i MiX WHAT i LiKE” is borrowed – in phrase and philosophy – from the work of Steve Biko. The collection of Biko’s “Frank Talk” columns titled I Write What I Like is much of the inspiration for the attempt here to blend the traditions of radical broadcasting, the mixtape and Black Consciousness with what Dr. Hemant Shah has called “Emancipatory Journalism.”

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DR. JARED BALL

This is our 2008 interview with Shah about emancipatory journalism and my particular application of his idea in FreeMix Radio: The Original Mixtape Radio Show. I eventually attempted to write about this project and its philosophy in “I Mix What I Like! In Defense and Appreciation of the Rap Music Mixtape as ‘National’ and ‘Dissident’ Communication” and then in I Mix What I Like! A Mixtape Manifesto.

Emancipatory journalism:

A) presupposes that inequality and oppression exist and that there are (neo)colonies and colonized populations requiring a form of journalism that is;

B) bottom-up. Central to EJ’s concept of good journalism are the perspectives of those most oppressed, those of members of the communities themselves, as opposed to government or business officials and elites and;

C) argues that notions of “objectivity” must be critiqued if not entirely discarded in favor of clearly identified, studied, researched perspectives that advocate radical re-ordering of societies.

Emancipatory Journalism Model (first published by Shah, 2007 and here reprinted from I Mix.., p. 128).

Emancipatory Model

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Jared Ball About, iMWiL!