Alternative journalism

O jornalismo alternativo está presente desde os primórdios do que se entende como jornalismo, observando mais atentamente o contexto brasileiro. Atualmente, há um crescimento significativo de iniciativas de jornalismo alternativo. Com o objetivo de contribuir para o debate a respeito do jornalismo atual, apresentamos um estudo que procura fundamentar o que pode ser entendido como jornalismo alternativo, considerando sua gênese conceitual e os fatores que favorecem sua difusão atualmente. Nesse sentido, trata-se de uma proposta teórica cuja intenção é orientar a percepção sobre o que são essas iniciativas e o que representam.

Neste artigo buscamos responder o que é, afinal, Jornalismo de Guerrilha. Empreendemos uma revisão de literatura evidenciando definições e dimensões ao mesmo tempo complementares e contraditórias para tal noção. Colocamos à prova nossa compreensão com a análise do fenômeno do Mídia Ninja, observando mais especificamente suas transmissões simultâneas, para verificar como o coletivo desenvolve suas formas de atuação e se ele se enquadra ou não em tal nos aspectos que caracterizam tal noção conceitual. Ao final, tecemos considerações que sinalizam o caráter exploratório da apreciação frente ao fenômeno observado e a complexidade em delimitar o conceito pretendido.

Gazetecilere “gökyüzündeki gözlerden” biri olma olanağı sunan drone’lar, büyük medya kuruluşlarının habercilik faaliyetlerinden yurttaş gazeteciliğine dek uzanan gazetecilik alan ve uygulamaları için yeni olanaklar ve açılımlar sunmaktadır. Ancak diğer yandan, sahip olduğu havadan yüksek gözetim kapasitesi drone kullanımlarında sınırlarının nasıl çizileceğine dair tartışmaları da beraberinde getirmektedir. Ulusal güvenlik, kamu sağlığı ve güvenliği, özel yaşamın korunması ile kamunun bilgi alma özgürlüğü, basın özgürlüğü ve ifade özgürlüğü tartışma konularından bazılarıdır. Drone’ların gazetecilik amaçlı kullanımları üzerine odaklanan bu çalışmada drone haberciliğinin sunduğu olanaklar, bu olanakların sınırları konuyla ilgili yasal ve etik çekinceler göz önüne alınarak, mevcut ulusal ve uluslararası literatür çerçevesinde irdelenmektedir.

This paper examines the normative role of constructive journalism—also called “solutions journalism”—by analyzing metajournalistic discourse about solutions-focused journalism. The findings show that constructive and solutions journalism are defined similarly: they profess traditional Anglo-Saxon journalistic norms and practices, even as they shift focus from problems to solutions. The metajournalistic discourse indicates a tension over the normative roles of journalism. Constructive journalism justifies its existence by the intensified need to solve vexing social issues. At the same time, proponents of constructive journalism regularly distance themselves from advocating for social good and claim to objectively cover solutions without endorsing them. This strategic rhetoric signals an attempt to draw a sharp line between constructive journalism and advocacy, and to situate constructive journalism within the boundaries of a traditional monitorial role of journalism. Metadiscourse about constructive journalism reveals reluctance to acknowledge and articulate its normative constructive role that seeks to help society.

La presente ponencia tiene por objeto presentar un amplio marco conceptual sobre los aspectos que puede precisar un estudio de prácticas periodísticas desde lo alternativo y lo comunitario. En primer lugar se presenta una introducción del contexto en el que podría ser el origen de ambas nociones. Seguidamente, se exponen aproximaciones desde lo filosófico, lo comunicativo y lo mediático, y finalmente se aborda las nociones de periodismo alternativo y periodismo comunitario. En el cierre se hace un llamado a enfocar el análisis de estas prácticas comunicativas mediadas por las nuevas tecnologías.

