
Low Power to the People
Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism
Christina Dunbar-Hester(Author)
MIT Press
Published on 7. November 2014
Book
Hardback
298 pages
978-0-262-02812-7 (ISBN)
Description
An examination of how activists combine political advocacy and technical practice in their promotion of the emancipatory potential of local low-power FM radio.The United States ushered in a new era of small-scale broadcasting in 2000 when it began issuing low-power FM (LPFM) licenses for noncommercial radio stations around the country. Over the next decade, several hundred of these newly created low-wattage stations took to the airwaves. In Low Power to the People, Christina Dunbar-Hester describes the practices of an activist organization focused on LPFM during this era. Despite its origins as a pirate broadcasting collective, the group eventually shifted toward building and expanding regulatory access to new, licensed stations. These radio activists consciously cast radio as an alternative to digital utopianism, promoting an understanding of electronic media that emphasizes the local community rather than a global audience of Internet users.Dunbar-Hester focuses on how these radio activists impute emancipatory politics to the "old" medium of radio technology by promoting the idea that "microradio" broadcasting holds the potential to empower ordinary people at the local community level. The group's methods combine political advocacy with a rare commitment to hands-on technical work with radio hardware, although the activists' hands-on, inclusive ethos was hampered by persistent issues of race, class, and gender.Dunbar-Hester's study of activism around an "old" medium offers broader lessons about how political beliefs are expressed through engagement with specific technologies. It also offers insight into contemporary issues in media policy that is particularly timely as the FCC issues a new round of LPFM licenses.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass.
United States
Publishing group
MIT Press Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Interest Age: From 18 years
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
25 b&w photos
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-262-02812-7 (9780262028127)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
11/2014
MIT Press
€39.49
Available for download

Book
11/2014
MIT Press
€36.90
Article exhausted; check different version
Person
Christina Dunbar-Hester is Assistant Professor of Communication in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.