ABSTRACT
Long vexed by the ways in which social theory marginalizes questions of race, the porous field of Race and Ethnicity Studies has in turn minimized the question of media, beyond an established focus on the politics of representation. While such international scholarly organizations as the ICA, IAMCR and ECREA all have permanent sections examining questions of race and ethnicity in the media, the impact of these research traditions is more pronounced in Media and Communication Studies than the broad cultural-sociological field of Race and Ethnicity. Nevertheless, the expansive definition of citizen media that underpins this entry provides an interesting space in which to consider how the field has engaged with the media self-organization of racialized actors in historical and sociological context. This entry will examine research on (a) media platforms produced within the context of migratory networks and marginalized communities that seek to establish not just communal but alternative and counter political media spaces and (c) citizen media initiatives that seek to intervene in the flow of racialized representation and framing that remains stubbornly resilient in dominant media discourse. On this basis, the essay will focus on recent and emerging research that examines the possibilities of networked, platform media for forms of ‘talking back’ and mobilization, from ‘ambient’ anti-racism in social media, to the affective publics of protest formations, to sustained media initiatives animated by anti-racist, decolonial and multicultural politics.
