Voicing lived-experience and anti-racism: podcasting as a space at the margins for subaltern counterpublics

Abstract

© 2019 The Author(s). Almost 18 years after the podcast medium first emerged, 2018 has witnessed its resurgence. With approximately six million (11%) of the UK population now listening to podcasts in an average week, the podcast renaissance raises new questions about the relationship between cultural production, consumption and representation. This paper explores the significance of the new wave of podcasts, specifically with regards to racial politics in the UK and its potential power as an anti-racist tool. Through a series of interview and focus group discussions with black and Asian podcasters in the UK, it asks what role podcasts play in providing an alternative space for ‘communities of resistance’. These issues are examined against the dual contexts in the UK of an intensifyingly hostile environment for black and minority ethnic groups and a digital and creative sector marked by social and cultural inequalities.

The article suggests that in a ‘post fact’ international climate of disinformation that bolsters populist rhetoric around minority cultural groups, podcasts have become a rare space for articulating the lived experiences of these groups, whilst also challenging broader patterns of racialized disenfranchisement, including in the creative industries. Podcasts facilitate new forms of social affiliation and anti-racism; which we analyse through Fraser’s concept of “subaltern counterpublics” to unveil the interruptive potentiality of the medium for marginalised communities seeking to make accessible alternative representations and perspectives on the relationship between race and society.