The value of alternative media

Abstract

In October 1998, the Pacific Centre for Alternative Journalists convened its founding conference in Vancouver. The 60 participants represented a spectrum of media activists—from community radio, the student, feminist and Central American solidarity press, Latin American, labor and community television alliances, community‐based electronic nets, assorted “culture jammers"—as well as social justice activists from the anti‐poverty, student, aboriginal, environmental, and anti‐free trade movements. This article is based on my presentation to the opening plenary, which was called “What makes alternative media valuable to the communities it serves?”