Research Interests

I am interested in the intersection of social movements and media. This includes a broad range of alternative media from user-generated content, citizen journalism, community radio, and the micro media of signs and street puppets. At the same time, I am interested in how these nontraditional venues influence and cross over into the commercial mainstream media and how media policy shapes this cross-fertilization.

This interest began with a commitment to the environmental movement and as that movement has joined forces with the global justice movement and the anti-war movement, the intersection of media strategies and tactics and the physical spaces for dissent have become my focus and the topic of my latest book, Preempting Dissent: The Politics of an Inevitable Future, co-authored with Greg Elmer, Ph.D., Bell Globe Media Chair at Ryerson University in Toronto.

My previous work includes the book, Micro Radio and the FCC: Media Activism and the Struggle Over Broadcast Policy, where I examine the struggle over FCC policy as a site where an emerging social movement can be witnessed. This emerging media activism and reform movement is again connected to issues of social justice as citizens confront the limitations of a media system dominated by commercial interests that remains largely inaccessible to the public and public interest organizations. This book is part policy analysis and part historical ethnography documenting the formative stages of an emerging social movement.

I see scholarly research as actively connected to a larger social world. The privilege of working within a university brings with it the obligation to serve the public in tangible ways. My research agenda embodies my commitments to public service and I often compliment my scholarly writing with popular essays and public speaking in an attempt to translate academic ideas to a broader audience.