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Community Radio & the Frequency of Struggle
by Sharmeen Khan
Challenges & opportunities on Canadian airwaves.
PropAfghanda
by Anthony Fenton
The battle for Canadian hearts & minds: If maintaining Canada’s Afghan occupation requires a “perception war” on Canadian soil, then are Canadians now the enemy?
By Sharmeen Khan
June/July 2007
Illustration by Aimee van Drimmelen
Whether through a political affairs show, an indy-rock program or a cultural program dedicated to immigrant communities, community radio has long played an integral part in social change and activism in Canada. Community radio has a rich history of challenging dominant discourses in mainstream media, airing alternative music, and perhaps most importantly, amplifying the voices of people who do not otherwise have access to media production. What sets community radio apart from corporate radio or the CBC is how it relies on listeners to also be broadcasters. Community radio broadcasters take seriously the old slogan, “Don’t hate the media, become the media,” volunteering their time to produce media that would otherwise not be possible.
By Anthony Fenton
June/July 2007
If maintaining Canada’s Afghan occupation requires a “perception war” on Canadian soil, then are Canadians now the enemy? Anthony Fenton investigates.
Right: Detail of cover illustration by Robert Carter
Few Canadians know that the transformation of Canada’s military and foreign policy establishment towards more aggressive opperations has been afoot since the end of the Cold War. But in the face of Canada’s escalating engagement in a dirty counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan, are Canadians finally beginning to wake up to this fact? The military and economic establishments certainly fear as much, which is why we’ve witnessed such a media barrage of patriotism and militarism in the past year. Canada’s heavily concentrated media industry and its incomplete and uncritically supportive coverage of Canada’s Afghan adventure have been crucial to the establishment’s effort to push public opinion into line with Canada’s new foreign policy alignment.
GENEVIEVE SIMMS
By Nicole Cohen
June/July 2007
I don’t recall the exact moment I became skeptical of the term labour of love, but I do remember the day it began feeling like an inappropriate descriptor for Shameless, the independent, feminist magazine for teens I co-founded in 2003 and edited until recently.
