"In this volume the author investigates four cases in which ordinary people have gained control over an electronic medium. Each case is located in a different geographic, historic, cultural, and socioeconomic context. Therefore each illustrates a particular aspect of how these alternative and participatory media - or citizen's media - set in motion complex and different communication and cultural dynamics. On the basis of qualitative data collected during fieldwork in all four sites, the study articulates citizens' media as live historical processes that immerse participants in continuous renegotiations of their symbolic environments. The four case studies suggest that the democratization of communication is a process of subtle complexities. It implicates the survival of cultural identities. It implicates the survival of cultural identities, the expression of marginalized social and cultural symbolic matter, and the growth of subordinate groups in terms of empowerment and self-esteem, dimensions overlooked by traditional discussions of the democratization of communication."--BOOK JACKET.