ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how activists seek to change representations of their communities and racialised minority subjects, as well as to challenge white normativity through media communication and cultural work. The scope and possibilities for such activities has broadened extensively with the development of digital media, which allows the activists to create closed groups on social media, produce podcasts, distribute videos and create media sites ‘by and for’ those racialised as ‘others.’ The media platforms function both as supportive spaces for shared discussions within racialised minority communities and as ‘counterpublics’ that develop social media campaigns and influence mainstream media through the hybrid media space. The chapter examines how activists navigate the terrain of cultural work, where they are both invited in as ‘exciting radical young persons’ but also subjected to the racialised, classed and gendered power relations of the cultural sector. It also addresses the dilemmas of media platforms established by activist-cultural workers in regards to commercialism and consumer culture.
