“Small-Scale Media” in an Era of Globalization

Review by Jill Hopke

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Developing Alternative Media Traditions in Nepal, by Michael Wilmore. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7391-2525-0. 239 pp.

Within the field of global media studies the study of local community-based media may at times seem like a contradiction. Scholars often lament that the globalization of media systems undermines local identities and cultural practices. However, local media continue to hold promise to counteract such homogenizing processes. In his first book on local cable television production in Nepal, Michael Wilmore highlights the importance of focusing scholarly attention on community media outlets. His focus is on “small-scale media production” explores whether such content can play a role in broader social transformations underway in the country during the 1990s and the enhancement of local community identity.

Wilmore’s media ethnography of local cable television production in the city of Tansen, located in the Palpa district of Nepal, is the product of doctoral dissertation research he conducted while a student of social anthropology at the University of London in the mid-1990s. He is currently a professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia where his research and teaching focuses on media globalization with an emphasis on post-colonial indigenous and community media in Nepal and South Asia.

The book is a case study of an early local cable television outlet in Nepal, Ratna Cable Television (RCTV) and its partner organization Communication for Development Palpa (CDP). His case study provides a realistic look at the practical and political links between local media production and broader community and national development goals. The central argument Wilmore makes is that individuals reinvent their community through community television production. To this end, he includes an analysis of religious festivals broadcast by RCTV. Interestingly, he finds that this type of production contributes to a representation of the community “as a whole” while at the same time the particular selection of festivals included in the coverage reproduces the local “hegemonic political order.” Furthermore, in contrast to notions of alternative media as operating outside of mainstream societal conventions, Wilmore concludes that “RCTV’s work is part of a continuum of developments in media and culture, rather than the start of something wholly new” (p. 113).

This book is useful read for scholars interested in the history of the Palpa region of Nepal and its place within the broader social-political context of South Asia. Wilmore provides a comprehensive overview of the region’s history up to the mid-1990s, as well as an excellent synthesis of past scholarship on the region.

In addition, academics with an interest in local television production with find that this case study raises critical questions of is included and who is left out of local media production, in short the politics of production. Wilmore aptly does not base his analysis on an assumption that alternative and community media are better than mainstream media simply by the fact that they are “alternative” or “community” outlets. Rather, he explores how community media operate within the social and political dynamics of a local community to construct a “sense of locality.” This insight is a major strength of his work.

Wilmore shows a strong understanding of past scholarship on community and alternative media and his work benefits from a solid theoretical framework. Furthermore, he makes use of social capital theory that has yet to be widely employed in the study of participatory media production. Interestingly, he suggests, “Social capital should be viewed less as a solution to social crises than a useful, albeit limited way of describing the general processes of the formation of relationships and transactions that are the context for all social action” (p. 181).

The book is heavily skewed towards a historical overview of the Palpa district of Nepal and Tansen, the district’s capital and the site of his fieldwork. Wilmore justifiably makes the point that such historical background provides a “contextual prism through which the production of alternative forms of local media in Tansen must be understood” (p. 92). For a reader without a strong background in South Asian studies or who is not a specialist in Nepal, will find this level of depth useful for contextualizing Wilmore’s conclusions on local television production in Tansen. At the same time, at many points in the narrative the level of historical detail detracts from Wilmore’s main purpose of analyzing Ratna Cable Television’s functioning and content production. As a result, at times the reader is left to wonder how all the rich historical detail links-up with Wilmore’s research on local community television production. On the whole the work would have benefited greatly from the inclusion of additional primary ethnographic data drawn from Wilmore’s own fieldwork.

A major weakness of the book is his heavy reliance on secondary source material, even in the later chapters of the book where a reader would expect more primary evidence from his time in the field, as well as additional personal reflection and insights gleaned from the fieldwork experience. In addition, a map of Nepal pointing out the Palpa region and Tansen would have been helpful for the reader to visually place his description of the fieldwork location.

Lastly, Wilmore writes his book in the “ethnographic present” of the mid-1990s. While he comments briefly on more recent socio-political developments in Nepal, the work would have benefited from additional discussion of Nepal’s more recent political turmoil and democratic revolution. A reader is advised that outside reading may be desired to fill-in the gaps.

Overall, Developing Alternative Media Traditions in Nepal adds some rich insights on local media production to the field of community and alternative media research while reminding us that within global media studies we must not forget the study of “small-scale media production.” Such media, while often overlooked by scholars, play a crucial and varied role in the representation of local identities and cultures.