Abstract
The twosome of media and social justice has become a household discussion topic in many parts of the world lately. Iran’s so-called ‘Twitter Revolution’ in 2009 paved the way. But the watershed might just have been the series of events of the Arab Spring, communicated to the rest of the word via social media. Or perhaps the landmark was when Wikileaks exposed us all to classified war videos and documents and, later, diplomatic wires. Or maybe, for some, one of the most revolutionary combats in terms of media and social justice has been that tongue-in-cheek, yet chillingly efficient and often illegal hacker activism by the group ‘Anonymous’.
And, for many of us, it was impossible to avoid the most viral social media video of our time, the Kony 2012 documentary. Part of a campaign by the US based non-profit Invisible Children, the film aimed at raising awareness about child soldiers and about the atrocities committed by the Ugandan warlord, Joseph Kony.
All the above examples have evoked dramatically contradictory responses. For instance, who were those Iranian tweeters? Did they represent the voice of the people or a small, educated elite? Are the Anonymous international terrorists, irresponsible geeks or digital freedom fighters dedicated to exposing corporate greed? Is sharing the Kony video on Facebook merely ‘slacktivism’, a new manifestation of the ‘White Man’s Burden’ and the West speaking for the rest, or the most successful awareness-raising campaign of all time?
Whatever stance one takes on these and other recent events that have emerged around social justice questions, it seems clear that the role of media is in transition. For one, the media are more fragmented and conceptually less an entity than ever before. Secondly, the prospects about the power of media to create a more just, transparent and participatory world seem ever more conflicted. Commerce meets cause, many alternative voices get lost in the infinite multiplicity, and viral gossip often overrides calls for action.
Third, a consideration for both the medium and the message becomes particularly important in this context. A specific media outlet may shape a message in that it defines proximity and liveness, interactive possibilities and uncensored, borderless commentary. At the same time, the media are not only vehicles for change or harbingers of the status quo. They, in and of themselves, can be considered sites in need of reform, in terms of infrastructure, content, access, and so on. There co-exists, and sometimes coincides, two broad fields: reform and social justice through media, as well as media reform and media justice (e.g., Napoli, 2007).
Finally, given these challenges, it is also clear that more systematic, empirically informed, nuanced and, yes, scholarly work is needed to understand the complexities, identify problems and suggest alternatives. At the same time, this does not mean that media researchers should vet these questions as the ultimate experts. As Sue Curry Jansen, one of the editors of Media and Social Justice, notes in her introduction: ‘Social Justice scholarship is by nature interdisciplinary, oriented towards practice and scholar–practitioner collaboration, and driven by empathy and ethics’.
Media and Social Justice is an important contribution that addresses all of these issues. It challenges the conventional model of scholarly edited volumes by bringing together writings ranging from manifesto-type commentary to interviews, analytical assessments of particular questions, conceptual criticism and re-envisioning existing media models with normative suggestions.
Furthermore, the authors include an impressively diverse list of theorists and empirical research pioneers from academia as well as long-time activists, policy consultants and researcher-practitioner teams. The book showcases an array of themes and approaches, including a global outlook, activists’ visions of what media justice means, specific issues such as ethnic community media and open software, and case studies of particular projects such as the low-FM Prometheus Radio.
The book intervenes in current public discussions and offers historical depth to the present social and online media-driven debates. A few decades of media and social justice thinking and action, often small and grass-roots, sometimes big and global, have preceded the current viral phenomena. Several chapters discuss these roots. Most of them are collected under the heading, ‘Frameworks’, including Cees Hamelink’s essay on global justice, an interview with the legendary video activist, DeeDee Halleck, a self-reflective discussion on democracy by Nick Couldry and a re-mix of what public media can mean by Jessica Clark and Pat Aufderheide. Margaret Gallagher’s article on feminism and social justice also discusses several decades of issues and research. Similarly, Charlotte Ryan and William Gamson describe one of the landmark action research collaborations and draw conclusions from the 25-year history of their project.
Another interruption to business-as-usual is the inclusion of texts that describe processes of movement-building, including funding and related challenges. (Admittedly, having worked for a grants programme described in the book, I may be biased in thinking that transparency in terms of financial and other support is of special importance – and too seldom openly discussed in academic circles.)
All these dimensions are the richness of Media and Social Justice. They highlight a diversity of themes, stakeholders, power struggles, viewpoints, ethical dilemmas, research challenges and normative conclusions. In other words, the book depicts the messiness of trying to make the world a better place – a condition that is not only challenging, but also a source of incredible creativity, passion and potential impact. Sometimes the diversity of approaches may feel overwhelming to the reader, and, given the broad field that the book seeks to cover, some more meta-text to guide the reader between chapters or sections might have been useful.
The cases featured in the book are relatively US-centred. This is in many ways understandable, given the partial framing of the book by the editors around ‘Social Justice Studies’ – a more American concept as a distinct academic discipline. The role of community and alternative media, as well as media justice and reform movements, have more established, robust roots in the US and Canada than perhaps anywhere else in the world. Yet, given international institutional initiatives ranging from the New World Information and Communication Order of the 1970s and the 1980s to the World Summit on the Information Society and the Internet Governance Forum, as well as all the local development and alternative media organizations working for social justice everywhere around the globe, a few more non-American examples would have broadened the outlook of the book.
Finally, unlike the title of Nina Gregg’s chapter, ‘Media is not the issue: Justice is the issue’, the distinction between social justice messages that are communicated via media, and issues that concern media themselves remains important (if not always clear-cut). This is implicitly evident in all the chapters, yet not too often explicitly expressed. The case of Everett Parker’s heroic work on behalf of the United Church of Christ (UCC) during the US civil rights movement in the 1960s is a classic example. Through systematic research, Parker was able to prove that television stations in the South were biased. And because of this evidence, the UCC was able to have the licence of a station revoked.
Jansen recounts the story in her introduction to Media and Social Justice as a benchmark of the beginning of the contemporary media reform movement. The case is also an example of how media structures (such as ownership and licensing policies) may influence social justice causes. In other words, it is important to work for a robust public sphere (something that is often framed as media reform) in order to be able to efficiently address social justice questions via various media.
But the case bears even further importance to academic contexts. It shows the power of empirical research and researchers as activists and educators. Parker went on to become a professor at Fordham University, New York, and continued to teach critical thinking, ethics and social justice to generations of communication students. In these days of messy viral movements, media critical skills in terms of social justice questions are of paramount importance. This book provides one tool to raise that kind of awareness.