Much African journalism scholarship has had a critical stand towards ‘Western’ journalism models. The criticism has resulted in the submission of alternative African journalism models such as ujamaa journalism, ubuntu journalism and oral discourse journalism. The present article reviews a number of significant contributions to normative African journalism models over the past 50 years and argues that they constitute three major streams: journalism for social change, communal journalism and journalism based on oral discourse. The vital differences between these three journalism models are explicated along the dimensions of interventionism and cultural essentialism. The article goes on to enquire why the three journalism models of Africa, different as they are, appear to be in collective conflict with Western journalism paradigms. It is suggested that the dimensions of socio-historicity and professionalism best explain the conflict

The last two decades witnessed the phenomenal migratory flows of Africans, especially Nigerians, to the West, including the United States, at a proportion outpaced only by the Transatlantic Slave Trade. While the political and economic consequences of the migration flows of Nigerians to the United States have been captured fairly robustly in the scholarly literature on globalization, there is scant attention to the transnational online journalistic practices of Nigerians in the diaspora and what impacts these practices have had and continue to have on not just the form and content of journalistic practices in Nigeria but also on the national post-military politics of the country. This study used case studies to show ways in which citizen media owned by U.S.-based Nigerians broke sensitive stories that not only made it to the front pages of local Nigerian newspapers but also caused federal and state governments to react officially. The findings have implications for how we theorize news flows in the age of phenomenally fast transborder
data made possible by the Internet.

Journalism Studies and the Global South: Rethinking Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy Over the years, the study of journalism has crystallized into a well-de ned sub-discipline in the eld of media and communication studies. As a sub-discipline, it has also burgeoned into a tapestry of cultures, epistemologies, ways of knowing and doing that exist in tension and in dialogue with each other. The establishment of the Journalism Studies journal about two decades ago has created the much-needed platform for cultural ferment on the craft and a kind of heterotopia that is necessary to transform the sub-discipline through intercultural trans-epistemic dialogue from di erent intellectual traditions around the world. This Special Issue represents one such dialogue from the Global South which is about the need to decolonize the theories, methods, and pedagogies that under-gird the sub-discipline. Apart from Southern theories, the Issue also focuses on how the Global South can unthink Eurocentrism and its colonial matrices that are embedded in news media institutions, processes, and journalistic practices. The Global South is used here not only as a geo-political category for mapping the cartographies of power in knowledge production in Journalism between the West and non-West, but also as an analytical tool for understanding domination in an increasingly deterritorialized and invisible cog-nitive empire. It is an epistemic angle and a resistance imaginary for recuperating new loci of enunciation from silenced ontologies, histories, cultures, bodies, and worldviews of the South. Needless to say, the debate on decolonization in journalism studies is long overdue. For some time now, media and communication studies have been engaged in a re ective and soul-searching journey about the need for transforming the eld through a more diverse and inclusive multicultural theory. The tropes for this transformative process have ranged from internationalization to de-west-ernization. However, they have increasingly crystallized around the decolonization imperative. Decolonization is seen as seminal in the birth of a multicultural turn that gestures towards an intercultural and trans-epistemic knowledge order in the projects of theory-building in the sub-eld of Journalism studies. While the de-westernization and decolonization debates have speci cally been more prevalent in the sub-disciplines like international communication and intercultural communication, not much has been done in journalism studies, speci cally.

This essay examines a neglected aspect of graphic design in socialist Yugoslavia, namely, newspaper design and does so by looking outside of the framework of the mainstream media. More specifically, it analyses remarkable graphic achievements of a network of diverse publications, from central weeklies to specialized culture magazines, produced under the auspices of youth and student state organizations, known as the youth press. 1 From the late 1960s onward, this archetypical communist genre, designed to shape loyal young subjects of the regime, became an unlikely birthplace of a wide range of visual experiments and innovations that reflected the evolution of this distinctive medium and the ongoing social changes, as well as the emerging youth culture, while leaving a profound mark on the mediascape of the country as a whole.

