In 1998, a group of radical media makers and social justice activists opened the Independent Media Center in an abandoned storefront in downtown Seattle to provide street level news coverage of a large-scale mobilization protest against a meeting on the World Trade Organization, what later became known as the "Battle in Seattle." In the years following this event, Independent Media Centers have been established in over 150 locations around the world, creating a primarily online network of autonomous radical media outlets, linked by a commitment to radical democratic principles such a decentralization, open-publishing and complete transparency of process. This analysis advances the central argument that the Indymedia movement is more than just an alternative media outlet; it represents an attempt to harness the potential power of the globally networked Internet to create a new public sphere. It is a space not only for the production and dissemination of alternative content but a truly new public sphere where alternative methods of organizing that do not rely on traditional notions of hierarchical structure, leadership and decision making can be developed, not only intellectually but through direct practice. In order to advance this argument, this study employs a multi-method, multi-sited approach using a descriptive analyses of various Indymedia artifacts, an examination of the structures of the North American Indymedia network and an ethnographic as well as auto-ethnographic examination of a single IMC within the North American Network. The IMC is examined trough the lenses of Downing's theory of Radical Media, Atton's theoretical framework of alternative media, the idealized Public Sphere and Theory of Communicative Action of Jürgen Habermas and various applications of Autonomous Marxism. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Communication in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2009. / December 12, 2008. / Radical Media, Alternative Media, Public Sphere, Media Criticism / Includes bibliographical references. / Andrew Opel, Professor Directing Dissertation; Doug Schrock, Outside Committee Member; Stephen C. McDowell, Committee Member; Donna Marie Nudd, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_176129 |
| Contributors | Templin, Richard E. (authoraut), Opel, Andrew (professor directing dissertation), Schrock, Doug (outside committee member), McDowell, Stephen C. (committee member), Nudd, Donna Marie (committee member), School of Communication (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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