesados instrumentar un modelo similar en otras regiones de México o incluso en otros países.

El manual está dirigido tanto a diseñadores de política pública, emprendedores sociales y comunidades interesadas en instrumentar el modelo de telefonía comunitaria para atender necesidades de comunicación en zonas apartadas y distantes.
Este es un primer paso en la construcción de un nuevo modelo de cobertura social en que los beneficiarios son a su vez los prestadores de servicio. La experiencia en su instrumentación va abriendo nuevas aristas y desarrollos que fortalecen el modelo. Sus creadores han establecido un wiki en el que se encuentra amplia información sobre el mismo y al que se puede contribuir compartiendo los resultados y aprendizajes en la realización de esta experiencia:  http://wiki.rhizomatica.org

The article draws firstly on theories that question the exclusionary nature of mass communication in terms of the emancipatory potential of ‘new media’; of the democratization of communication; or even in terms of advancing alternative forms of communication. By probing specifically into various small-scale, decentralised media projects, issues concerning the social as well as the cultural context of their implementation; their creation, production and dissemination; the employment of new technologies; and, instances of the very mediation process itself, across both
the production and reception process, are addressed. From the perspective of a non-essentialist account of such media projects, the paper draws finally on approaches that evaluate these projects on the grounds of their ‘lived experience’, in terms of their social actors, agents; acknowledging thus an overall framework of understanding the practice of such projects, as instances of the constitution of citizenship.

Emerging global social movement and media activist practices are integrating intersectional politics into technologically facilitated activism. Based on a multiyear empirical study, this article proposes a preliminary theoretical framework that maps 5 key dimensions of an emergent intersectional technopolitics: (1) intersectional anticapitalist politics enacted in meta-issue movements; (2) distributed online–offline media
architectures and motility; (3) multiplicities of genres, forms, technologies, and spaces; (4) translocal solidarity economies and technologies; and (5) liberatory intersectional mechanisms of collective autonomy. The author argues that intersectional technopolitics is an innovative and complex set of coherent global social movement and media activist practices rooted in meta-issue movements integrated with transmedia digital technologies. The article concludes with a critical analysis of contradictions encountered by intersectional technopolitics activists as they interact with the structures of broader social movements, social media technologies, and societal hierarchies.

Образът на ромите в електронните предавания за ромите Христова, С. 2007. с.265-283. "Образът на ромите в електронните предавания за ромите" в "Интеграция на ромите в българското общество", Институт по социология при БАН, съставители В. Топалова и А. Пампоров ISBN 978-954-591-003-6. Изследователската задача в случая е да се проследи как се развива образа на ромите в електронните предавания за и от ромите, без да се уточнява, че това са непременно "общностните" медии или предавания. Причината е, че community media или community broadcasts са онези предавания или средства за масова информация, които са продуцирани от и за самата етническа, културна, религиозна, локална или друга общност. Да, част от обекта на изследване са и тези общностни предавания, но не само. Тук попада медийния образ на ромите, изграден както от ромски журналисти, така и от етнически смесени екипи, и от журналисти не-роми. Най-общо казано, всички публицистичните предавания, посветени на етноса, в българското електронно пространство. Според Светлана Василева 1 , ромска журналистка, "каквато и да е информация относно общността беше говорене за общността, което идва отвън и съответно носи всички характеристики на това третиране на даден проблем като външен наблюдател, т.е. не-участник в събитието или процеса". Говоренето за ромската общност е не просто като за "другия", а по-скоро за "странния друг", дори за "неудобния друг". Този тип говорене само спомага да се "усилят" устойчивите негативни нагласи на принадлежащите към доминантната култура спрямо ромите. От друга страна, ефектът на етнизираната информация се "подхранва и от липсата на говорене от общността, на гласовете от вътрешността, на представителите на самата ромска общност". Ромските журналисти са на мнение, че само говоренето за общността може да сложи край на негативните стереотипи за ромите като моделира 1 1 Василева, С. 2004. Ромската тематика в българското медийно пространство-"за" и "против" ромите, от и за ромите, в Бакалова, М. "Ролята на ромските електронни медии", Институт "Отворено общество".

