The Central/Eastern European region has a well-documented history of alternative media practices (Samizdat). Sessions on the alternative/community media theme will ask: What new forms of underground, tactical, citizen-based media expressions have emerged since 1989? How do they relate to previous experiences? How are ‘new’ and ‘old’ technologies used? Have media laws and policies recognized community media? What is the role of alternative media in a context of persisting political influence and new commercial pressures on the media?

Conveners of this theme are Kate Coyer and Arne Hintz from the Center for Media and Communication Studies (CMCS) at Central European University, and Stefania Milan from European University Instuitute, in collaboration with Bodo Balazs and Gabor Valyi from the MOKK media research center at Budapest University of Technology and Economy, Gergely Gosztonyi from Eotvos Lorand University Budapest, and Olga Zaslavskaia from the Open Society Archives.