For almost forty years, DeeDee Halleck has been involved in a variety of projects that involve media making by “non-professionals.” Her goal has been to develop a critical sense of the potential and limitations of mediated communication through practical exercises that generate a sense of both individual and non-hierarchical group power over the various apparati of media and electronic technology. Hand-Held Visions is a collection of essays, presentations, and lectures that she has written throughout this process.

Halleck starts with a discussion of her own development as a teacher, producer, and an active participant in the struggle for media democracy. She gives the reader a historical first-person perspective on the community-based media movement and a sense of the determination and resolve that have enabled often fragile and much embattled organizations and individuals to survive in a climate dominated by global media corporations that are in direct opposition to their work.