Democracy from the Ground Up: Reflections on Grassroots Media

Grassroots media are often taken to be "in your face," confrontational, and adversarial.Activist circles and the academy celebrate such media for their authenticity as well as their oppositional stance vis-a-vis mainstream media, a liberation through new technology and new voices.As an ethnographer/videographer teaching in communication, I know that such grassroots media generally are also seen by community organizers, media activists, academics and students, as a vital representation of the diverse voices of ethnic and sexual minorities across the United States.At the same time, I am wary of taking these texts as simple examples of the promises of new, alternative media in the United States.This very championing of alternative and authentic media, as I argue, may overlook their complexity, their negotiations ofform and audience, and their actual uses and impacts.This is not to say that these media cannot be controversial or oppositional; my analysis of one community-based production program since 1993 argues that the story is even more complicated.These