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While there is growing academic attention to readers of hyperpartisan, alternative, and conspiracy (HAC) media, our understanding of these sites has developed in separate bodies of work. We make a case for studying HAC media in unison, recognizing them as different information sources that share the same underlying anti-establishment sentiment. We do so by painting a detailed portrait of HAC media users, detailing 1) who consumes HAC media; 2) how they access it; and 3) how its consumption relates to public opinion. This is made possible by the unique combination of panel surveys taken before and after the first COVID-19 lockdowns in Germany and Switzerland, and webtracking data capturing participants' actual online behavior. Our results show that those exposed to HAC media have a strong distrust of government and place themselves at the ideological extremes. While social media was a quintessential entry point for such media, most visits were registered by a small percentage of repeat visitors. Lastly, we show that those who consumed HAC media developed distinct opinions about the threat posed by COVID-19, mirroring the sentiments expressed in HAC media that the danger of the virus was exaggerated and that the real threat was to individual freedoms. With this case study, we showcase the theoretical utility of taking an integrated approach to HAC media, while providing nuanced insights into their audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video activism is among the predominant forms of contemporary digital activism. In networked cultures dominated by social media platforms, video activism has seen various transformations. This paper investigates the role of video activism within the feminist movements in Turkey in the context of digital culture. In-depth interviews have been conducted to explore the tactics of feminist video activists. In particular, the tactics of feminist video activists have been analysed at four levels: video production, video distribution, video ethics and video archiving. The results show how networked video activism contributes to the feminist movements at three levels: the creation of feminist media as an alternative to patriarchal narratives, the organisation of affect and solidarity among women and finally, self-reflexivity and subjectification for activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing prominence of alternative news media has been identified as a particular challenge to contemporary established journalism, next to collapsing financial models, platform dependency, falling levels of trust and increased competition. Against this background, this study examines how news editors from 23 established news organizations in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark view the rise and role of alternative news media and thereby the boundaries of the journalistic field. Combining strategic action field theory, boundary work and the concept of metajournalistic discourse, it identifies three metajournalistic discourses—We are the (real) journalists, We are in control (for now), and We are under pressure. Together, these metajournalistic discourses portray alternative news media as a challenge that largely has been overcome, and as currently insignificant actors that clearly do not represent "real journalism". At the same time, the discourses also display concerns that alternative news media might represent potential future field ruptures via their association with broader potentially detrimental media developments, such as genre-confused media audiences or harassment of journalists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The media are core to the successful functioning of democracy. They are responsible for scrutinizing state institutions. The media, thus, must remain independent of political control and power elites seeking to shape public consciousness. Nonetheless, historical precedents of political censorship and the high concentration of media ownership in Latin America have prevented the media from exercising its accountability duties. Information and communication technology (ICT) has recently enabled alternative media outlets to increase their reach in recent years. In contrast to traditional media, alternative media seek to challenge the status quo and engage in causes of social or political change. By analyzing traditional and alternative media coverage of a social tragedy in Guatemala, this study contributes to the ICT for development literature by showing how alternative media can leverage ICT to create accountability through frame diversification. The concept of frame diversification advanced in this study recognizes the possibilities enabled by ICT for disseminating views that break from the "culture of silence" that has historically permeated the media in Latin American countries like Guatemala. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common explanation linked to increased polarisation has focused on changes in citizens' information diets, with like-minded people apparently becoming increasingly isolated in online echo chambers. This article investigates whether news audience polarisation has increased in Iceland in recent years and if there is polarisation in Icelandic society concerning beliefs in misinformation and conspiracy theories. Iceland is an interesting case study since it is very small and still quite homogenous, but experiencing rapid societal changes and a media landscape in turmoil. We utilise data from representative surveys conducted in 2017 and 2022. Findings show that news consumption patterns in Iceland have shifted towards online platforms, with a significant increase in online news consumption across all age groups, and a decline in the use of traditional legacy outlets. News audience polarisation appears, however, to remain relatively low in Iceland, with most news brands reaching a mixed and centrist audience. We find that gender, education, and political ideology are related to beliefs concerning misinformation and conspiracy theories focused on climate change and refugees. Moreover, our results suggest that trust in the mainstream media, as well as news consumption from partisan outlets, are related to beliefs in misinformation and conspiracy theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research pertaining to the emergence and presence of trans and gender nonconforming identities in press materials has been lacking, particularly within the queer Irish context. This article fills this gap by presenting the findings of a study exploring the emergence of gender nonconformity through the alternative queer media outlet, Gay Community News (GCN). Using the first decade of the GCN’s reportage (1988 to 1998), this article explores 113 issues of GCN, including supplements, deploying textual analysis to uncover how GCN negotiated and represented trans and gender diverse identities. Through this analysis, three key themes relating to trans visibility emerge across this decade: 1. Negotiating the inclusion and exclusion of trans femme identities; 2. Transvestite identity and its normal attachments and 3. Information provision and consciousness-raising. In exploring these themes, this article argues that alternative media have been crucial for the emergence of trans and gender diverse visibility in the Irish queer press. Additionally, it contends that this community is very much minoritised regarding the kinds of inclusions offered to them. While highlighting the activist potential of alternative media like GCN, the article demonstrates that trans visibility was often complex, marred by exclusions and expectations around conformity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberalism has been described as the most successful ideology in world history (Anders-son 2000). This has, in turn, impacted the modern media by dumbing down its public interest role, through cultivating concentrated media ownership patterns, which has produced hyper-commercial and elitist-driven content. This paper has the broad aim of provoking discussions and debates both for the Global South and Global North geospatial locations grappling with these neoliberal consequences, by considering what systemic alternative(s) to capitalist me-dia can be considered. It specifically explores the return of the anti-capitalist alternative media to South Africa’s print media terrain to function in a developmental role. With the aim to dilute the neoliberal capitalist nature of its media that has effectively perpetuated the dominance of the elite class at the expense of citizen-oriented and public interest imperatives (Govenden 2022). It furthers this argument by also comparatively drawing on two BRICS country case studies from Asia i.e. China and India.

