Introduction to the book

In January 2003 I was at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porta Alegre in Brazil, as a member of the ‘Terra Viva’ reporting team of Inter Press Service newsagency. The week long   gathering of representatives from various peoples’ movements from across the globe was attended by over 120,000 people and some 4000 media practitioners. Yet, so called mainstream media organisations were conspicuous by their absence. Thus it was left to community radio broadcasters, web journalists and a host of other alternative media practitioners to report the voices of the world’s social activists and peoples’ movements.

Addressing an audience of over 5000 people at the WSF, Professor Ignacio Ramonet, Professor of Communication Theatre, University of Paris hit the correct cord when he noted:

“Media for a long time was the resource of the citizenry to response to the abuse of power (by governments). In democratic countries media was supposed to be the watchdog of the executive. Thus for a long time we have talked about the ‘Fourth Estate’ or fourth power - to counter state power. The power citizens had to oppose decisions (of the government), which would have harmful effects on them. The fourth power no longer has this power. With the advent of globalisation, global companies now have more important role to play than countries. This has produced a transformation of the media. The media now more and more belong to companies, which have global economic interests. Corporation now own and produce not only traditional media, but everything which we call culture and communication. These were earlier separated from the media. Now we have fewer differences in what is done in journalism, advertising and mass culture. They are also involved in leisure, pop music, cinema and sports. Key companies like Time Warner, Disney and AOL are key lead actors in globalisation. They have no objective of being the fourth power. They have come together as a power. The fourth power is now exploiting and oppressing the populations (for their own profits). How can we tackle this power, which has transformed from friends of the citizenry to its enemy? Now we have to find a ‘fifth power’.”

This fifth power, many argue, has to be the community-based media, which is not driven by profits nor is it subservient to the government.

Louie Tabing, the founder of Tambuli Community Radio in the Philippines describes the mainstream media in his country, which is regarded as having one of the freest media environments in Asia as a  ‘five Ps’ system. The five P’s he is referring to are – Profit, Propaganda, Power, Politics, Privilege, Prestige. Thus, in a presentation given at the Radio Asia 2005 conference in Singapore, he noted:

“Yes, the mainstream electronic media in the Philippines dish out news, information and public service, yet the overriding objective is to make money. The commercial companies, the religious organisations and government have specific agenda other than people empowerment, development and education. May be the social scientists overlooked something when they declared that media’s social functions are to inform and to educate. In my country, these social roles expected of the media are only used as an excuse for giving advantages to those who are already advantaged.”

When we started this project, most of the country researchers asked me what is the definition of alternative media? It is a question that is sometimes difficult to answer, because such definitions depend very much on the political, social, cultural and economic environment you live in.

Alternative media, community radio in particular, is very close to my heart, because it is community radio in Australia which allowed me to get a foot into the media environment, when the mainstream media there was not accessible to “ethnic” migrants like me. If, I was living in some other country, it may have been my political ideas rather than ethnicity which would have prevented me from working in the mainstream media. Thus, alternative media would have different meaning for different people. However in general we came up with the following broad definitions of alternative media:

·    A communication system and tradition that can supplement the mainstream media, appearing because the mainstream media fails to meet the communication needs of certain groups .
 
Community Radio is that is operated in the community, for the community, about the community and by the community. The community can be territorial or geographical - a township, village, district or island. It can also be a group of people with common interests, who are not necessarily living in one defined territory. Consequently, community radio can be managed or controlled by one group, by combined groups, or of people such as women, children, farmers, fisher folk, ethnic groups, or senior citizens. What distinguishes community radio from other media is the high level of people’s participation, both in management and program production aspects. Furthermore, individual community members and local institutions are the principal sources of support for its operation .

An alternative media institution (to the extent possible given its circumstances) doesn’t try to maximise profits, doesn’t primarily sell audience to advertisers for revenue (and so seeks broad and non-elite audiences), is structured to subvert society’s defining hierarchical social relationships, and is structurally profoundly different from and as independent of other major social institutions, particularly corporation, as it can be .

There are really no hard and  fast rules that define alternative media. There is however some commonalities, with the overriding factor being, the idea that alternative media outlets will take on stories and topics that more traditional media outlets will not touch. This is mainly due to the traditional media’s relationship with the corporate sector, the government or the need to protect the status-quo.

Another definition of alternative media is that it gives the audiences choice that is free from corporate and government control. They avoid any form of self-censorship for the fear of offending governments or decreasing its audience, which in turn will impact on advertising. Yet, alternative media sets itself apart from the mainstream, very often with a strong political slant and a sense of an agenda (ie. for a cultural or political cause).

One of the most important aspect of alternative media is the idea of participation, which actively encourage participation of its audience, be it as volunteer producers in community radio or television or forum inputs in web-based media.

In the chapters that follow, you will find a diversity of alternative media covering print, radio, television, video, audio towers, theatre, song, internet based news sites, blogs, wall papers, and even posters. It is also interesting to note how the country’s political and regulatory environment, influence the type of technology or models of transmission, alternative media practitioners use to get their message across.

It is also important to note that economics play a crucial role in the success or failure of an alternative media model. Yes, alternative media is not about profit making, yet, there are many costs involved in running an alternative media set up. As many case studies in this book reflect, most alternative media projects depends on grants and once the grants dry out the project dies with it. Thus, the biggest challenge facing alternative media right across Asia is to come up with an economically viable model, which is not dependant on grants for survival. The struggle to achieve that balanced goes on, and we hope this publication will play a positive role in this process.

This book is part of a greater Asian alternative media project being implemented by AMIC over the coming years, which will include an ‘Asian Alternative Media Portal’ and a number of other associated projects to link, network, empower and nurture alternative media in Asia.