ABSTRACT
This chapter draws from specific research studies on community/alternative/citizens' media to reflect on how we theorize media at the margins. At the margins, media tend to be less universal, less driven by global trends and markets, and more grounded in local time, place, interest, and need; this is one of the first aspects we can identify as a major difference between media at the center and media at the margins. At the margins, media have generally existed out of sight, rendered invisible by the glitter and excitement of media at the center; people have never had enough scholars, researchers, or policy makers paying attention to media at the margins. As a result, we tend to flatten media at the margins; we over-generalize, overlooking key differences between distinct types of media. In the geopolitical margin, EAIBA uses media to reconfigure local identities and counter mainstream media representations of the region and its people as violent and savage.