Journalistische Medienorganisationen erleben seit der Jahrtausendwende ein Wechselbad der Gefühle. Auf die New Economy-Krise folgte Wachstum und Prosperität, bis schließlich die globale Finanzkrise ab 2008 die etablierten Geschäftsmodelle auf eine ernsthafte Probe stellte. Ein struktureller Wandlungsprozess durch digitale Technologien verschärft die Thematik. Aus einer demokratietheoretischen Perspektive drängt sich die Frage auf, ob etablierte journalistische Medienorganisationen angesichts aktueller Herausforderungen ihre Rolle als öffentliche Kommunikatoren noch adäquat bewältigen können. Dieser Beitrag analysiert daher exemplarisch strukturelle Schwächen und Probleme dominanter Medienorganisationsformen und beleuchtet als Konsequenz potenzielle Alternativen dazu. Diese Alternativen stärken (hypothetisch) den öffentlichen Kommunikationsprozess und gleichen mögliche Insuffizienzen in den etablierten Organisationsformen aus. Aufgrund der Erfolge stiftungsfinanzierter Organisationen am US-Medienmarkt, geht der Beitrag auf das Potenzial von philanthropisch- bzw. stiftungsfinanzierten Organisationen auf europäischer Ebene ein. Anhand ausgewählter Fallstudien wird dargestellt, welche Leistungen diese Organisationen für den öffentlichen Kommunikationsprozess bereits erbracht haben bzw. welche Leistungen in Anbetracht der strukturellen und organisatorischen Beschaffenheit möglich sind. Als qualitative Studie liefert der Beitrag Ansätze für medienpolitische Maßnahmen und Optionen für etablierte Medienorganisationen.

RESUMO-Neste artigo, buscamos compreender o ativismo digital materno a partir da análise de um blog que passou a operar como uma plataforma de mídia independente: o Cientista Que Virou Mãe (CQVM). Gostaríamos de apresentar os indícios que revelam que esta plataforma atua como importante iniciativa de ativismo digital materno. Tanto nos estudos feministas, como nos estudos de comunicação e mídia, este recorte, mais voltado para a análise das relações entre maternidade, feminismo e mídia, é relativamente pouco trabalhado. Após localizarmos a plataforma CQVM dentro do contexto do ativismo digital materno, destacamos que tal fenômeno pode ser beneficiado por uma maior incorporação das perspectivas do feminismo interseccional. Para demonstrar esse ponto, adotamos uma abordagem de inspiração (n)etnográfica, analisando um evento marcante na história da plataforma, o qual trouxe à tona as vozes das mulheres e mães negras. Palavras-chave: Ativismo digital. Ativismo materno. Feminismo interseccional. Mídia independente.

During the Vietnam War, American planes dropped more bombs on Cambodia than had fallen in all of Europe during World War II. The event marks a key moment in the secretive expansion of U.S. military power, and this article looks at how mainstream journalism helped create the discursive conditions that abetted this expansion. After an explication of the historical and theoretical rationales for studying the relation between journalism and U.S. military power, this article analyzes Time magazine's coverage of Cambodia from 1969 to 1973 and finds that the American press at the time was not discursively configured to critique the U.S. military-diplomatic apparatus. The article analyzes the depiction of Cambodia as a theater of war and argues that most critiques of the bombing were limited to President Richard Nixon's quality of character, providing a locus that prevented more systemic critiques from emerging.

Fuelled by a distrust of big media and the development of mobile technologies, the resulting convergence of journalism praxis (professional to alternative), workflows (analogue to multipoint digital) and platforms (PC to mobile), result in a 24-hour always-on content cycle. The information revolution is a paradigm shift in the way we develop and consume information, in particular the type we call news. While many see this cultural shift as ruinous, Burum sees it as an opportunity to utilize the converging information flow to create a galvanizing and common digital language across spheres of communication: community, education and mainstream media. Embracing the digital literacies researched in this book will create an information bridge with which to traverse journalism’s commercial precarity, the marginalization of some communities, and the journalism school curricula.

