This book explores how the Internet presents radical ways of organising and producing media that offer political and cultural alternatives, both to ways of doing business and to how we understand the world and our place in it. It is characterised by in-depth case studies. Topics include the media of new social movements and other radical political organisations (including the far right); websites produced by fans of popular culture; and media dedicated to developing a critical, ‘public’ journalism. The book locates these studies in appropriate theoretical and historical contexts, while remaini ... More

This book explores how the Internet presents radical ways of organising and producing media that offer political and cultural alternatives, both to ways of doing business and to how we understand the world and our place in it. It is characterised by in-depth case studies. Topics include the media of new social movements and other radical political organisations (including the far right); websites produced by fans of popular culture; and media dedicated to developing a critical, ‘public’ journalism. The book locates these studies in appropriate theoretical and historical contexts, while remaining accessible to a student audience. Major themes include: the use of the Internet by political groups such as the anti-capitalist and environmental movements, as well as the far right; radical forms of creativity and distribution — the anti-copyright and sampling/file-sharing movements, and their role as cultural critics in a corporate world; the development and maintenance of a global, ‘digital public sphere’ of protest through such practices as ‘hacktivism’; the use of new media technologies to transform existing media forms and practices, such as news media and Internet radio.