About the Author

John Downing is Professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the Univeristy of Texas, Austin. He is a co-editor of Questioning the Media (1990) and has contributed to the journals Media, Culture & Society and Discourse & Society

Reviews

“This is a comprehensive, illuminating, and inspiring work of reference. By focusing on media use by social movements across the globe, John Downing has collected an extraordinarily rich and eclectic range of contributions that read like an act of generous solidarity as well as of scrupulous scholarship.”
*Tony Dowmunt*

"This encyclopedia is a valuable contribution to one of the fastest-growing areas in communication studies. It is an informative, engaging, and up-to-date compendium of articles on concepts, campaigns, projects, and groups around the world, written by a balanced range of practitioners, activists, and established and emerging scholars.”
*Robert (Bob) Hackett*

“This encyclopedia will be of use to students, scholars, and activists wanting understanding, historical precedents, and international comparison of experimental and dissident media organizations and projects.”
*Patricia (Pat) Aufderheide*

“The visions of and commitments to another world are everywhere out there, being pursued through a variety of social movement media. This valuable collection of international experiences proves it. It is a must-have book for activists and researchers engaged with and communicating for social change.”
*Thomas Tufte*

“Interpreting media and communication from the point of view of social movements allows us tounderstand the constructive and transformative potential that communities have in today′s global society. The Latin American treasury of community media experience is represented, and much more besides.”
*Amparo Cadavid Bringe*

"Debates may swirl about whether recent uprisings in the Middle East and Africa really owe their origins to Facebook or Twitter, but even die-hard Luddites must admit that social media had some role in facilitating the revolutions. Downing’s fascinating work provides background to this subversive phenomenon over time and across the world in articles such as ′Alternative Comics (United States),′ ′Angry Buddhist Monk Phenomenon (Southeast Asia),′ ′Gay Press (Canada, United Kingdom, United States),′ and ′Social Democratic Media to 1914.′"
*School Library Journal*

"This encyclopedia offers an internationalized glimpse of the burgeoning field of communications as practiced in social activism around the planet... Highly Recommended."
*Choice*