Understanding Community Media

A text that reveals the value and significance of community media in an era of global communication

With contributions from an international team of well-known experts, media activists, and promising young scholars, this comprehensive volume examines community-based media from theoretical, empirical, and practical perspectives. More than 30 original essays provide an incisive and timely analysis of the relationships between media and society, technology and culture, and communication and community.

Key Features

• Provides vivid examples of community and alternative media initiatives from around the world
• Explores a wide range of media institutions, forms, and practices―community radio, participatory video, street newspapers, Independent Media Centers, and community informatics
• Offers cutting-edge analysis of community and alternative media with original essays from new, emerging, and established voices in the field
• Takes a multidimensional approach to community media studies by highlighting the social, economic, cultural, and political significance of alternative, independent, and community-oriented media organizations
• Enters the ongoing debates regarding the theory and practice of community media in a comprehensive and engaging fashion

Intended Audience

This core text is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Community Media, Alternative Media, Media & Social Change, Communication & Culture, and Participatory Communication in the departments of communication, media studies, sociology, and cultural studies.

Kevin Howley, Ph.D., 1997, Indiana University is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at DePauw University. Dr. Howley’s research and teaching interests include the political economy of communication, cultural politics, and the relationship between media and social movements. He is author of Community Media: People, Places, and Communication Technologies (Cambridge, 2005). His work has appeared in the Journal of Radio Studies, Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism, Television and New Media, the International Journal of Cultural Studies, and Social Movement Studies. A contributing writer for The Bloomington Alternative, Dr. Howley continues to produce for community radio and public access television. His most recent project was an audio feature for Sprouts, Pacifica Radio’s weekly news magazine, titled Hard Times Come Again No More: A Tribute to Russell J. Compton (2007).