"This book from one of the pioneers of mojo storytelling is an excellent introduction to the possibilities and potential of the smartphone through its intersection with journalism. Filled with personal experience, practical advice and theoretical reflection, Burum has produced an invaluable resource for teaching and research." -- Adrian Hadland, University of Stirling, UK

This paper presents a case study in satirical news – Harry Shearer’s long-running, weekly radio program, Le Show – to examine the increasingly intertwined and interdependent relationship between alternative journalism and mainstream political news content. Employing content and discourse analysis of a single episode – one which typifies Le Show’s style and structure – this paper aims to demonstrate the political value and cultural significance of “alternative journalism” in the satirical register. Throughout, I argue that Le Show is emblematic of the political and cultural challenge alternative media represents to mainstream news content and practices.

This paper examines the interventionist role of independent short film producers and alternative film foundations in film policy developments of Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa. The work is broadly located within the framework of the debates about ‘shapers’ of film policy developments and covers only the last two decades (1990-2010). Empirical data are drawn from three countries: South Africa, Ghana, and Nigeria; they are based on a study I conducted between 2011 and 2014. Jürgen Habermas and David Sholle’s configurations of the public spheres concept will be used to aid interpretation and analysis. The overall ambition is to critically articulate and interpret the sociopolitical dynamics of film policymaking, reconceptualize film policy along an ‘ethical-political’ framework that is in line with the vision of alternative cultural producers, as well as ascertains the degree and platform of participation of short filmmakers in the film policymaking process. The paper argues in favour of greater academic and public recognition of the crucial role of low-budget film producers as policy activists.

Los big data representan nuevos retos y nuevas oportunidades para la ciudadanía. Las prácticas del “activismo de datos” surgen de la intersección de las dimensiones social y tecnológica de la acción humana, por la cual la ciudadanía adopta una postura crítica hacia los big data, que se apropia y manipula para hacer campaña y promover el cambio social. Este artículo teórico explora el surgimiento del activismo de datos como una realidad empírica y una herramienta heurística para estudiar cómo la gente se relaciona políticamente con los big data. Ponemos en contexto este concepto a través de una revisión de literatura académica y ofrecemos una definición del activismo de datos, así como una agenda tentativa para su estudio. Argumentamos que el activismo de datos representa una nueva forma de medio ciudadano que coloca en su mismo centro una aproximación crítica hacia los big data.

Over 1,500 cable access channels operate across the U.S. In contrast to the cliché-version of cable access TV popularized by Between Two Ferns or Wayne’s World, the staff and volunteers at many of these community media centers labor weekly, and sometimes daily, to produce public service-oriented news and public affairs content that runs on cable channels and online.
In the face of “the collapse of quality journalism in America” (McChesney & Nichols, 2010, p. 2), especially at the local level, journalists, professors, students, and citizen journalists have been trying to fill the void. But when community and alternative media scholars and others discuss these hyperlocal efforts (Columbia Journalism Review, 2012, among others), the work at cable access centers is rarely mentioned.
A quick-hit survey and resulting investigation of seven local journalism efforts reveals that these news programs and websites deserve attention, from their communities, from other local news entities, and from the scholars and think tanks who have allowed the excitement over the newness of “new” community and alternative media to eclipse the “old” (Cammearts, 2016, p. 2).
But the community media centers’ local news programming and content also face challenges and should be examined by its own staff, boards of directors, and by community members whose cable franchise fees pay the bills. The content is overwhelmingly uncritical of local authorities and businesses, is perhaps overly human-interest focused and also, many of the efforts investigated lack diversity in their newsrooms and in their stories. But these “old” new news efforts are exciting and encouraging, and appear to be part of a growing trend which offers great possibilities to those striving to foster a more informed and engaged citizenry, to make public officials more accountable and to build more just and equitable communities.

Keywords: community media, alternative media, journalism, alternative journalism

Presented at IAMCR conference in Leicester, UK, in July 2016 and at the national Alliance for Community Media conference in Boston, Mass., U.S.A, in August 2016.

