Andrea Langlois et al - Islands of Resistance - Pirate Radio in Canada

32 • islands of resistance
range of the microphone, all without the permission or awareness of
the user. Such technologies may be much more Faustian than utopian,
especially in light of programs such as Echelon and the installation of
FBI black box taps (known as Carnivore) on the servers of every internet
service provider.
Within this specific context, free radio becomes all the more important
because it cannot be centrally controlled and shut down. Every
tool has both strengths and limitations and any intelligent user of
media tools must recognize this fact. Reliance on any one tool is foolish
and short-sighted. Further innovations must be created and established
to put technology to work for people and communities. Cory
Doctorow, in his sci-fi novel, Little Brother, 1 shows a possible way
forward with the development of “extranets” — local wireless mesh
networks that allow for regional and local communications. Created
with inexpensive wifi transceivers and software for self-configuration,
extranets would be a way for local control of communications to be
exerted. Software-defined radio receivers are yet another emerging
possibility.
It cannot be denied that the internet has made the world much
smaller, allowing information and news to flow in ways unimaginable
a decade ago. Equally important to consider though, is that information
without context is propaganda. De-contextualization is a primary
means of control. Free radio is able to provide context in an immediate
and direct manner. As part of a synergistic deployment of media
and communications controlled by people, not corporations and government,
free radio is a plant which only needs further watering and
propagation to maximize its inherent possibilities. Let a thousand
transmitters blossom!
notes
1. Cory Doctorow, Little Brother (New York: Macmillan/Tor-Forge Books,
2008).