Newspapers and Journals
Summary
Newspapers and journals are method 10 in Gene Sharp’s 198 methods of nonviolent action — the operation of movement-aligned or movement-controlled print periodicals to publish the campaign’s own analysis, narrative, and news. [source: commons-198-methods]
Body
Sharp listed newspapers and journals as method 10 of the 198 Methods, under the Communications with a Wider Audience cluster of nonviolent protest and persuasion [source: commons-198-methods]. Movement newspapers and journals (samizdat under repressive regimes, underground press in others, and movement-controlled periodicals everywhere) bypass mainstream-media gatekeeping by publishing directly to the movement’s base and interested outsiders. The form is most useful for sustained campaigns that have a constituency to read and contributors to write. See methods-of-nonviolent-action for the broader method library and alternative-communication-system for the related concept.
The method’s distinguishing feature is sustained, editorially-controlled publishing rather than one-off leaflets: a movement paper builds an editorial voice, a contributor base, and a readership expectation. Sharp’s pairing with adjacent methods (radio and TV, leaflets and pamphlets, skywriting and earthwriting) places the method as one among several communication routes — chosen when a movement needs to set the frame of the public conversation in its own voice.
Worked examples
- feminists-sit-in-at-ladies-home-journal-to-protest-the-magazine-s — the 1970 Ladies’ Home Journal sit-in, in which feminists demanded and won editorial concessions at a mainstream women’s magazine; a worked example of campaign pressure on a publication.
FAQ
What are newspapers and journals in the 198 Methods?
Newspapers and journals are method 10 in Gene Sharp’s 198 methods of nonviolent action — the operation of movement-aligned or movement-controlled print periodicals to publish the campaign’s own analysis, narrative, and news [source: commons-198-methods]. Sharp placed them under the Communications with a Wider Audience cluster of nonviolent protest and persuasion.
Why do movements publish their own newspapers?
Movement newspapers and journals (samizdat under repressive regimes, underground press in others, and movement-controlled periodicals everywhere) bypass mainstream-media gatekeeping by publishing directly to the movement’s base and interested outsiders [source: commons-198-methods]. The form is most useful for sustained campaigns that have a constituency to read and contributors to write.
What distinguishes the method from one-off leaflets?
The method’s distinguishing feature is sustained, editorially-controlled publishing rather than one-off leaflets: a movement paper builds an editorial voice, a contributor base, and a readership expectation [source: commons-198-methods]. Sharp’s pairing with adjacent methods (radio and TV, leaflets and pamphlets, skywriting and earthwriting) places the method as one among several communication routes, chosen when a movement needs to set the frame of the public conversation in its own voice.
Related
Learn more
- On Wikipedia: Underground press — CC BY-SA 4.0