The Politics of Media Scarcity

The book "Media Scare: Negotiating and Otherwise Narrating Place in the World" challenges the notion of "media abundance" and argues that certain individuals, communities, and nations can be referred to as media scarce. It explores how media-scarce communities negotiate and narrate their place in the world, highlighting how they escape from subjugation. The book appeals to students and scholars in media and politics, art and politics, visual studies, surveillance studies, and communication studies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 94 pages
Publication date: 31 January 2024
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book challenges the notion that "media abundance" is the dominant concept in contemporary mediated politics. The authors argue that media abundance is not a universal reality, and certain individuals, communities, and even nations can be classified as media scarce. In such contexts, access to media technologies and content is limited, highly controlled, or even surveilled.

Through a series of case studies, the book explores how media-scarce communities have managed to "speak" to and be heard by the dominant, abundant media culture. These case studies focus on various contexts, including guerilla militants, incarcerated Indigenous people, and cold war-era infrastructure, such as Soviet "closed" or "secret" cities and Canadian nuclear bunkers. The chapters interrogate how these once media-scarce communities have adapted to and negotiated their place in the world, their past experiences, and their struggles against subjugation.

Drawing from a range of art projects and cultural sites, the book highlights how media-scarce communities narrate their place in the world, their past, and their aspirations for the future. It also explores how communities become media scarce, whether by accident, force, choice, or necessity.

This innovative and insightful text will appeal to students and scholars engaged in the fields of media and politics, art and politics, visual studies, surveillance studies, and communication studies. It offers valuable insights into the complex dynamics of media scarcity and its implications for our understanding of contemporary mediated politics and society.

Weight: 240g
Dimension: 152 x 427 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032504681