Room to Resist? Community and Alternative Media and the Neo–Liberal Agenda

Abstract

Over the past decade and more, there has been a significant growth in academic attention directed towards community and alternative media. This increase is indicative of a number of trends in global media and communication. The growth in internet-based media initiatives and the explosion of social media sites are obvious examples – although the content and process of these media are not always alternative of course, even though the medium may be new. Alongside these newer technologies, more traditional outlets of community and alternative media (in particular, radio) have also grown exponentially. In Australia and internationally, much of the community and alternative media literature shares at least an admiration or even at times, a celebration of the new media’s potential to deliver communicative democracy. Typically, this local-level grassroots media – for the people, by the people – challenges mainstream media by destabilising the status quo, enabling a positive cacophony of diverse and/or marginalised voices to communicate their ideas and beliefs. And audience research (Meadows et al, 2007; McNair, 2010) suggests it presents not only an opportunity to broadcast, but to be heard. In an age where concentrated media ownership and associated economies of scale limit diversity, these efforts signal the possibility of something different. Despite this recent growth, there is no doubt that these media have flourished in a broader environment which remains relatively hostile. At the current historical juncture, media policy environments and the mediasphere at large are defined by the discourses of neo-liberalism. Reviewing the authors’ local, national and international experiences of alternative and community media, and with one eye on the recent Independent Media Inquiry, this paper confronts the contemporary neo-liberal powerhouse and its implications for community and alternative media producers and their audiences.