Socially engaged public access productions

The socially engaged media productions made possible through the hard-won, yet fragile, public access resources in hundreds of communities throughout the U.S. demonstrate the potential of grassroots media to inform and invigorate community life outside the commercial paradigm. In this paper, the author defines key terms and identifies four broad categories of socially engaged public access production. She then provides specific examples of productions, their producers, and the contexts in which they were created. Finally, she highlights key issues and implications for socially engaged public access production in the future.