Indy Blogger: Dissertation on Indymedia Published

international | arts and media | other press Friday June 17, 2005 15:08 by redjade

Dissertation on Indymedia Published

Introduction.

This study attempts to analyse the website called Indymedia (www.indymedia.org), its stated and non-stated objectives and how successful it is in achieving them. Aspects of its internal organisation and functioning will be analysed against aspects of the functioning of the corporate media, to which it wants to be an alternative.

A general overview will be offered of alternative media definitions of Indymedia. Then theories that attempt to explain the process of news production within corporate media will be looked at, like News Values or the Propaganda Model.

It is to be noted that this study will mainly be based on American (specially South American) and European (specially British and Spanish) practices. There is some parallelism with the structure of the existing research about commercial media, since most studies on this subject come from Western rich economies, namely Western Europe, Canada and specially the USA. Following this line, it is also to be noted that Herman (in interview with Peterson 1997) argues that the world's media are following the trend set by the USA, so it could be argued that on focusing the research on these regions would give a reasonable view of the world's media.

Rather than on the output of any medium, this study will concentrate on the processes and structures that bring about such content. In this way Indymedia characteristics will be looked at and compared to those of the corporate media.

Indymedia arguably comes about not only as an alternative media project, but also as a valid proposal for a different model of society.

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http://ana-en.blogspot.com/2005/06/indymedia-dissertation-ii.html