Lecture 06 | Production of Autonomous Information

As already defined repeatedly that social movements are not organisations, yet they need somehow an organisational structure. It enables them to mobilise their limited resources productively and effectively. In this sense organisational structure is an unavoidable and vital necessity for social movements. Most of the social movement and communication scholars have also focused on the social movement organisations and have defined them as "those that gather resources from surrounding environment and allocate the same to achieve social movements goals. 

simultaneously, communication scholars have also focused on the media produced by social movements and movement actors themselves. The media which are supportive toward social movements has also been focal point of research. This refers to the media which is produced by some other organisations but they do support social movements. 

this type of media are given many names such as alternative, radical, autonomous and independent media. these are the most common labels for them. This type of media are “generally small scale and [take] many different forms, that express an alternative vision to hegemonic policies, priorities and perspectives” (Downing, 2001).

The research on alternative media often focuses on the agency of social movement, their communicative practices, integration and overlapping of different actors and fields of action. Those studies also stress on the content, differences in content and the ways in which those media are produced. 

The literature on the content of alternative media shows that their content is often radical and alternative. That is presented in different experimental forms. Moreover, it also shows that alternative media produced by social movements is often rest on social relations and in  social relations in alternative media are less horizontal as compared to the traditional news room.

As there is no doubt that alternative media produces critical and counter-hegemonic. Alternative media is famously known for devoting space to non-media people in their news production and opinion programmes.  This act provides non-media people an opportunity to elaborate their world view. 

In the least but not the last, alternative media are usually distributed via underground channels. They are not part of the commercial distribution system of mass media. Therefore, it constitutes a social counter-sphere for public to nurture and mirror social movement discourse.