Grassroots from Washing Lines to Utopia
282 / Franz Krüger 32. Ecna, annual report, 1993/94. 33. Ecna, annual report, 1992/93. 34. Group Editor's Report, 6 June 1994. 35. Ecna, annual report, 1992/93. 36. Ecna, annual report, 1993/94. Grassroots From Washing Lines to Utopia Ineke van Kessel The revival of populär protest in the first half of the 1980s, with the emergence of hundreds of new community and youth organizations, was also marked by a proliferation of new mass media. The sophisticated use of media in addressing both inter- rial and international audiences was one of the distinct charac- teristics of this last generation of resistance against apartheid. Grassroots, a publication aimed at a Coloured and African read- ership in the Cape Peninsula, was a pioneering effort to forge a new genre of local community newspapers.1 Grassroots formed part of the new alternative media that sprang up in the 1980s to contest the prevailing world view of the mainstream, white-controlled commercial newspapers.2 While communica- tion between mainstream newspapers and their publiés is largely a one-way street, community newspapers aspired to interact with their readership and to help shape, rather than only report, events. The commercial press was seen as upholder of the status quo, while nonprofit community media regarded themselves as part of the movement for political and social change. Launched 283 284 / Ineke van Kessel Grassroots: From Washmg Lines to Utopia / 285 in 1980, Grassroots became a model for local publications. tömunity issues were the lifeblood of the newspaper, but versity towns in particular proved fertile ground for the pli lessing community issues was not an end in itself.
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