“Being a Consistent Pain in the Ass”: Politics and Epistemics in Media Democracy Work

Are the “media reform,” ”media democracy,” and “media justice” movements complementary or in conflict? A bit of both, asserts the author, building on her earlier ethnographic study in the field. While each is a form of social activism with progressive political goals, they have different theoretical foundations and different frames for their respective agendas as “scholars,” “activists,” and “advocates.” The article offers a critical consideration of their distinctive interventions, and concludes that while framing media as a “problem to be solved” enabled a wide base to form, at the same time this outlook was so diffuse that it generated tensions among the actors.