Raising the Civil Dead: Prisoners and Community Radio

Abstract

What is prisoners' radio? Who is involved in creating these types of programs and what influence do they have on discourses of law and order? Internationally, radio that operates for, or by, prisoners exists almost exclusively within the community radio context. Little has been documented about the genre so far. "Raising the Civil Dead" seeks to address this lack of information. It examines prisoners' radio as citizens' media, connecting directly to notions of civic responsibility. It focuses on the ways in which people produce media and how these activities transform those individuals. The research is the result of four in-depth case studies conducted in two countries, complemented by an international inventory of prisoners' radio programs and stations.