Outlaws and citizens: indigenous people and the New Media Nation

Abstract

Emerging from the international movement of Indigenous peoples, what the author terms the New Media Nation is linked to the explosion of Indigenous news media, information technology, film, music, and other artistic and cultural developments. The creators of Indigenous media projects experience an array of government, transgovernment, corporate and other policies and pressures: these range from supportive to disinterested, to hostile and sometimes life-threatening. In the most supportive environments, they are able to participate as citizens working within government media policies. In the most hostile environments, they are forced to become outlaws, finding ways to send printed materials, radio signals and Internet transmissions across borders that often artificially (re)construct Indigenous peoples as bounded by nation-states. Indigenous people are using old and new technologies to amplify their voices and expand their power, disseminating information to a rapidly expanding global audience. The article draws on more than 20 years of research in several countries and picks up key themes elaborated in the book, The New Media Nation, now in press.