Citizen journalism is more accessible than ever, through a range of both independent and commercial online platforms. But is it just an echo of traditional news? This content analysis investigated whether such news fits alternative journalism’s characteristics, comparing BP oil spill coverage from blogs, Indymedia, and CNN’s user-driven iReport. Indymedia was most alternative in hyperlinking, mobilizing information, contesting mainstream versions, and tone. iReport coverage mirrored most mainstream ideals, but not in author-audience interaction or sourcing habits. Blogs’ reporting styles differed sharply from one another. In evaluating publishing platforms side by side, this study locates each along the continuum of merging practices.

This article seeks to obtain a deepened understanding of the phenomenon of maternal rights digital activism, drawing from an analysis of Cientista Que Virou Mãe (CQVM or Scientist who became a mother, in Portuguese), a blog which became an independent media platform. By doing this, we hope to fill an important research gap as little is written on the relationships between motherhood, feminism and the media. Based on preliminary evidence, we also wish to suggest that the CQVM platform can be located within the context of digital activism, arguing that the latter has lots to benefit from incorporating the perspectives of intersectional feminism. In order to achieve this, our study has a netnographic inspiration, analyzing one particular event that was significant in the history of the CQVM platform as it echoed the voices of black mothers.

Bu kitapta, yerleşik ve kurumsallaşmış siyaseti reddeden veya ona meydan okuyan bir iletişim biçimi olarak “alternatif gazetecilik” kavramı inceleniyor. Kitap, ana akım medyanın ayrımcı, dışlayıcı ve eşitsiz yayın politikasına karşı alternatif medya arayışlarını ve bu arayışın Türkiye ölçeğinde bir alternatif medya örneği ile somutlaştırılmasını konu ediyor. Kitap, ana akım medyanın ekonomik ve siyasi iktidar odaklarıyla kurduğu çıkar ilişkisi bağlamında neden olduğu hak ihlalleri nedeniyle, hak odaklı haberciliğin söz konusu ihlallere bir yanıt olabileceği fikri üzerine temelleniyor. Bu doğrultuda, Türkiye’deki en etkin alternatif medya örneklerinden biri olan Bianet’in özgün yapısı ve işleyişine dair nitel bir inceleme yapılarak, nasıl bir alternatif gazetecilik pratiği oluşturulabilir sorusuna yanıt aranıyor. Araştırma sonucunda Bianet’in etkin ve özgün bir alternatif medya örneği olup olmadığı irdeleniyor ve dünyada ve Türkiye'de alternatif gazeteciliğe dair öngörülere yer veriliyor.

En un discurso escrito para el festival de jazz de Berlín (1964), el elocuente líder afroamericano Martin Luther King Jr. explicó que "los blues cuentan la historia de las dificultades de la vida y, si lo piensas un momento, te darás cuenta de que toman las más duras realidades de la vida y las sitúan en la música, solo para salir de ello con una nueva esperanza o sentido de triunfo". "En la lucha particular del negro en EE.UU. hay algo similar a la lucha universal del hombre moderno", afirma. "Todo el mundo tiene el blues. Todo el mundo busca sentido. Todo el mundo necesita amar y ser amado. Todo el mundo necesita aplaudir y ser feliz. Todo el mundo necesita fe".

Este libro examina la recepción histórica del blues en España y la construcción gradual y colectiva de una escena musical especializada que lleva décadas llenando múltiples garitos y festivales del país. A través de la documentación bibliográfica y de archivo, se remonta a las primeras décadas del siglo XX y rastrea la influencia decisiva del blues en las culturas del jazz y del rock durante la dictadura franquista. Indaga en la cristalización de una escena de blues per se, consagrada en los años ochenta, y se sumerge en la exploración de los procesos de formación, diálogo e hibridación musical que la caracterizan. La atención a la apropiación del blues en España da paso al análisis detallado de la escena de blues en Madrid, investigada de cerca  mediante técnicas etnográficas como la observación participante, las entrevistas, la grabación audiovisual y la creación de mapas.

