The Alternative Media Handbook ‘Alternative media’ are media produced by the socially, culturally and politically excluded: they are always independently run and often community-f ocused, rang- ing from pirate radio to activist publications, from digital video experiments to radical work on the Web. The Alternative Media Handbook explores the many and diverse media forms that these non-m ainstream media take. The Alternative Media Handbook gives brief histories of alternative radio, video and fi lm, press and activity on the Web, then offers an overview of global alternative media work through numerous case studies, before moving on to pro- vide practical information about alternative media production and how to get involved in it. The Alternative Media Handbook includes both theoretical and practical approaches and information, including sections on: (cid:129) successful fundraising (cid:129) podcasting (cid:129) blogging (cid:129) publishing (cid:129) pitching a project (cid:129) radio production (cid:129) culture jamming (cid:129) access to broadcasting. Kate Coyer is an independent radio producer, media activist and post-d octoral research fellow with the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and Central European University in Budapest. Tony Dowmunt has been involved in alternative video and television produc- tion since 1975 and is now course tutor on the MA in Screen Documentary at Goldsmiths, University of London. Alan Fountain is currently Chief Executive of European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE), a professional development programme for fi lm and television producers. He was the fi rst Commissioning Editor for Independent Film and TV at Channel Four, 1981–94. Media Practice Edited by James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London The Media Practice handbooks 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 information about the structure, processes and skills involved in working in today’s media industries, providing not only a guide on ‘how to do it’ but also a critical refl ection 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 OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, 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 collection 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 utilised 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 book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Coyer, Kate. The alternative media handbook / Kate Coyer, Tony Dowmunt, and Alan Fountain. p. cm. (Media practice) 1. Alternative mass media. I. Dowmunt, 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) ISBN 13: 978–0–415–35965–8 (pbk) Contents List of illustrations viii List of contributors ix Foreword James Curran xix 1 Introduction Tony Dowmunt (with Kate Coyer) 1 Part I Where alternative media came from 13 2 Mysteries of the black box unbound: an alternative history of radio Kate Coyer 15 3 Alternative fi lm, video and television 1965–2005 Alan Fountain 29 4 The alternative press Angela Phillips 47 5 A brief history: the Web and interactive media Chris Atton 59 Part II What’s happening now 67 6 Radical journalism 69 6.1 Alternative media in practice Chris Atton 71 6.2 Indymedia and the politics of participation: reporting the G8 in Scotland, 2005 ‘Sam and Annie’ 78 6.3 SchNEWS at ten 88 vi Contents 7 Experimental forms 91 7.1 Alternative visions of television David Garcia and Lennaart Van Oldenborgh 93 7.2 ambientTV.net Manu Luksch and Mukul Patel 105 7.3 Zines Katie Haegele 108 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 broadcasting: 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 alternative media? 141 9.1 Getting alternative messages in mainstream media Natalie Fenton 143 9.2 Communication of the oppressed: alternative media and their political impact in contemporary Latin America João Alexandre Peschanski 154 10 Culture jamming 163 10.1 Stop signs: an introduction to culture jamming Graham Meikle 166 10.2 Culture jamming the video game way Sue Scheibler 179 11 New(er) technologies 186 11.1 Copyright: the politics of owning culture Gregor Claude 188 11.2 A2T: bridging the digital divide Adnan Hadzi 194 12 Alternative media in development 206 12.1 Alternative and participatory media in developing countries James Deane 206 12.2 Mgwirzano: a case study from Malawi Su Braden 212 13 Distribution and audiences 224 13.1 The power and the passion: community radio in Australia Michael Meadows, Susan Forde, Jacqui Ewart and Kerrie Foxwell 226 13.2 Lux Julia Knight 228 Contents vii 14 Student media 232 14.1 Student radio Salvatore Scifo 233 14.2 Student press Salvatore Scifo 236 15 Media activism 238 15.1 The global movement to transform communications Dorothy Kidd 239 15.2 Media reform activism in the US: the movement against consolidation of media ownership Pete Tridish and Kate Coyer 248 15.3 Media activist initiatives Simon Blanchard 251 Part III Doing it yourself 257 16 DIY media-m aking resources 259 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 273 16.3.4 Podcasting Andrew Dubber 276 16.3.5 Video/TV/fi lm production 279 16.3.6 Creating websites Owen Mundy 284 16.3.7 Blogging Andrew Dubber 287 16.3.8 Print publishing Jen Angel 290 16.3.9 Zines Joe Biel 297 16.3.10 Culture jamming 301 17 Funding and fi nance 306 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 . . .’ 319 Resources 321 Bibliography 329 Index 341 Illustrations 1.1 Radical Software quote. Gene Youngblood, The Videosphere 2 1.2 The ‘Next 5 Minutes’ logo 7 1.3 George Stoney (Photos: Tony Dowmunt) 11 3.1 Berlin Horse, double screen installation, Malcolm Le Grice, 1970 (courtesy of the artist and LUX, London) 33 3.2 Still from Seacoal, Amber Films’ 1985 feature fi lm. S.- L. Kontinen: Amber 37 3.3 Undercurrents team fi lming in Sri Lanka following the 2004 tsunami (Paul O’Connor, Undercurrents) 41 4.1 Jimi Hendrix (1967) from Oz magazine (Martin Sharp, born Australia 1942. Planographic offset-l ithograph, originally printed in colour from multiple stones/plates, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra) 48 6.1 Indymedia centre 80 6.2 Inside and outside th e IMC tent 85 7.1 De Hoeksteen composite (Photo: Raul Marroquin) 102 7.2 You call it art. Manu Luksch 107 8.1 Colonel Hencher on Video Nation site 127 8.2 Prisoners’ stills 136 8.3 Amy Goodman interviews Aristide for Democracy Now! The ex-p resident of Haiti was on a plane to Africa, where he fi rst made the claim he had been hijacked by the US and forced into exile (Photo: Democracy Now!) 139 11.1 Self-p ortrait by Jaromil 196 11.2 Iranian asylum- seeker being evicted from her Glasgow fl at (still from ‘Welcome’ by the Camcorder Guerillas) 198 12.1 Gertrude Mthana, AAM participatory communication team leader, fi lming in Chitsulo village (Photo: Su Braden) 218 12.2 Gertrude Mthana fi lming (Photo: Su Braden) 218 13.1 Iraqi woman and child (Photo: Julia Guest) 230 Contributors Jen Angel is a media activist currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her 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 alternative and community media and has published three books in this area: Alternative Literature (Gower 1996), Alternative Media (Sage 2002) and An Alternative Internet (Edinburgh University Press 2004). Joe Biel is an author, fi lmmaker, designer, and multidisciplinary artist currently living in Bloomington, Indiana. His fi lms include the award-winning A Hun- dred Dollars and a T-Shirt: A Documentary about Zines in the Northwest, Martinis in the Bike Lane, Tennessee State Prison, Of Dice and Men, and Last Train Out of North America. He founded Microcosm Publishing in 1996. Simon Blanchard is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Media Pro- duction at the University of Lincoln. Su Braden is an independent development communications researcher, and author of Video for Development: A Casebook from Vietnam with Than Thi Thien Huong (Stylus Publishing 1998), Committing Photography (Pluto Press l983), and Artists and People (Routledge l978). Michael Chanan is a fi lmmaker, writer and Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of the West of England. His latest fi lm is Detroit: Ruin of a City. Details at www.mchanan.dial.pipex.com Gregor Claude is a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research interests include cultural industries, the digital media and media theory, and intellectual property. Kate Coyer is a post-doctoral research fellow with the Annenberg School for Com- munication, University of Pennsylvania and Central European University,