About

This research examines how alternative media engage with the mission of recording the struggles and movements of groups that have been historically relegated to the periphery of mainstream media and public discourse. The research takes places against the backdrop of a transformed Indian mainstream media, where corporatisation, cross-ownership, co-optation, and the profit motive have changed the idea of ‘news’ itself. Along with continued upper-caste, upper-class domination of newsrooms, this has resulted in deeply entrenched social inequalities being mirrored in and perpetuated by the coverage of marginalised groups in media. On an everyday basis, this plays out in the misrepresentation of marginalised experiences, and, over the longer term, in the invisibilisation of these communities in the nation’s collective memory.

Situated within the context of recent social movements in India, the research will investigate the role of alternative media as sites of resistance, counter-hegemonic narrative building and memory making. My research will delve into the organisation of these media, their purpose, strategies, and practices to understand how they negotiate narrative building and memory making from the margins. It will explore what constitutes ‘alternativeness,’ interrogate Western ideas of universality in media and journalism, and foreground knowledge from movements and media in the Global South.