Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World(Critical Media Studies: Institutions, Politics, and Culture)

Contesting Media Power is the most ambitious international collection to date on the worldwide growth of alternative media that are challenging the power concentration in large media corporations. Media scholars and political scientists develop a broad comparative framework for analyzing alternative media in Australia, Chile, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Sweden, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Topics include independent media centers, gay online networks and alternative web discussion forums, feminist film, political journalism and social networks, indigenous communication, and church-sponsored media. This important book will help shape debates on the media's role in current global struggles, such as the anti-globalization movement.

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Part I: Introduction and Theoretical Perspectives Chapter 2 1 The Paradox of Media Power Chapter 3 2 New Media Power: The Internet and Global Activism Chapter 4 3 Beyond the Hall of Mirrors? Some Theoretical Reflections on the Global Contestation of Media Power Part 5 Part II: In the Shadow of the State Chapter 6 4 Infoshops in the Shadow of the State Chapter 7 5 Framing the Future: Indigenous Communication in Australia Chapter 8 6 The Press Subsidy System in Sweden: A Critical Approach Part 9 Part III: In the Shadow of the Market Chapter 10 7 Commercialism and Critique: California's Alternative Weeklies Chapter 11 8 Has Feminism Caused a Wrinkle on the Face of Hollywood Cinema? A Tentative Appraisal of the '90s Chapter 12 9 Empire and Communications: Centrifugal and Centripetal Media in Contemporary Russia Part 13 Part IV: In the Shadow of Civil Society and Religion Chapter 14 10 Liberalization without Full Democracy: Guerilla Media and Political Movements in Taiwan Chapter 15 11 The Bishop and His Star: Citizens' Communication in Southern Chile Chapter 16 12 New Nation: Anachronistic Catholicism and Liberation Theology Chapter 17 13 Falun Gong, Identity and the Struggle Over Meaning Inside and Outside China Part 18 Part V: New Media Spaces Chapter 19 14 Global Journalism: A Case Study of the Internet Chapter 20 15 The Independent Media Center Movement and the Anarchist Socialist Tradition Chapter 21 16 The Gay Global Village in Cyberspace Chapter 22 17 The Internet, Social Networks and Reform in Indonesia Chapter 23 18 The Alternative Media in Malaysia: Their Potential and Limitations

About the Author :
Nick Couldry is senior lecturer in media and communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. James Curran is professor of communications at Goldsmiths College, London.

Review :
While mainstream corporate and state media are growing in power and reach, they are increasingly contested by a wide range of alternative media. Contesting Media Power contains a series of studies of alternative media and their funding, practices, and often contradictory effects. Covering a broad array of media and locations, the collection attests to growing anti-corporate globalization movements and a promising proliferation of alternative forms, strategies, practices, and movements. Written by scholars and activists from around the world, this book provides state-of-the-art reports on media activism and alternative media. This collection helps move the discussion of alternative media away from abstract puffery toward concrete appraisals. Many of the essays are especially useful for bringing political assumptions to the surface-and for exploring new media that originate in less developed parts of the world. All in all, a vigorous step forward. Edited collections that bring together examples of alternative media are far from new but this one is substantially different and merits praise on several grounds. Of particular importance is the attempt to provide a comparative look at how media power is challenged in different places under different political and social conditions. I liked this book-it lifts the spirits while retaining a sense of political realism and critical evaluation. May there be more like it.