The Alternative Media Handbook (Media Practice Series)

369 Pages·2007·6.32 MB·English

by  Kate Coyer

The Alternative Media
Handbook
‘Alternative media’ are media produced by the socially, culturally and politically
excluded: they are always independently run and often community-f ocused, rang-
ing from pirate radio to activist publications, from digital video experiments to
radical work on the Web. The Alternative Media Handbook explores the many and
diverse media forms that these non-m ainstream media take.
The Alternative Media Handbook gives brief histories of alternative radio,
video and fi lm, press and activity on the Web, then offers an overview of global
alternative media work through numerous case studies, before moving on to pro-
vide practical information about alternative media production and how to get
involved in it.
The Alternative Media Handbook includes both theoretical and practical
approaches and information, including sections on:
(cid:129) successful fundraising
(cid:129) podcasting
(cid:129) blogging
(cid:129) publishing
(cid:129) pitching a project
(cid:129) radio production
(cid:129) culture jamming
(cid:129) access to broadcasting.
Kate Coyer is an independent radio producer, media activist and post-d octoral
research fellow with the Annenberg School for Communication at the University
of Pennsylvania and Central European University in Budapest.
Tony Dowmunt has been involved in alternative video and television produc-
tion since 1975 and is now course tutor on the MA in Screen Documentary at
Goldsmiths, University of London.
Alan Fountain is currently Chief Executive of European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs
(EAVE), a professional development programme for fi lm and television producers.
He was the fi rst Commissioning Editor for Independent Film and TV at Channel
Four, 1981–94.
Media Practice
Edited by James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London
The Media Practice handbooks are comprehensive resource books for students of
media and journalism, and for anyone planning a career as a media professional. Each
handbook combines a clear introduction to understanding how the media work with
practical information about the structure, processes and skills involved in working in
today’s media industries, providing not only a guide on ‘how to do it’ but also a critical
refl ection on contemporary media practice.
The Newspapers Handbook 4th edition
Richard Keeble
The Radio Handbook 2nd edition
Carole Fleming
The Advertising Handbook 2nd edition
Sean Brierley
The Television Handbook 3rd edition
Jonathan Bignell and Jeremy Orlebar
The Photography Handbook 2nd edition
Terence Wright
The Magazines Handbook 2nd edition
Jenny McKay

The Public Relations Handbook 3rd edition
Alison Theaker
The Cyberspace Handbook
Jason Whittaker
The Fashion Handbook
Tim Jackson and David Shaw
The New Media Handbook
Andrew Dewdney and Peter Ride
The Alternative Media Handbook
Kate Coyer, Tony Dowmunt and Alan Fountain
The
Alternative
Media
Handbook
Kate Coyer, Tony Dowmunt
and Alan Fountain
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2011.
To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
© 2007 Kate Coyer, Tony Dowmunt and Alan Fountain
© contributors for their individual chapters
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form
or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Coyer, Kate.
The alternative media handbook / Kate Coyer, Tony Dowmunt, and Alan Fountain.
p. cm. (Media practice)
1. Alternative mass media. I. Dowmunt, Tony. II. Fountain, Alan. III. Title.
P96.A44C69 2007
302.23—dc22
2007027081
ISBN 0-203-82121-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10: 0–415–35966–X (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0–415–35965–1 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–35966–5 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–35965–8 (pbk)
Contents

List of illustrations viii
List of contributors ix
Foreword James Curran xix
1 Introduction Tony Dowmunt (with Kate Coyer) 1
Part I Where alternative media came from 13
2 Mysteries of the black box unbound: an alternative history
of radio Kate Coyer 15
3 Alternative fi lm, video and television 1965–2005 Alan Fountain 29

4 The alternative press Angela Phillips 47
5 A brief history: the Web and interactive media Chris Atton 59
Part II What’s happening now 67
6 Radical journalism 69
6.1 Alternative media in practice Chris Atton 71
6.2 Indymedia and the politics of participation: reporting the
G8 in Scotland, 2005 ‘Sam and Annie’ 78
6.3 SchNEWS at ten 88
vi Contents
7 Experimental forms 91
7.1 Alternative visions of television David Garcia and Lennaart
Van Oldenborgh 93
7.2 ambientTV.net Manu Luksch and Mukul Patel 105
7.3 Zines Katie Haegele 108
8 Access to broadcasting 111
8.1 Access to broadcasting: radio Kate Coyer 112
8.1.2 Community radio: milango for lives Charlotte Hill O’Neal 123
8.2 Access to broadcasting: TV Tony Dowmunt 125
8.3 Video Nation and Digital Storytelling: a BBC/public partnership
in content creation Mandy Rose 127
8.4 Manhattan Neighborhood Network: challenging monocrop
monotony Martin Lucas 137
9 Mainstream or alternative media? 141
9.1 Getting alternative messages in mainstream media
Natalie Fenton 143
9.2 Communication of the oppressed: alternative media and their
political impact in contemporary Latin America
João Alexandre Peschanski 154
10 Culture jamming 163
10.1 Stop signs: an introduction to culture jamming
Graham Meikle 166
10.2 Culture jamming the video game way Sue Scheibler 179