El blues en España proporciona un estudio novedoso, riguroso y profundo sobre esta música fundamental. Sus huellas, sonidos, valores e imágenes forman ya parte de nuestro diverso tejido cultural, de nuestros medios y entornos, de nuestra identidad en este mundo globalizado.

A new type of media professional, with entrepreneurial skills, has emerged in the contemporary media environment in Australia – a professional that is informing the public but stretching the boundaries of journalism. These professionals are following a path that is an alternative to traditional journalism by blogging, tweeting, aggregating online content, and producing online publications. This paper will discuss a research project that aims to conduct an investigation into these new media professionals: how have they adapted their skills in production environments; what technologies and software, including SEOs and social media analytics, are deployed by these new media professionals; what are the evolving business models they are using; and, what are the degrees of success of these new media professionals according to different locations in the mediascape.

Media producers in the West have been faced with changes in the way content is produced and consumed with changes in technology, digitisation of content, and convergence each playing a part in a transforming media landscape. However, with these new technologies, different opportunities have opened up for media content producers, and there is an urgent need for empirical evidence on these new media professionals and how they work and survive in the digital media landscape. We know, anecdotally, that these new media professionals exist, and research in New Zealand has shown that bloggers are becoming increasingly active in the media domain and have “started to fill the gap in public interest journalism left by the commercially operated media corporates” (Myllylahti, 2013, p. 42). But as yet, there is little empirical data at the moment that demonstrates the Australian experience.

Employment woes for journalists in Western media in traditional media forms have been well documented (Fulton & Balnaves, 2013). However, according to research by Economic and Market Development Advisors (EMDA), media jobs in Australia increased in 2012. The EMDA report noted a decrease in traditional employment with an increase in employment in media such as websites, online magazines and other Web 2.0 forms. The aim of this research is to examine workers in this Web 2.0 area. The Web 2.0 environment has enabled people outside the mainstream media to engage with an audience, and provide media, via platforms such as blogs, microblogs, social networking sites and websites.

Because of the radical changes to journalism over the last decade and the different way it is now produced and delivered, and the rise of alternative sources of information, it is even more crucial to examine the newer styles of journalism and this examination will be done in this research by examining the producers themselves using ethnographic techniques such as semi-structured interviewing. This paper will report on the project and its importance including a review of literature in the area.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fulton, J.M. & Balnaves, M., 2013, Australia and changes in Western media, paper presented at Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Conference 2013, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia, 3-5 July, 2013.

Myllylahti, M., 2013, JMAD New Zealand Media Ownership Report 2013, Centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy (JMAD), AUT University, New Zealand, http://www.aut.ac.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/426067/JMAD-2013-Final.pdf - accessed 30.11.13.

Grupos sociais marginalizados no Brasil são muitas vezes estigmatizados pelos media noticiosos do mainstream, o que contribui para aprofundar as desigualdades sociais. Por outro lado, iniciativas de media alternativos potencialmente têm um papel relevante ao propor outras narrativas sobre os grupos subalternos. Mas que sentidos são construídos por esses discursos alternativos? Neste estudo, refletimos sobre discursos produzidos por dois grupos de media alternativos brasileiros que atuam em favelas, para identificar as estratégias discursivas presentes no conteúdo audiovisual que produzem. O objetivo é problematizar se este tipo de comunicação contribui para pluralizar a es-fera mediática e para gerar transformações sociais. Entre as conclusões, identificamos que ambos os grupos buscam contrapor o estigma do "favelado", atribuindo um protagonismo e um papel cidadão aos moradores das favelas, mas não favorecendo um ambiente agonístico.

