Media Sites

This chapter looks at mass media as political performance in the sense that select ed bodies, images, and voices are part of a production with an intended audience. Alternative media offer different political performances in the sense that small-scale productions of marginalized communities use personal/ or communal voices to interrupt dominant structures. This chapter offers specific extended examples of the latter in particular, such as music videos and filmed performances. Distinguishing between mainstream press and its vernacular forms, this chapter suggests how alternative media performs a distinct psychological and political functions: enacting resiliencies, redefining citizenship, reviving racial solidarities. Contextualizing how mass media needs to be interpreted not for its neutrality but as a site of performance and politics offers a new lens on women’s protests.