Alternative Forms of Media, ICTs and Underprivileged Groups in China

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session III
  In Interactive Poster Session: Global Communication and Social Change Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This paper discusses uses of alternative forms of media and ICTs by NGOs and advocacy groups for underprivileged and marginalized groups in China. The study is situated within the empirical context of rural-to-urban migrant workers’ issues. Drawing from the conceptual framework of alternative media and communication for social change, I analyze a local NGO’s community newspaper for migrant workers and an online advocacy media targeting at female migrant workers. Based on semi-structured interviews with editors and migrant worker authors, and textual analysis of the published articles and readers’ responses, I examine the two media’s thematic contents and processes of production and distribution. The two cases present sustainable and organized modes of alternative media production that enable deliberation spaces for migrant workers’ collective expression. Migrant workers’ articulations through alternative media constitute a daily mode of activism and resistance, which is in line with the group’s rising consciousness and demands of rights and justice. The study shows that to provide communal and organizational support could mobilize underprivileged groups to participate in alternative and collective media production for social inclusion and equality. I argue that the conceptualizations of alternative media need to be contextualized, and integrating local politics is crucial to explicate the possibilities of alternative forms of media and uses of ICTs for social change.



Keywords: Alternative media, ICTs, underprivileged groups, China, NGOs

Author

• Siyuan Yin, University of Massachusetts