Joshua Atkinson

Towards a Model of Interactivity in Alternative Media: A Multilevel Analysis of Audiences and Producers in a New Social Movement Network

This research utilized multilevel analysis to explore interactive alternative media production in a new social movement network. Interviews with audiences, local producers, and global producers provide evidence of interactivity between local audiences and local producers and between local producers and global producers. The local audiences provided encouragement to local producers through face-to-face interactions that aided in the establishment of organizational support for the local producers but acted as a discursive closure that blinded local producers to potential problems with their alternative media. The global producers revealed that they received content-oriented interactions from audiences via e-mail, which corresponded with data collected from the local producers who claimed to interact with global producers via e-mail. The findings establish a preliminary model of interactivity in alternative media production that links research concerning new social movement networks and alternative media and builds on research concerning the decentralized structure of new social movement networks.

DetroitYES! and the Fabulous Ruins Virtual Tour: The Role of Diffused Intertextual Production in the Construction of Alternative Cityscapes

The following essay explores the role of intertextuality and interactivity in the construction of an “alternative cityscape” for the city of Detroit within a web community called DetroitYES! Using qualitative content analysis, we examined different portrayals of the city in (1) the Fabulous Ruins of Detroit virtual tour found on the DetroitYES! website, and (2) discussion threads posted by members of the DetroitYES! web community. The analysis revealed that the intertextual components of the virtual tour alluded to Detroit as a ruins similar to Athens and Rome, while members of the web community added their own images and information about the city through the interactive forums. The intertextual allusion imbued the city with a nostalgic history that transformed the abandoned industrial architecture into the lost city of a forgotten empire worthy of exploration, discussion, and debate. Such a nostalgic vision was constantly in flux as members of the web community challenged aspects of the virtual tour through discussion threads. The analysis demonstrates that the simultaneous use of intertextuality and interactivity within key aspects of a web community can create the potential for “diffused intertextual production,” which can build a brand of civic collaboration that re-imagines physical environments. In the case of Detroit and DetroitYES!, such diffused intertextual production allows for the generation of nostalgia and the shaping of architecture, which in turn influences a “participatory civic identity” for members of the online community, and their performances within Detroit.

Racial Politics in an Online Community Discursive Closures and the Potentials for Narrative Appropriation

The following essay explores the racial politics within an online community focused on the city of Detroit. Past research has demonstrated that the intertextual strategies utilized by the DetroitYES! community have built an alternative cityscape that changes the way people interact with the physical environment. In our research we engaged in a qualitative content analysis of different threads on the discussion forum, and we interviewed members of the community to illustrate racial politics in this virtual site. Our research illustrated administrative strategies utilized within the community that closed down discourse about race. On the surface, these appeared to be authoritarian strategies that maintained White privilege. However, further research and analysis demonstrated how these strategies gave rise to the possibilities for narrative appropriation and building bridges by minority communities.

Contemporary Crusaders and Timeless Elders: Building Cultural Capital through Alternative Media Texts

The following research examines the role of cultural capital in the reading of alternative media texts. I interviewed leaders of small social justice organizations in the midwestern United States in order to discover the ways in which they developed cultural capital and read resistance within alternative media texts. From the interviews I found that the participants learned cultural capital from Timeless Elders and/or Contemporary Crusaders of activism. I also found that two types of resistance were read within the alternative media texts: a hegemonic form of resistance based on militant rejection of materials and an emanciapatory form of resistance based on adjustive rejection of materials. Through my analysis I found that the type of cultural capital that a participant had learned played an important role in the type of resistance that they read. The themes and concepts which emerged through the interviews hold significant implications for the conceptualization of modern social justice movements.