Welcome to the Alternative Media Archive

This website is a placeholder for a unique endeavour: the Canadian Alternative Media Archive! It is a project in progress.

Alternative media play a significant role in society by alerting the public to underrepresented issues or those not covered by the mainstream media and by offering a diversity of perspectives on issues of public concern and by creating opportunities for Canadians to participate in the creation of Canadian culture. In addition, alternative media often exist within their own alternative public micro-spheres, in which they practice prefigurative politics by being organized and by operating in a way that reflects the social change and innovation they are working towards.

Alternative media also play a key role in Canadian culture by bringing to public discussions points of view and ideas that would otherwise be absent, marginalized, delegitimized, or rejected from commercial media. Yet examples of alternative media can be difficult to find, especially historical examples, and alternative media culture is highly transient. Libraries typically do not carry large holdings of alternative media products, which are often produced in small numbers in localized settings by volunteer labour without funds or time to maintain them. Current databases are scant, and no archive devoted specifically to alternative media currently exists in Canada.

Without a central archive, much of this work would not be included in media, cultural and communication history or come to the attention of scholars, students or the public. The purpose of this archive is to ensure that a historical record exists as well as to assist academic researchers and alternative media participants in their research and projects. The archive will also contribute to more inclusive democratic dialogue and citizen engagement by using open-source software.

The first stage of the archive will invite current alternative media practitioners to participate in collaborative archiving, in which they choose current and representative artifacts from their own ongoing work to be preserved. In later stages, the archive will go beyond ‘date forward’ and include historical documents and artifacts. It also seeks to provide a forum for discussion on media policy and practice in Canada.

For the purpose of this project, alternative media will be defined broadly to include the full expression of media that exist outside commercial mainstream media, communication and culture. This may include: chap books, community radio, community television, culture-jammed billboards, flyers, independent video production, newspapers, posters, web-based newspapers, zines and e-zines.