11 New(er) technologies 186
11.1 Copyright: the politics of owning culture Gregor Claude 188
11.2 A2T: bridging the digital divide Adnan Hadzi 194
12 Alternative media in development 206
12.1 Alternative and participatory media in developing countries
James Deane 206
12.2 Mgwirzano: a case study from Malawi Su Braden 212
13 Distribution and audiences 224
13.1 The power and the passion: community radio in Australia
Michael Meadows, Susan Forde, Jacqui Ewart and Kerrie Foxwell 226
13.2 Lux Julia Knight 228
Contents vii
14 Student media 232
14.1 Student radio Salvatore Scifo 233
14.2 Student press Salvatore Scifo 236
15 Media activism 238
15.1 The global movement to transform communications
Dorothy Kidd 239
15.2 Media reform activism in the US: the movement against
consolidation of media ownership Pete Tridish and
Kate Coyer 248
15.3 Media activist initiatives Simon Blanchard 251
Part III Doing it yourself 257
16 DIY media-m aking resources 259
16.1 Getting started 259
16.2 Training and skills 263
16.3 Doing it 267
16.3.1 Radio production 267
16.3.2 Interviewing for radio Aaron Sarver 270
16.3.3 Starting a community radio station Pete Tridish 273
16.3.4 Podcasting Andrew Dubber 276
16.3.5 Video/TV/fi lm production 279
16.3.6 Creating websites Owen Mundy 284
16.3.7 Blogging Andrew Dubber 287

16.3.8 Print publishing Jen Angel 290
16.3.9 Zines Joe Biel 297
16.3.10 Culture jamming 301
17 Funding and fi nance 306
17.1 Successful fundraising in the UK Mark Dunford 309
17.2 A place where money grows on trees? Kate Coyer 315
18 ‘We are the network . . .’ 319

Resources 321
Bibliography 329
Index 341
Illustrations
1.1 Radical Software quote. Gene Youngblood, The Videosphere 2
1.2 The ‘Next 5 Minutes’ logo 7
1.3 George Stoney (Photos: Tony Dowmunt) 11
3.1 Berlin Horse, double screen installation, Malcolm Le Grice, 1970
(courtesy of the artist and LUX, London) 33
3.2 Still from Seacoal, Amber Films’ 1985 feature fi lm. S.- L. Kontinen:
Amber 37
3.3 Undercurrents team fi lming in Sri Lanka following the 2004 tsunami
(Paul O’Connor, Undercurrents) 41
4.1 Jimi Hendrix (1967) from Oz magazine (Martin Sharp, born
Australia 1942. Planographic offset-l ithograph, originally printed in
colour from multiple stones/plates, National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra) 48
6.1 Indymedia centre 80
6.2 Inside and outside th e IMC tent 85
7.1 De Hoeksteen composite (Photo: Raul Marroquin) 102
7.2 You call it art. Manu Luksch 107
8.1 Colonel Hencher on Video Nation site 127
8.2 Prisoners’ stills 136
8.3 Amy Goodman interviews Aristide for Democracy Now! The
ex-p resident of Haiti was on a plane to Africa, where he fi rst made the
claim he had been hijacked by the US and forced into exile (Photo:
Democracy Now!) 139
11.1 Self-p ortrait by Jaromil 196
11.2 Iranian asylum- seeker being evicted from her Glasgow fl at (still from
‘Welcome’ by the Camcorder Guerillas) 198
12.1 Gertrude Mthana, AAM participatory communication team leader,
fi lming in Chitsulo village (Photo: Su Braden) 218
12.2 Gertrude Mthana fi lming (Photo: Su Braden) 218
13.1 Iraqi woman and child (Photo: Julia Guest) 230
Contributors
Jen Angel is a media activist currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her
main project is Aid & Abet Booking, www.aidandabet.org.
Chris Atton is Reader in Journalism at the School of Creative Industries, Napier
University, Edinburgh, Scotland. He is a leading UK and international scholar
in the study of alternative and community media and has published three
books in this area: Alternative Literature (Gower 1996), Alternative Media
(Sage 2002) and An Alternative Internet (Edinburgh University Press 2004).
Joe Biel is an author, fi lmmaker, designer, and multidisciplinary artist currently
living in Bloomington, Indiana. His fi lms include the award-winning A Hun-
dred Dollars and a T-Shirt: A Documentary about Zines in the Northwest,
Martinis in the Bike Lane, Tennessee State Prison, Of Dice and Men, and Last
Train Out of North America. He founded Microcosm Publishing in 1996.
Simon Blanchard is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Media Pro-

duction at the University of Lincoln.
Su Braden is an independent development communications researcher, and
author of Video for Development: A Casebook from Vietnam with Than Thi
Thien Huong (Stylus Publishing 1998), Committing Photography (Pluto Press
l983), and Artists and People (Routledge l978).
Michael Chanan is a fi lmmaker, writer and Professor of Cultural Studies at the
University of the West of England. His latest fi lm is Detroit: Ruin of a City.
Details at www.mchanan.dial.pipex.com
Gregor Claude is a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research
interests include cultural industries, the digital media and media theory, and
intellectual property.
Kate Coyer is a post-doctoral research fellow with the Annenberg School for Com-
munication, University of Pennsylvania and Central European University,