Scattered Voices, Global Vision

Some of the world's least powerful people are leading the way toward creative and ethical global media citizenship. Locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally, Indigenous peoples are using radio, television, print, and a range of new media to amplify their voices, extend the range of reception, and expand their collective power. Emerging from the shadows of a shared colonial inheritance, the international movement of Indigenous peoples has fostered important social, political, and technological innovations.

I first used the term, "New Media Nation," in a chapter for Karim Karim's edited collection on communication and Diaspora (Alia 2003). Emerging from the international movement of Indigenous peoples, The New Media Nation is linked to the explosion of Indigenous news media, information technology, film, music, and other artistic and cultural developments. While its individual member outlets and organizations may be subject to state regulations and control, in a broader sense, The New Media Nation is an outlaw organization. No real "nation" in the political science sense, it exists outside the control of any particular nation state, and enables its creators and users to network and engage in transcultural and transnational lobbying, and access information that might otherwise be inaccessible within state borders.

Price: $20

Download full chapter (PDF)

Pathways and Obstacles

Government Policy and Media (Mis)Representation

George Githii, former editor-in-chief of the Daily Nation in Kenya has said: "For governments which fear newspapers there is one consolation. We have known many instances here in which governments have taken over newspapers, but we have not known a single incident in which a newspaper has taken over a government" (Githii, quoted in Robie 2005: 2). The Tundra Times came close, for a few historic, politically pivotal moments. In 1962, it took on the US and Alaska governments. In a masterful mix of political strategizing and journalistic muckraking, it helped derail an Atomic Energy Commission plan to use an above-ground atomic blast to excavate a harbor near the Eskimo village of Port Hope, and became a major force in the successful struggle for ANCSA — the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (Morgan 1988: 107-200; 222).

Price: $20

Download full chapter (PDF)

Lessons from Canada

Amplifying Indigenous Voices

The phone lines are down to the Yukon's most remote community. The people of Old Crow won't have any way of letting the Chief Returning Offi cer know who won in their riding, short of renting a plane and fl ying the results in. Those results could be crucial.
—CBC Radio, Whitehorse (Alia 1991a)

Price: $20

Download full chapter (PDF)

Turning the Camera and Microphone on Oneself

Earlier, I called The New Media Nation an "outlaw" nation. According to Webster's Online Dictionary (2008), the English noun, outlaw, dates back to before the twelfth century, evolving from the Old Norse ütlagi, from üt (out) + lag- or loüg (law), to the Old English ütlaga, Middle English outlawe. The current meanings are: "a person excluded from the benefit or protection of the law"; "a lawless person or a fugitive from the law"; "a person or organization under a ban or restriction"; "one that is unconventional or rebellious"; and "an animal (as a horse) that is wild and unmanageable." The Compact Oxford English Dictionary Online (2008) places the two main definitions in reverse order. Here, the first definition is "A fugitive from the law," and the second, "A person deprived of the benefit and protection of the law." I would contend that all of these definitions, including the one about "unmanageable" animals, can be applied to the spirit and substance of the New Media Nation, with the "unmanageable" label falling into the (racist) "wild Indian" genre of outsider misrepresentation. Most of the Indigenous media practitioners and consumers I have interviewed, over the years, view the "Nation's" outlaws as Robin Hood figures, operating in the people's interests. If not literally "stealing from the rich," they most certainly are "giving to the poor" — to those disadvantaged by governments, corporations, and more generally, by economic and environmental circumstances.

Price: $20

Download full chapter (PDF)

We Have Seen the Future

"Standing with Legs in Both Cultures"

Were he still alive, my father-in-law, the great journalist and "muckraker," Lincoln Steffens, might express both delight and horror at the array of puns and paraphrases, quotes and misquotes, permutations and misrepresentations that have arisen from his original utterance, "I have seen the future and it works," which he also expressed as, "I have gone over into the future." I hope he would forgive me for yet another appropriation of the phrase. This concluding chapter looks at the contemporary realities and future potential of the New Media Nation. With tongue firmly in cheek but a serious point in mind, Lincoln Steffens declared philosophy a waste of time:

No more philosophy for me. There was no ethics in it... I had been reading [philosophers who] thought they had it all settled. They did not have anything settled ... they could not agree upon what was knowledge, [or] what was good and what evil, nor why (L. Steffens 1931: 139).

Price: $20

Download full chapter (PDF)