Introduction

In the past decade or so there has been a massive explosion of ‘alternative media’ activity. Facilitated by the spread of the Internet and other digital technologies, and accelerated by global protest movements, more people’s lives than ever before have been touched by various forms of media resistance - as readers, audiences and producers. If you have blogged, vlogged, or moblogged; read a fanzine of a new band - online or in print; admired a piece of colourful graffi ti on a grim urban wall or subway train; taken a picture on your mobile at a demonstration or street event and sent it to friends; been interviewed on a student radio station; or contributed to a student newspaper, then you have had an encounter of some kind with ‘alternative media’ as we are defi ning it in this book: media forms that are on a smaller scale, more accessible and participatory, and less constrained by bureaucracy or commercial interests than the mainstream media and often in some way in explicit opposition to them.