Toward an intersectional political economy of autonomous media resources

Sandra Jeppesen and Kamilla Petrick | 2018 | article in Interface: a journal for and about social movements

This paper presents results of a co-research project with autonomous media activists to analyze the challenges they face when mobilizing resources, and the myriad strategies they deploy to overcome these challenges. Drawing on qualitative data from six focus groups with eighty-nine media activists, and sixteen semi-structured interviews, four key media practices emerge.

First, we find that media activists cultivate funding sources based on ethical relationship building. Second, they negotiate a complex ethics of paid vs. unpaid labour practices. Third, they mobilize a wealth of immaterial or intangible resources. Fourth, they develop innovative anti-oppression media practices challenging intersectional systemic oppressions. We argue it is imperative to engage intersectionality in conjunction with political economy to deepen our understanding of autonomous media resource practices, as intersectional anti-oppression strategies can contribute to sustainability.