The Community Communication and Alternative Media Section welcomes contributions from all scholars who research and work in this field and is encouraging submissions particularly on the following themes:
1. Beyond Sustainability
As sustainability is often co-opted for corporate greenwashing or focused on class-specific consumption practices, we ask what grassroots or alternative media and communication can offer for climate justice and environmental justice. How can communities most impacted by climate change and environmental destruction be heard? How does civil society monitor and critique greenwashing by governments and corporations? What are the Southern and Non-Western approaches to sustainability and how are these mediated? And how can activists and communities challenge the often-hidden environmental costs of media use?
2. Contesting Bans and Borders
The IAMCR conference is being held in the USA at a time of Travel Bans and the Border Wall with Mexico. In Europe and Australia far right parties and movements are in the ascendency. In Asia and Latin America, we are faced with populist leaders, ultra nationalist and conservative religious political forces. What are the movements and initiatives against the neoconservative wave and hate speech worldwide? How are community and alternative media organising and working in the context of bans, xenophobia, backlashes against human rights and hardening borders?
3. Innovative communication practices for social justice
In a time of resurgent populism, xenophobia, ultra-nationalism and far right movements in many parts of the world, innovative and creative ways to communicate have emerged. Using dialogue, music, graffiti, theatre, performance, photography, audio or video individuals and collectives are engaging in diverse communicative practices that aim at fostering social justice, building peace, and challenging corporate media and surveillance. Where do these practices emerge? What methods are we using to register and analyze them? How are innovation and creativity being used to develop original ways to communicate? How are these practices related to social movements, local struggles, social justice issues and peace building efforts?
4. Digital Activism, Data and Social Change
In an era of ubiquitous surveillance and data capitalism, what are the challenges and opportunities for alternative and community media? What are the possibilities to intervene in algorithmic logics and extractive business models? What are the prospects for data justice? In addition, major protests of the past decade have led to the emergence of innovative and experimental media practices – from DIY live streaming to data activism to social media uses to hacktivism. Many of them have been accompanied by claims that communication technology was at the heart of their success (or failure). Academia has seen debates on ‘Twitter Revolutions’, ‘liberation technology’, cyber-optimism and cyber-pessimism, and the values and limitations of commercial media platforms. What have we learnt from these experiences and the debates around them? What role has digital activism had in fostering social change?
5. Community and Alternative Journalism: Contexts and Characteristics
After Brexit and the election of US President Trump, Indian PM Modi and Philippines President Duterte among others, racism, law and order policies, militarised borders and populist nationalism are at the centre of politics in many parts of the world. Journalists are accused of ‘fake news’ and attacked at press conferences. What is the role of community and alternative journalism in such a context? What are the possibilities and challenges for critical reporting on white supremacist or ultra-nationalist movements? What new forms of grassroots media (and collaborations) are emerging in the wake of Wikileaks and other whistleblower projects? What journalistic practices have led to social and political transformations?
6. Challenges and Opportunities for Freedom of Expression, Communication Rights and the Democratization of Communications
The policy environment for community, alternative and citizen media offers a diverse picture. Community media are increasingly being legalized, but media freedoms are threatened by the ‘war on terror’, mass surveillance and content restrictions (such as internet blocking/filtering). How are community, alternative and citizen media impacted by global governance processes? What is the legal and regulatory situation of community, citizen and alternative media in different parts of the globe? How are local initiatives and experiences facing the challenges to freedom of expression and communication rights? What practices have emerged in the struggle to protect and exercise communication rights?
7. Theorizing Alternative, Community and Citizen Media
The Community Communication and Alternative Media Section is interested in investigating, continuing and challenging the theoretical directions laid out by leading thinkers in the field, and developing understandings of relevant emerging concepts. How do we update critical concepts in light of political, technological and social change? How can classic works in our field help us understand new practices and technologies? How do digital cultures and commercial social media affect collective communicative action and alternative media? How do we explore connects and disconnects between this field and related academic fields?