This article discusses how the blues music scene in Madrid (Spain) produces its own media and communication networks, based on the genre’s traditional and current development, in contrast to the lack of attention from mainstream media. Focusing on three key alternative blues-journalists whose activities relate to different periods, I trace the evolution of their practices in relationship to the scene. Overall, they have shifted from a more individual, discursive construction of the genre and the scene to the collective development of associative endeavours like the “Madrid Blues Society”. I argue that in the contemporary context, where conventional media fail to provide a music press apparatus to the scene, the contributions of alternative blues-journalists, who vocationally commit to blues dissemination for long periods, provide a community sharing practice for scene participants, contributing to the scene’s reproduction and gradually developing a higher self-consciousness that adapts to its dynamics.

Alternative-Independent Media: The Answer to Democratic Decay Or Just Some More Voices In The Crowd
Author: Fareed Khan
Date: February 12, 2013
http://theviewfromhere-fareedkhan.blogspot.ca/2013/02/my-first-blog-ranom-thoughts-and-media.html

Alt Media, Alternative Journalism, Alternative Media History, Corporate Media, Democracy, Democratic Decay, Globalization, Mainstream Media, Media Concentration

online) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that seeks theoretical and empirical manuscripts and book reviews that examine the way in which similarities and differences articulate mass communication relations on a global scale. It also explores the way in which similarities and differences open up spaces for discourse, research and application in the field of mass communication praxis. JGMC seeks innovative articles that utilize critical and empirical approaches regarding global mass communication, including, but not limited to, systems, structures, processes, practices and culture. These articles could deal with content, as well as its production, consumption and effects, all of which are situated within inter-and trans-national, cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary and especially comparative perspectives. All theoretical and methodological perspectives are welcomed. All manuscripts undergo blind peer review. JGMC is published online and in hard copy form. The online version is open access, which means it is available at no charge to the public. Visit www.MarquetteJournals.org to view the contents of this journal and others. Subscriptions are available for hard copy versions. See the end pages in this journal or visit the MarquetteJournals.org Web site for additional information. MANUSCRIPTS SUBMISSION GUIDELINES Exclusivity: All manuscripts should be original and should not be under consideration at other journals or other publications. Peer Review: All manuscripts will undergo masked peer review. The normal review period is three months or less. Submissions: The ideal length for submitted papers is 20-30 double-spaced pages (6,000 to 8,000 words using 12-point Times Roman or equivalent), including references, tables and figures. Longer manuscripts will be considered when space is available. The submission and review process will be electronic. All manuscripts should be prepared using Microsoft Word or converted to that format. One electronic copy should be e-mailed to the appropriate journal listed below Manuscript Preparation: Manuscripts for all journals except the Journal of Media Law & Ethics should be prepared according to the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (latest edition), with some exceptions provided below. Submissions to JMLE should be prepared according to Bluebook. Please double-space all material except tables and figures. Please do NOT use footnotes. Endnotes are permitted, but they must be manually inserted (i.e., please do not use the automatic endnote insertion functions in word processing systems). Microsoft Word and WordPerfect are the required software programs for formatting manuscripts.

Mobilizing information (MI), defined as ‘information that allows the public to act,’ is often omitted in news stories because it is considered partisan. Without relevant MI in media, participation in public discourse is restricted to the politically aware, i.e., to politicians, interest groups, and activists. This paper argues that Lemert’s definition of MI is limited and does not consider building upon audience’ orientation. Applying a more complex form of MI identified earlier (study, author) that takes audience orientation into account, to a television talk show, the paper demonstrates how varying levels of MI may be utilized.  Depending on audience orientation, MI can be either invitational or empowering.  More specifically, the three types of invitational MI, in ascending order of their mobilizing potential, are motivational, informational, and purposive. MI’s (author, year) application is illustrated through one episode of Satyamev Jayate (SMJ), an Indian talk show, to demonstrate how MI may be directed at citizens with different levels of political orientation. SMJ has successfully engaged the public by adeptly bringing together interactive technologies, and journalistic methods. This paper also introduces the concept of “mobilizing context”.

