ABSTRACT
It has become something of a cliché, perhaps even a truism, to describe alternative media as existing to give ‘voice to the voiceless’. The phrase is widely used among both scholars and practitioners (this author among them) because it seems to express why some people feel compelled to create such media in the first place; its alliterative and rhetorical qualities no doubt help too. However, although declaring an intention to give voice to the voiceless may produce an attractive motto or slogan, we must dig deeper if we are to discover how such an ethos might be put into practice within media projects that entail “becoming one’s own storyteller, regaining one’s own voice” (Rodríguez, 2001: 3). Crucial to such an exploration, certainly when we focus more narrowly on the practices and ethics of alternative journalism (rather than wider forms of alternative media production), is what might be described as the fundamentally ethical practice of empathic, active listening.
