Beyond “Dudecore”? Challenging Gendered and “Raced” Technologies Through Media Activism

Abstract

This article follows media activists trying to transform the media system by broadening access to technology and skills. These activists intend for technological engagement to be compatible with a range of social identities, but their hopes are not always achieved. It is difficult to cultivate forms of technical affinity and expertise not associated with White masculinity, though the activists are more successful with regard to inclusion of women than of people of color. This case study provides an opportunity to analyze how social and personal identities may shape, and be shaped through, interactions with communication technologies, as well as the ramifications of technologically-oriented activism in the wider array of efforts to secure a more democratic media environment.

Notes

¹Though DIY has origins in postwar suburban masculine home improvement projects (Gelber, 1997), it is also consonant with the values of appropriate, small-scale technology and self-reliance found in the Appropriate Technology movement (Pursell, 1993; Turner, 2006). The media activists draw on both the DIY of Appropriate Technology and the interrelated DIY of punk/indie recording and ‘zine subcultures (Waksman, 2004).

²Wi-fi is wireless broadband Internet connectivity. A wi-fi network is essentially a network of individual wireless transceivers.

³The FCC website listed 865 LPFMs on the air in April 2009. Retrieved April 11, 2009 at http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?state=&serv=FL&vac=3&list=2.

⁴The author by no means wishes to imply that “feminine”/domestic work is divorced from technology or technical skill. This is mainly an actors' label; the Pandora group uses “technical” to refer to audio, computer, and radio transmission hardware and software. Unless otherwise specified, “technical” here means related to hardware.

⁵The author speculates that “dudecore” comes from “hardcore,” substituting the “hard” with another signifier for masculinity (see Edwards, 1990). It also sounds like “corps,” as in “Marine Corps.” It did not have an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) or Wikipedia when checked. Amongst these actors, the term “dude” is used commonly to refer to men, as one can note in the quotes.

⁶ Kvasny (2005) critiques the debate over the “digital divide” for how it masks deeper issues by excluding other structural, longstanding, historical inequities. Kvasny also argues that “a production-oriented notion of IT may unwittingly reproduce social inequalities,” a relevant point for the case in this article.

⁷Two of Pandora's approximately 10 radio station barnraisings were with Latino migrant workers' unions, in 2003 and 2006 (Immokalee, FL, and Woodburn, OR).