Atton, C.

185 Pages·2007·2.72 MB·English

by  Atton, Chris.

alternative media

alternative media
chris attan
'SAGE Publications
London Thousand Oaks New Delhi
©ChrisAtton2002
Firstpublished2002
Reprinted2003,2005,2006
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contents
Acknowledgements VIl1
Introduction 1
1 ApproachingAlternative Media: Theory
and Methodology 7
Preliminaries 7
Defining 'alternative' and 'radical' 9
Downing's theory ofradical media 19
Beyond the political: attitude versus position
in alternative and radical media 23
Towards a model ofalternative and radical media 24
Alternative media as a field ofproduction 29
2 The Economics ofProduction 32
The alternative press in its 'ghetto' 33
Finance 35
Reprographic technologies 38
Circulation 39
Distributive use in the alternative public sphere 42
Anti-copyright 42
Open distribution 44
Alternative fora as methods of distribution 45
The limits and freedom of 'alternative economics' 49
3 What Use is a Zine? Identity-building and Social
Signification in Zine Culture 54
Alittle history offanzines 55
Zines and sociality 58
Cases: Bamboo Girl, Cometbus, Pilgrims
andMAXIMUMROCKNROLL 61
Zines and communication 67
Zine culture and e-zines 68
vi ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
Towards cases: The EtextArchives and
Labowitz'sE-zine List 69
E-zine cases 71
4 Alternative Media and New SocialMovements 80
The British new social movement
media in the 1990s 80
Approaches to organization and production 88
Do orDie 88
Squall 91
SchNEWS 93
GreenAnarchist 95
Participation and control 98
5 Writers, Readers and Knowledge in New
SocialMovementMedia 103
Readers as writers 103
Knowledge production and knowledge producers 105
Conceptualizing alternative news as 'native reporting' 112
Radical populism and language 118
Activists as intellectuals 120
Examples ofknowledge production 121
Coherence and coverage 126
Readers as readers 128
6 Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICTs)
in Alternative Media 133
Anarchist perspectives on the Internet 134
Anarchists' use ofthe Internet 136
Assessing the constraints 138
Progressive librarians and McSpotlight 144
Hybridity and 'purity' 151
Conclusion 153
Bibliography 157
Index 167
illustrations
Box 1. Atypology ofalternative and radical media 27
Figure 1. Darnton's communication circuit
(after Darnton, 1990) 26
acknowledgemen ts
I would like to thank my colleagues in alternative media studies, Jay
Hamilton and Nick Couldry, who were generous enoughto read and
comment on various draft chapters ofthis book. John Downing read
the entire first draft and offered much pertinent criticism: I am in his
debt. Their encouragement kept me going at dark moments. Natalie
Fenton, Simon Frith, Peter Golding and Tony Harcup provided much
welcome enthusiasm, supportand criticism for this project. SharifGemie
andJonPurkisatAnarchistStudiestrustedme: hadtheynot, muchofthis
work would be undone. Parts ofthe book began life as my PhD thesis: I
thank my supervisors David Finkelstein,Alistair McCleery and Desmond
Bellfor theirsupportandcriticism, alsomyexaminersGeorgeMcKayand
Ian Welsh. Numerous colleagues in the Popular Culture Association and
theMediaStudies, Communicationand CulturalStudiesAssociationpro
vided much opportunity for discussion ofthe main themes ofthis work.
I must also thank those editors, writers and readers who so generously
and patiently answered my questions. Lucy Green at Popular Music
cheered me up at an important moment. Thanks to Earache Records,
Cyclops Records and Champagne Lake Productions for sonic refresh
ment in the final stages. Julia Hall, my editor at Sage, placed much faith
in me - I hope it is repaid here. As is customary, I end by thanking those
who hadto endurethisprojectoutofhours: Kate, DanielandJacob. And
Godzilla.
An earlier version of Chapter 2 appeared as 'A Re-assessment of the
Alternative Press', Media, Culture and Society, 21(1), January 1999,
51-76. Parts of Chapter 6 appeared in earlier forms as parts of 'Are
There Alternative Media after CMC?', M/C Reviews, 12 April 2000.
<http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/reviews/features/politics/altmedia.html> and
'Anarchy on the Internet: Obstacles and Opportunities for Alternative
Electronic Publishing', Anarchist Studies, 4(2), October 1996, 115-132.
The material on Green Anarchist in Chapters 4 and 5 first appeared as
part of 'Green Anarchist: A Case Study in Radical Media', Anarchist
Studies, 7(1), March 1999,25-49.
introduction
I n his fine bookWhy Study the Media? Roger Silverstone (1999: 103)
affirms thatalternative media 'have creatednewspacesfor alternative
voices that provide the focus both for specific community interests as
well as for the contrary and the subversive'. It is all of these - the com
munity, the contraryandthe subversive- thatare the subjectofmybook.
Silverstone talks ofthe employment ofmass media techniques 'to pursue
a critical or alternative agenda, from the margins, as it were, or from the
underbelly of social life'. How this is done and what it means to people
who do itare similarlymyconcerns. To decidewhatalternative mediaare
and how they may be considered alternative are tasks not easily achieved
(indeed, alargepartofthisbookwrestleswiththesefundamentals). Indis
cussing my work with colleagues and friends I am most often asked two
questions. The first is: Do alternative media still exist? For these ques
tioners alternative media mean the underground press ofthe 1960s (such
as Village Voice and The Rat in the US, Oz and IT in the UK). The ques
tion fixes these media historically as counter-cultural emanations- it also
considers them as enterprises of the past. If their aims had not been
achieved, they had at least been abandoned when their editors, writers
and readers moved on to more mature activities (steady jobs, families,
mortgages). The simple answer is: Of course they do. Examples abound.
Far from disappearing in the early 1970s alternative media have bur
geoned. The rise ofthe fanzine as an integral part ofthe punk subculture
of the late 1970s was instrumental in generating a second wave of
underground-like publications that dealt as much with the politics of
liberation, direct action and anarchism as they did with popular music.
This takes us to our second question: What are alternative media? For
whilsttheundergroundpressofthe 1960s,the punkfanzines ofthe 1970s
and the direct-action papers ofthe 1990soffer examplesthatare more or
lessculturallyandpoliticallycongruent(despitetheirapparentdifferences
at the time, the worst thing you could say about a punk fanzine was that