Opportunity in crisis: Alternative media and subaltern resistance

Abstract

Anderson explores the role of alternative media in igniting the radical imagination and fuelling political protest. More specifically, the chapter examines how Adbusters, the Canadian magazine of alternative culture, inspired the initial occupation of Wall Street and why, when they attempted four years later to recreate this past success, they failed to catalyse a similar movement. In doing so, it shows the limits of a mediated and individualised manner of protest. Thus, while alternative media have indeed provided important sites for critical thought and expression, and have been successful in extending local struggles to broader, even global contexts, the true agent of social change remains the social movement and its creative actions “on the ground.”