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Alternative media are defined most broadly as those media practices falling outside the mainstreams of corporate communication.

Proponents of alternative media often argue that the mainstream media is heavily biased, criticizing their pretended objectivity as a dissimulation of class biases. Causes of this bias include the political interests of the owners, government influence or the profit motive. The concentration of media ownership, as well as the concentration of the publishing industry are other causes of economical censorship. While sources of alternative media are also frequently highly (and sometimes proudly) biased, the bias tend to be different, hence 'alternative'. Alternative media outlets often engage in advocacy journalism and frequently promote specific political views, often dissident views.

Authors such as Louis Althusser and Noam Chomsky have written in detail about the problems of the mainstream press, and their writings have inspired the creation of many alternative press efforts. Many current alternative press sources share values on copyright with the open source movement.

For a medium to be considered “alternative”, it must possess some kind of counter-hegemonic quality. The counter-hegemony should be represented through at least one of the following parameters:

  • Content – what is being “said”
  • Aesthetical form – the way it is being said
  • Intention – the point of success
  • Organizational structure – how the media are being run
  • Process - the relationship between production and consumption of information

Examples of alternative media

The following is a list of news sources considered to be part of an alternative media, in both print and electronic forms:

People associated with the alternative media

See also

External links

Associated Categories

Mass media | Alternative journalism | Newspapering

Média alternatif | Alternatieve media | Alternative medier | Mídia Alternativa | 獨立媒體

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Alternative media".

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