The Alternative Media Handbook ‘Alternative media’ are media produced by the socially, culturally and politically e xcluded: they are always independently run and often community-focused, ranging from pirate radio to activist publications, from digital video experiments to ra dical work on the Web. The Alternative Media Handbook explores the many and dive rse media forms that these non-mainstream media take. The Alternative Media Hand book gives brief histories of alternative radio, video and lm, press and activity on the Web, then offers an overview of global alternative media work through nu merous case studies, before moving on to provide practical information about alt ernative media production and how to get involved in it. The Alternative Media H andbook includes both theoretical and practical approaches and information, incl uding sections on: • • • • • • • • successful fundraising podcasting blogging publishing pitch g a project radio production culture jamming access to broadcasting. Kate Coyer is an independent radio producer, media activist and post-doctoral re search fellow with the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of P ennsylvania and Central European University in Budapest. Tony Dowmunt has been i nvolved in alternative video and television production since 1975 and is now cou rse tutor on the MA in Screen Documentary at Goldsmiths, University of London. A lan Fountain is currently Chief Executive of European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE), a professional development programme for lm and television producers. He was the rst Commissioning Editor for Independent Film and TV at Channel Four, 198 1–94. Media Practice Edited by James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London The Media Practice hand books 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 informatio n about the structure, processes and skills involved in working in today’s media i ndustries, providing not only a guide on ‘how to do it’ but also a critical reection 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 OX1 4 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Av e, 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 colle ction 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 uti lised 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 boo k is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Public ation Data Coyer, Kate. The alternative media handbook / Kate Coyer, Tony Dowmun t, and Alan Fountain. p. cm. (Media practice) 1. Alternative mass media. I. Dowm unt, 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) ISB 978–0–415–35965–8 (pbk) Contents List of illustrations List of contributors Foreword James Curran viii ix xix 1 Introduction Tony Dowmunt (with Kate Coyer) 1 Part I Where alternative media came from 2 Mysteries of the black box unbound: an alternative history of radio Kate Coyer 13 15 3 Alternative lm, video and television 1965–2005 Alan Fountain 29 4 The alternative press Angela Phillips 5 A brief history: the Web and interactive media Chris At ton 47 59 Part II What’s happening now 6 Radical journalism 6.1 Alternative media in practice Chris Atton 71 6.2 Indyme dia and the politics of participation: reporting the G8 in Scotland, 2005 ‘Sam and Annie’ 78 6.3 SchNEWS at ten 88 67 69 vi Contents 7 Experimental forms 7.1 Alternative visions of television David Garcia and Lenn aart Van Oldenborgh 93 7.2 ambientTV.net Manu Luksch and Mukul Patel 105 7.3 Zin es Katie Haegele 108 91 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 bro adcasting: 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 alterna tive media? 141 9.1 Getting alternative messages in mainstream media Natalie Fen ton 143 9.2 Communication of the oppressed: alternative media and their politica l impact in contemporary Latin America João Alexandre Peschanski 154 10 Culture ja mming 10.1 Stop signs: an introduction to culture jamming Graham Meikle 166 10.2 Culture jamming the video game way Sue Scheibler 163 179 186 188 11 New(er) technologies 11.1 Copyright: the politics of owning culture Gregor Cl aude 11.2 A2T: bridging the digital divide Adnan Hadzi 194 12 Alternative media in development 12.1 Alternative and participatory media in developing countries James Deane 206 12.2 Mgwirzano: a case study from Malawi Su Braden 212 206 13 Distribution and audiences 224 13.1 The power and the passion: community radi o in Australia Michael Meadows, Susan Forde, Jacqui Ewart and Kerrie Foxwell 226 13.2 Lux Julia Knight 228 Contents vii 14 Student media 14.1 Student radio Salvatore Scifo 233 14.2 Student press Salva tore Scifo 236 15 Media activism 15.1 The global movement to transform communica tions Dorothy Kidd 239 15.2 Media reform activism in the US: the movement agains t consolidation of media ownership Pete Tridish and Kate Coyer 248 15.3 Media ac tivist initiatives Simon Blanchard 251 232 238 Part III Doing it yourself 16 DIY media-making resources 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 16.3.4 P odcasting Andrew Dubber 276 16.3.5 Video/TV/lm production 279 16.3.6 Creating web sites Owen Mundy 284 16.3.7 Blogging Andrew Dubber 287 16.3.8 Print publishing J en Angel 290 16.3.9 Zines Joe Biel 297 16.3.10 Culture jamming 301 257 259 273 17 Funding and nance 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 . .’ Res ources Bibliography Index 306 319 321 329 341 Illustrations 1.1 1.2 1.3 3.1 3.2 3.3 4.1 6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 8.1 8.2 8.3 11.1 11.2 12.1 12.2 13.1 Radical Software quote. Gene Youngblood, The Videosphere The ‘Next 5 Minutes’ logo G eorge Stoney (Photos: Tony Dowmunt) Berlin Horse, double screen installation, Ma lcolm Le Grice, 1970 (courtesy of the artist and LUX, London) Still from Seacoal , Amber Films’ 1985 feature lm. S.-L. Kontinen: Amber Undercurrents team lming in Sr i Lanka following the 2004 tsunami (Paul O’Connor, Undercurrents) Jimi Hendrix (19 67) from Oz magazine (Martin Sharp, born Australia 1942. Planographic offset-lit hograph, originally printed in colour from multiple stones/plates, National Gall ery of Australia, Canberra) Indymedia centre Inside and outside the IMC tent De Hoeksteen composite (Photo: Raul Marroquin) You call it art. Manu Luksch Colonel Hencher on Video Nation site Prisoners’ stills Amy Goodman interviews Aristide fo r Democracy Now! The ex-president of Haiti was on a plane to Africa, where he rst made the claim he had been hijacked by the US and forced into exile (Photo: Dem ocracy Now!) Self-portrait by Jaromil Iranian asylum-seeker being evicted from h er Glasgow at (still from ‘Welcome’ by the Camcorder Guerillas) Gertrude Mthana, AAM participatory communication team leader, lming in Chitsulo village (Photo: Su Bra den) Gertrude Mthana lming (Photo: Su Braden) Iraqi woman and child (Photo: Julia Guest) 2 7 11 33 37 41 48 80 85 102 107 127 136 139 196 198 218 218 230 Contributors Jen Angel is a media activist currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He r 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 alterna tive and community media and has published three books in this area: Alternative Literature (Gower 1996), Alternative Media (Sage 2002) and An Alternative Inter net (Edinburgh University Press 2004).