Sunday, October 16, 2005
BOOKS/RESOURCE: Cambridge University book on community media, published 2005
Community Media: People, Places, and Communication Technologies
Cambridge University Press, 2005
Paperback $34.99; 324 pages
ISBN: 0521796687
"While transnational conglomerates consolidate their control of the global mediascape, local communities struggle to create democratic media systems. This groundbreaking study of community media combines original research with comparative and theoretical analysis in an engaging and accessible style. Kevin Howley explores the different ways in which local communities come to make use of various technologies such as radio, television, print and computer networks for purposes of community communication and considers the ways these technologies shape, and are shaped by, the everyday lived experience of local populations. He also addresses broader theoretical and philosophical issues surrounding the relationship between communication and community, media systems and the public sphere. Case studies illustrate the pivotal role community media play in promoting cultural production and communicative democracy within and between local communities. This book will make a significant con!
tribution to existing scholarship in media and cultural studies on alternative, participatory and community-based media."
-- Balances a theoretically informed discussion of community media with engagingly presented empirical detail
-- Situates a comprehensive discussion of community media in terms of the global struggle for communicative democracy
-- Includes four, richly described case studies of community media organizations
A complete description and review excerpts can be found at:
http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521796687
Kevin Howley is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at DePauw University. Dr. Howley¹s work has appeared in the International Journal of Cultural Studies, Television & New Media, Journal of Radio Studies, Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, Social Movement Studies, and Ecumene. His latest documentary, ³Victory at Sea? Culture Jamming Dubya² had its broadcast premiere on Memorial Day, 2004 over Free Speech Television.
