engleski

A Rite of Passage: From Resistant to Coopted Media

The emergence of commercial media was, in the beginning of appearance (different depending on type of media and state), seen as a way to ensure pluralism and independence from state controlled media. This optimism was soon replaced by a new worry, linked to the obvious profit oriented logic that proved to be the driving force behind commercial media, leaving as secondary their publics attribute. The dominant forces that shape contemporary media landscapes - sliding between different types of 'dependencies' (public or private) - contours the alternatives, which is necessarily linked to independency. How do we ensure a framework for independent media in this context? What emerges as a field within which these alternatives might be vivified is civil society. The expansion of neoliberalism after the Wall, and the diminishing of the state, increased the expectations on civil society to replace what was once in the domain of the state. This spread of civil society can be interpreted within two frames – either as an actualization of a form of participatory democracy, in which people organize according to group interests aside from state or the private sector, or as the scattering of social formations, which results in radical individualism and weakens any relevant form of social action. Even if we take the optimistic view, and claim that civil society ensures a field of participation in which alternative media can develop and/or be supported, the problem remains: can cooptation be resisted? At what point is the transgression from independent to dependent, from alternative to mainstream, from unconventional to conventional made? The presentation will attempt to give some possible answers to the above questions, and will include an example of an local radio station (Radio 101) operating in Zagreb, Croatia, that have gone through the rite of passage, moving from one realm to the other in the last two and a half decades.

media, independence, resistant, cooptation, public media, private media, civil society

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