By FN for APCNews SYDNEY, Australia,
Published onPage last updated on
John D.H. Downing is professor of international communications and the founding director of the Global Media Research Center at the South Illinois University, United States of America.
On the sidelines of the OURMedia/NUESTROSMedios VI international conference held in Sydney, Australia, in mid-April 2007, Downing spoke to APCNews staff writer Frederick Noronha and explained where his critique of the media intersects with the possibilities opened up by information and communication technologies (ICTs).
Downing authored ‘Radical Media: the political experience of alternative communication’ (1984, South End Press, Boston), and another two-thirds revised version, ‘Radical Media: rebellious communication and social movements’ (2001, Sage Publications, California).
He has also published on the Indymedia network, and on issues of racism and the media, and on the media in the latter phase of the Soviet bloc. Currently, he is editing a one-volume encyclopaedia about alternative media for Sage Publications, which focuses on examples from across the planet – from the "Boxer rebellion” [1] through to the present day.
1 Chinese rebellion from November 1899 to September 7, 1901, against foreign influence in areas such as trade, politics, religion and technology.
He describes his trajectory thus: "I was, like many of us, always a media junkie. In the 1960s, I became frustrated with the media, particularly on its coverage of strikes…"
APCNews: To begin, how would you define ‘radical media’?
Prof Downing: Radical media is a subset of alternative communications or the independent media. So we only know that they are small-scale, grassroots(-based), and underfunded. Because that’s true of all these media.
But what distinguishes radical media is that they’re like the origin of the word radical. It comes from the Latin for ‘root’. So, they are media, which tries to go to the root of issues. Not just dealing with what are passing issues, but with the real substance of political, economic and cultural maters.
The radical media that I study and focus on are mostly what I call "progressive" ones. But, we, in our own interest as political progressives, must be aware that the far right wing can also use media of this kind.
If you look, the extremists of the (right conservative) Hindutva movement, for instance, have been using this type of media very effectively. We need to realise how powerful they can be; and we should not think we are the only people who use media.
APCNews: In a post-internet world, have things become easier for the radical and alternative media to get a hearing?
Prof Downing: I would say that what the internet enables is certain new means of mobilisation. I think it enables new means of global as well as local or regional networking.
It enables forums to be set up and connections to be made, which were much more difficult to establish previously.
It also permits what I’d call "intermediate size audiences" or readerships for radical media. That is, not the mass – multi-million sized – audiences. But it’s no longer only very tiny audiences and readerships that were available before. There is an expansion not even to a middle level, but a larger scale than previous.
APCNews: How does all this impact the global south, or the Third World, or the so-called ‘developing’ world?
Prof Downing: We’re now at a point when the Global South and the Global North have to be disaggregated. In some parts of Mumbai or Delhi or Chennai (in India), the opportunities are very strong and they are not particularly different from those available in say, New York, London or Tokyo.
But in other parts of those latter cities – as in some parts of London, NY and Tokyo – there are people in a totally different scenario. They do not have the possibility of getting money, technology, access to good education (as opposed to a prison process for young people until they are 18). So it’s enormously varied …
One colleague did a study of computer and mobile phone use in the capital of Niger. What he found was characteristic of the African continent, showing the significant expansion of mobile use but not of computer use. That’s because computers are very expensive, particularly in the case of connectivity. When it comes to cell phones, you can get very, very cheap phones, which may not be the best, but they function.
It now depends on how aggressively cell phone manufacturers decide to develop certain computer features on their phones. With wi-fi access, that could happen. It’s possible that a number of functions may shift from the PC to the cell phone.
What this means for the radical media is a further question…
Photo: John D.H. Downing
Photo taken by Frederick Noronha, April 2007.
