Politics of Media Scarcity

Greg Elmer is Professor and Bell Media Research Chair in the School of Professional Communication at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.Stephen J. Neville is a PhD candidate in the Communication and Culture program at York University and Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada.

• 1. Introduction: The Limits of Abundant Media2. Media Scarcity in Apartheid South Africa3. Retracking Incarceration: Cheryl L’Hirondelle’s Ceremonial Infrastructure4. Restaging the Soviet Secret City: The Good Life, the Toxic Life5. Bunker media: Messages from the abundant and redundant underground6. Conclusion: Future Politics of Media Scarcity

The Politics of Media Scarcity provides an engaging account of the complex double nature of media scarcity as both a form of marginalization and political practice for emancipation. In a world often connected with media abundance, this is a much-needed analysis of the absences, refusals, and push backs against oppressive forms of mediation towards a more hopeful future.Anne Kaun, Södertörn University, SwedenAs media scholars we tend to focus on the nature and consequences of a media-saturated world and too often ignore the social and political ramifications of media paucity. This book subverts that tendency and challenges us to recognise and critique media scarcity and its impact on our social identities, our political participation and our economic security. Through a series of richly diverse case studies on South African militants, incarcerated Indigenous women, residents of ‘secret’/nuclear cities, and the cold war bunker, it offers unique insights on the marginalising effects of media and how the politics of media scarcity can be reclaimed to disrupt abundant media power for social justice ends. Original and fascinating in equal measure. Natalie Fenton, Goldsmiths College, UKThe Politics of Media Scarcity successfully weaves together case studies from different nations, institutional logics, and timeframes to persuade readers to consider the complexities behind communities and spaces that may appear, at face value, to be media-scarce and lacking.By highlighting timely case studies from communities at the forefront of subverting violent power structures, this short book aims to inspire lasting shifts in perspectives within a culture of abundance.Beatrys Rodrigues, Cultural Studies, July 2024