A critique of ‘communicative resilience’ as a framework for media development

This paper reflects critically on the concept of ‘communicative resilience’ and its application in the field of media development. It draws on the case study of a development programme implemented in Tunisia and Lebanon, which was intended to support community-owned media through the framework of communicative resilience. The article reports on the findings of 47 fieldwork interviews with local civil society actors and independent journalists, and argues that the agenda of resilience often fails to harness—and at times undermines—organic grass-roots communication practices. As an alternative, it proposes redefining communicative resilience as an organic process of communicative resistance.