A cobertura jornalística de manifestações e protestos populares tende a enfatizar aspetos negativos do evento, como demonstram estudos relacionados ao paradigma do protesto. Por sua vez, a fragmentação do ecossistema mediático impulsionada pelas redes sociais digitais tem feito com que outras narrativas sobre um mesmo evento venham à tona e disputem as representações acerca deste tipo de acontecimento. Foi o que aconteceu na greve geral realizada no Brasil no dia 28 de abril de 2017. Neste estudo, proponho uma análise descritiva e comparativa
de reportagens audiovisuais produzidas por dois dos principais telejornais brasileiros, o Jornal Nacional e o Jornal da Record, e produções em vídeo de quatro meios alternativos com difusão pelo Facebook, Jornalistas Livres, Coletivo Nigéria, Marco Zero Conteúdo e Coletivo Catarse. O objetivo é perceber as estratégias discursivas empregadas por cada um deles para construir as narrativas jornalísticas
audiovisuais, dando verossimilhança aos relatos ainda que fincados em vieses bem evidentes. Entre as conclusões, nota-se que os meios tradicionais buscaram realçar sua legitimidade a partir das vozes
de pessoas comuns, enquanto os meios alternativos fortaleceram fontes contra-oficiais, sobretudo sindicalistas, marcando sua posição institucionalmente ao lado dos interesses dos trabalhadores.

Big data presents citizens with new challenges
and opportunities. ‘Data activism’ practices
emerge at the intersection of the social and
techsnological dimension of human action,
whereby citizens take a critical approach to
big data, and appropriate and manipulate
data for advocacy and social change. This
theoretical article explores the emergence
of data activism as an empirical reality and
a heuristic tool to study how people engage
politically with big data. We ground the
concept on a multidisciplinary literature
review, and offer a situated definition of data
activism and a tentative agenda for its study.
We argue that data activism represents a
new form of citizens’ media that has a critical
approach to big data at its core.

Nowadays, social media are amongst the most frequently used entertainment and information sources, offering the most recent news. National, international and global issues of social media journalism involve a wide spectrum of complex questions related to the production, distribution and reception of media contents, as well as a plethora of social, cultural, economic, legal and ethical aspects to consider. The publication you are holding in your hands is an attempt to provide various theoretical and empirical frameworks that may help us better understand social media journalism from different points of view and in diverse contexts. The individual chapters are written by authors with various scholarly affiliations working in international academic circles. Even though the methods they use and problems they discuss vary, they all pursue the same objective - to find out more about the implications of the existence and popularity of social media, especially social media journalism.

This thesis is a creative and critical exploration of how transmedia storytelling meshes with political documentary’s nature of representing social realities and goals to educate and promote social change. I explore this notion through Obrero (“worker”), my independently produced transmedia and transjournalistic documentary project that explores the conditions and context of the Filipino rebuild workers who migrated to Christchurch, New Zealand after the earthquake in 2011. While the project should appeal to New Zealanders, it is specifically targeted at an audience from the Philippines. Obrero began as a film festival documentary that co-exists with strategically refashioned Web 2.0 variants, a social network documentary and an interactive documentary (i-doc).
Using data derived from the production and circulation of Obrero, I interrogate how the documentary’s variants engage with differing audiences and assess the extent to which this engagement might be effective. This thesis argues that contemporary documentary needs to re-negotiate established film aesthetics and practices to adapt in the current period of shifting technologies and fragmented audiences. Documentary’s migration to new media platforms also creates a demand for filmmakers to work with a transmedia state of mind—that is, the capacity to practise the old canons of documentary making while comfortably adjusting to new media production praxis, ethics, and aesthetics. Then Obrero itself, as the creative component of this thesis, becomes an instance of research through creative practice. It does so in two respects: adding new knowledge about the context, politics, and experiences of the Filipino workers in New Zealand; and offering up a broader model for documentary engagement, which I analyse for its efficacy in the digital age.