ABSTRACT
The focus of this Companion is on media that bypass the usual channels of commercial production and distribution, and that are most often organised and produced by ‘ordinary’ people, local communities and communities of interest. It is primarily interested in social and cultural practices that enable people to participate directly in the organisation, production and distribution of their own media, and how these media are used to construct and represent identity and community, as well as to present forms of information and knowledge that are under-represented, marginalised or ignored by other, more dominant media. However, rather than consider alternative and community media as entirely separate, it is also necessary to contextualise them in terms of those dominant, ‘mainstream’ practices and to examine hybrid and disputed forms of media that exhibit characteristics from both sets of media practices, such as the use of citizen journalism and user-generated content by professional media organisations.
