ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the theory has inappropriately prioritised mainstream activities – and failed to acknowledge adequately the role of the alternative media – both historically. It seeks to highlight the corporate media’s historic function to promote overall the dominant political, military, economic, ideological and cultural interests in society. The chapter provides a brief history of peace journalism (PJ), a survey of the overall state of PJ– and a brief focus on two major, contemporary examples of PJ. PJ theory emerged during the 1970s amongst peace researchers, activists and academics, but the activities of the alternative media were hardly acknowledged. Conventional histories of the media tend to marginalise or ignore altogether the non-corporate media. In Britain, a predictable media panic erupted in 2011 after Fleet Street journalists were discovered hacking to the phones of celebrities, top politicians, royals and the occasional ‘ordinary’ person, such as missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
