[ecrea] Just Published - Media Practices and Protest Politics

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Media Practices and Protest Politics - How Precarious Workers Mobilise
Alice Mattoni
Ashgate 2012

How do precarious workers employed in call-centres, universities, the 
fashion industry and many other labour markets organise, struggle and 
communicate to become recognised, influential political subjects? "Media 
Practices and Protest Politics; How Precarious Workers Mobilise" reveals 
the process by which individuals at the margins of the labour market and 
excluded from the welfare state communicate and struggle outside the 
realm of institutional politics to gain recognition in the political sphere.

In this important and thought provoking work Alice Mattoni suggests an 
all-encompassing approach to understanding grassroots political 
communication in contemporary societies. Using original examples from 
precarious workers mobilizations in Italy she explores a range of 
activist media practices and compares different categories of media 
technologies, organizations and outlets from the printed press to web 
application and from mainstream to alternative media.

Explaining how activists perceive and understand the media environment 
in which they are embedded the book discusses how they must interact 
with a diverse range of media professionals and technologies and 
considers how mainstream, radical left-wing and alternative media 
represent protests. Media Practices and Protest Politics offers 
important insights for understanding mechanisms and patterns of 
visibility in struggles for recognition and redistribution in 
post-democratic societies and provides a valuable contribution to the 
field of political communication and social movement studies.


Contents: Preface; Introduction; Theoretical reflections on the study of 
grassroots political communication; The discursive context and 
contentious field of precarity in Italy; The construction of precarious 
subjects in mobilisations against precarity; Reflections in the mirror: 
media knowledge practices; Surfing media diversity: relational media 
practices; The construction of public identities: media representations 
of protest; Conclusions: the circuit of grassroots political 
communication; Methodological appendix; References; Index.
About the Author: Alice Mattoni is at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. 
Her research interests include social movements, new labour movements, 
political communication, and qualitative methods.

Reviews: 'A vital question today is how the range of political actors 
can be expanded. New political movements must take action within an 
unequal media environment. Alice Mattoni's tightly argued new book on 
Italy's movement against precarity is one of the most important on 
alternative media practice to be published in recent years. Its 
contribution to our understanding of contemporary struggles for 
visibility is fundamental.'
Nick Couldry, Goldsmiths, University of London UK

'A fresh look at the complex relationships among activists and media. In 
this insightful study of collective organizing among precarious workers 
in Italy, Mattoni provides a useful framework for understanding the 
media practices of social movement actors. Highly recommended for both 
scholars and activists.'
Kathleen Blee, University of Pittsburgh, USA

This title is also available as an ebook, ISBN 978-1-4094-2679-0

http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409426783
____________________

Alice Mattoni
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Sociology
University of Pittsburgh

www.alicemattoni.com <http://www.alicemattoni.com>