ABSTRACT
If the production of alternative and participatory forms of media can be seen as an example of active citizenship, it is an example that tends to be little discussed within mainstream literature about relationships between journalism and politics. Alternative media can provide ‘a rich vein of journalism which is simply invisible in journalism studies’, laments John Hartley (2009: 314). Similarly, Richard Keeble (2009: 60) points out that: ‘Despite the vast economic power of the mainstream press, a lively alternative print industry (ethnic minority/left-wing/peace movement/feminist/ single-issue campaigning) survives against the odds – yet it tends to be ignored by both Fleet Street and academe.’ However, although the journalism of such alternative media may indeed be regarded
as of marginal interest within much of journalism studies, it is neither completely invisible nor totally ignored (Couldry, 2010: 24). Journalism has ‘several legitimate registers, which contribute in different ways to the functioning of democracy’, writes James Curran in his foreword to The Alternative Media Handbook (Coyer et al., 2007: xvi). Those registers include the ‘advocacy and interpretative and subjective styles of journalism’ that are to be found in much of what is labelled ‘alternative media’; forms of media that, for Curran, ‘enable divergent social groups to define and constitute themselves, facilitate internal strategic debate, and further the forceful transmission of their concerns and viewpoints to a wider public.’ Curran’s contribution comes amidst a flurry of book-length studies of media practices and products that might be termed ‘alternative’; in addition to The Alternative Media Handbook in 2007 we also have Understanding Alternative Media by Bailey et al. (2008), Alternative Journalism by Atton and Hamilton (2008), Making Our Media by Rodriguez et al. (2010), Challenging the News by Forde (2011), Alternative and Activist New Media by Lievrouw (2011), and Downing’s (2011) Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media, among others. Such studies of alternative forms of media production can inform us not just about the alternatives
themselves, but, it is argued, can also shed light upon more established media practices, because:
Alternative journalism proceeds from dissatisfaction not only with the mainstream coverage of certain issues and topics, but also with the epistemology of news. Its critique emphasizes alternatives to, inter alia, conventions of news sources and representation; the inverted pyramid of news texts; the hierarchical and capitalized economy of commercial journalism; the professional, elite basis of journalism as a practice; the professional norm of objectivity; and the subordinate role of audience as receiver.
