Understanding Community Media

This text reveals the value and significance of community media in an era of global communication.  Bringing together an international team of scholars and practitioners, it introduces students to the emerging field of community media studies.  Throughout, contributors explore a wide range of media institutions, forms and practices-community radio, participatory video, street newspapers, Independent Media Centers (IMCs), and community informatics-from around the world.  Over thirty original essays consider the particular and distinctive ways local populations make use of various technologies for purposes of community communication.  The collection provides an incisive and timely analysis of the relationship between media and society, technology and culture, and communication and community.