Cultural Politics and the Mass Media

Case studies in Alaskan Native political resistance using the media

Reveals how newspapers, radio stations and television programs became strategic sites of Native resistance to the economic and cultural agendas of non-Native settlers. This work demonstrates that freedom for indigenous peoples is not only premised on control over their political economy, but also on their capacity to tell their own stories.Alaska's indigenous peoples have used various forms of mass media and community media for purposes of cultural expression, self-determination, and political resistance. Patrick J. Daley and Beverly A. James elegantly reveal how newspapers, radio stations and television programs became strategic sites of Native resistance to the economic and cultural agendas of non-Native settlers.

Using six empirically grounded studies, the authors demonstrate that freedom for indigenous peoples is not only premised on control over their political economy, but also on their capacity to tell their own stories. In so doing, Alaska's indigenous peoples develop a powerful, historically grounded argument for understanding cultural persistence as a valuable and vital form of self-determination.