Mediation and Alternative Media, or Relocating the Centre of Media and Communication Studies

Bibliographic Data

ID5904456
AuthorsN Couldry (0000-0001-8233-3287, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume103
Issue1
Pages24-31
Publication date2002-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedia International Australia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1329-878X • E-ISSN: 2200-467X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1329878x0210300106
OpenAlexW1605393242
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited11

Alternative media should not be marginal, but central, to the developing agenda of media and communication studies, because they challenge the massive concentration of 'symbolic power' (Bourdieu) in mainstream media institutions and the resulting 'exclusion' of most people 'from the power of naming' (Melucci). Precisely because alternative media organisations, in relative terms, lack symbolic resources, their activities tend to be largely invisible, but that is no reason why, as 'weapons of the weak' (Scott), they should be ignored. With some exceptions, media studies has neglected alternative media for too long, and neglected also the inequalities of symbolic power in which media institutions themselves are involved. But now there is less excuse for that neglect. When the 'digital divide' and the atrophy of representative democracy are hotly debated not only by academics but also by policy-makers, media studies should listen to those who are not prepared to accept their exclusion from the power of naming; they are citizens with something important to contribute to debates about democracy, and in paying more attention to them, media studies can make an important link between its own agenda and urgent agendas in political theory and democratic debate

Alternative media · Democracy · Digital media · Excuse · Law and economics · Mainstream · Media studies · Mediation · Neglect · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Digital Games and Media · Law · Political theory and Gramsci · Psychology · Social Media and Politics

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access