In the context of significant numbers of Muslim newcomers immigrating to Europe and perceptions of failed integration in Sweden, and in light of the urban conflict and increasing debates about integration as a one-way or two-way street, this paper sets out a “communication for development”-informed theoretical framework that focuses on the struggle for social cohesion and immigrant integration in Malmö, Sweden. Unemployment and lack of power have taken their toll on agency among migrants—particularly Iraqi men— and the strongest stories showing immigration as an asset—particularly those of Iraqi women—are not being told in the media. Participatory communication in Malmö is currently less than participatory, and integration in Sweden, in its expectations, leans uncomfortably close to assimilation. Several examples are given of development communication initiatives for integration that have had positive results, with strong evidence that community media has proven effective at improving immigrant integration. Development communication initiatives show promise for improving social cohesion in Malmö, and these can be effective only if the choice to participate, and the choices of initiative, medium and content are made by migrants themselves.

With contributions from an international team of well-known experts, media activists, and promising young scholars, this comprehensive volume examines community-based media from theoretical, empirical, and practical perspectives. More than 30 original essays provide an incisive and timely analysis of the relationships between media and society, technology and culture, and communication and community.

The 20th century ended with a “bang” in Puerto Rico, producing one of the most powerful and decisive massive demonstrations that the young 21st century first saw. Broadly, this paper will focus on the meaning and repercussions of the activism that took place in relation to Vieques. Specifically, I will outline the battle against the US Navy undertaken by Viequenses, Puerto Ricans, and activists in the United States and around the world after 4/19/1999—the fateful date when a stray bomb during the Navy’s training exercises on the island killed David Sanes, a civilian security guard working at the base. In essence, this paper articulates and highlights aspects of the struggle between a
small island-municipality in the middle of the Caribbean Sea and the biggest military power on the face of the Earth, in order to extrapolate the lessons offered by the massive transnational social movement that emerged in support of Vieques.

This article reviews the legacy of the global Indymedia Center (IMC), a news and information network of 175 autonomous media centres that operated in every world region autonomously of the dominant corporate and public service communications and information systems. Emerging first during protests against the neo-liberal practices of the World Trade Organization, the IMC represented a media-historic moment, one of the first times that social movement media activists were able to bypass the dominant media to produce their own reports and circulate them directly to activists and supporters around the world. My review examines the composition of the IMC's infrastructure and volunteer force, and their technological and communications repertoires in relation to the dominant communications systems, and consider their legacy in succeeding cycles of social movement contention. I then compare the legacy of the IMC with the more recent media-historic moment of the Standing Rock Sioux water protectors who in 2016 tactically employed a land-based mobilization with a movement-directed online and offline communications assemblage to mobilize against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline on their traditional territory. Capturing more US and international dominant media attention than any previous Indigenous movement, and reaching even more people with their self-generated media, they countered the neo-liberal extractivist paradigm of resource exploitation and also affirmed their

In the 21st century’s first decade, the theme of “nano-media” – “grassroots,” “independent,” “community,” “participatory,” “self-managed,” “autonomous,” “tactical,” or “alternative” media – has moved to the center of political and academic debate. These media advance community empowerment, enable transnational activity by social movements, and challenge multiple borders and boundaries.

In these essays, a series of authors get to grips with the multiple facets of “nano-media.” Some of their observations are very much at the conceptual level, others specific to a place and a time, while others blend both approaches. Contributions to the international conference “Alternative Media and New Public Settings” (Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2006) discuss different “nano-media” forms and practices, which surface as tellers of truth, which serve as sites for fresh interpretations of our realities, and which often disrupt the frames and conventions of mainstream mediated communication.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)