From the streets to digital spaces: Citizen media practices toward the generation of dialogue and collective memory in Medellín, Colombia
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Greenwood, Thomas. 2024. From the streets to digital spaces: Citizen media practices toward the generation of dialogue and collective memory in Medellín, Colombia. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]
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Text (From the streets to digital spaces: Citizen media practices toward the generation of dialogue and collective memory in Medellín, Colombia)
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Abstract or Description
Research into alternative and community media has often idealised participation or, amidst the proliferation of digital communications technologies, tended towards media-centric approaches. This thesis examines the case of the Mi Comuna media collective whose work has developed to open space for communication, interaction and reflection with residents of Santa Cruz in northeast Medellín, Colombia. As the Covid-19 global pandemic developed, Mi Comuna’s work was forced to shift almost entirely into digital spaces, where significant challenges were encountered in reproducing engaging, creative and interactive activities, risking the furthering of exclusions and divides. This brings a critical interpretation of digital spaces which have been associated with facilitating participation and enhancing the possibilities of social movements and alternative media alike.
Rooted in Participatory Action Research, this research project sought to develop interactive rather than extractive research in northeast Medellín, a place that has been both subjected to violence and represented as violent. While methods were necessarily adapted as Covid-19 reshaped the world, this thesis attests to the ongoing relevance of collaborative approaches to research, provided that they are reflexive and flexible in accordance with the research site.
The empirical material covers the cooperative opening and defence of Mi Comuna’s physical assembly space; the generation of engaging spaces for communication and interaction in the streets of Santa Cruz; the evoking of collective memory, knowledge which contributes to local cultural imaginaries celebrating the agency of collective founding rather than the victimisation of displacement or violence; and the way Mi Comuna adapted to the Covid-19 rupture and the shift to all online working.
The significance of this study is that it informs the theoretical understanding of community and alternative media through detailed analysis of the possibilities and limitations of this work in physical and digital spaces. Additionally, this study informs our empirical understanding of the importance of collective memory and non contestatory cultural politics to citizen media practice in a putatively ‘post-conflict’ urban settlement in Colombia.
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Item Type: |
Thesis (Doctoral) |
| Identification Number (DOI): |
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| Keywords: |
community media; citizen media; alternative media; media practice; digital spaces; memory; culture; cultural politics; city; urban; territory; commons; Medellín; Colombia; participatory action research |
| Departments, Centres and Research Units: |
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| Date: |
31 January 2024 |
| Item ID: |
34785 |
| Date Deposited: |
09 Feb 2024 12:32 |
| Last Modified: |
09 Feb 2024 12:37 |
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URI: |
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