The Kiowa County Media Center was set up as a community media that would focus solely on citizen-produced news content. But challenges such as technophobia, citizen's lack of time to contribute content, and an aging population meant the media center had to reinvent itself and evolve beyond its citizen-journalism mission if it hoped to survive. Four main findings from this study offer key lessons for other community media facing challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Community Broadcasting Codes of Practice (the Codes) play an important role in shaping what Australians listen to and how they engage with their local community radio station. In a sector defined by grassroots participation and a non-professional, volunteer workforce, the Codes aim to model best practice in terms of content, community participation and governance. Several sections apply specifically to news and current affairs (NCAF) coverage, yet there is no independent research that explores the sector's alignment with the Codes in this area. Drawing on a content analysis of 572 community radio NCAF stories broadcast on nationally syndicated programmes, and interviews with journalists and news producers, this research sought to critically analyse NCAF coverage on community radio in light of the Codes of Practice. The results of the research suggest that NCAF coverage on community radio broadly aligns with the Codes of Practice, yet there are mixed interpretations of what can be considered 'views not adequately represented' elsewhere. Part of this uncertainty stems from the reliance on media students as volunteer journalists. This article interrogates this tension between the sector's role as an informal 'training ground' for aspiring media workers and its remit to provide alternative NCAF coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work discusses the potentials, limits, and problems of alternative media in capitalism. It compares alternative media to commercial media and public service media. A model is introduced that compares commercial and non-commercial media projects. Its dimensions are the economy, work, production, and communication. Dilemmas of alternative media are analysed. As an example, a conflict at the Austrian free radio station Radio Orange is analysed. The paper discusses the political economy of alternative media. Alternative media such as free radio stations have set out to do media in a way that is different to capitalist media. In this context, the role of the audience as media producers and the rejection of the market, capital, and commodities are important aspects of alternative media. The analysis shows the problems and antagonisms that non-commercial, alternative media face in capitalist society. They struggle to establish independence from markets, capital, and the state. They face the problem of how to deal with these antagonisms which results in the alternative between adopting to capitalist pressures or operating as small-scale niche alternatives with small audiences and precarious labour. The paper concludes that material aspects and the political economy of alternative media need to be taken seriously. Not selling commodities and not paying wages puts many alternative media at a disadvantage vis-à-vis commercial media.

This study examines how domestic alternative media reported the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. It pays special attention to whether the Conversation Canada, as an emerging not-for-profit journalism organization founded on the premise of "explanatory journalism", has taken a different approach to COVID-19 reporting than three long-standing Canadian alternative media: Canada's National Observer, Rabble, and Tyee. A combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis found that the pandemic's far-reaching impacts gained the main emphasis in the surveyed media. These media also provided slightly divergent accounts of what precipitated the pandemic's disastrous results. Additionally, the way the Conversation Canada framed COVID-19 expressed a close resemblance to academic writing, especially in terms of the strategic use of in-text citations for making compelling arguments. These findings highlight the indispensable role that progressive alternative media play in the effective public communication of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs a comparative analytical framework to enhance our understanding of the conducive opportunity structures that foster emotionally charged political discourse. We examined 175,539 Facebook posts characterized by variations in content (in terms of themes and populist rhetoric), authorship (including populist politicians, traditional news, and alternative media), and geographic context (Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, UK, US). We then analyzed 360,000 emotional responses from Facebook users to determine which posts create the most conducive conditions for eliciting angry emotions. Our key findings show that posts from alternative and hyperpartisan media, as well as those from populist politicians and parties, tend to elicit elevated levels of angry reactions. These posts often use anti-elitist and exclusionary language. This finding has significant implications, as the anger generated by such accounts can propagate incivility and polarization and facilitate the spread of ideologically driven misinformation. A particular case is Donald Trump, who, as a populist governing figure, manages to elicit positive emotions, including "love," despite delivering seemingly antagonistic messages. To strengthen the robustness of our findings, we conducted a replication analysis with 67,620 Facebook posts from three of the six countries and examined two different time periods. This analysis confirmed the persistence of our findings over time. Our opportunity-structure framework offers valuable insights for designing targeted strategies to improve the quality of public discourse and promote informed and constructive political engagement in diverse societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data journalism start-ups have emerged as viable forces in the news industry in recent years, with their creation of strong data stories that have won global data journalism awards. Such start-ups may be seen to play particularly important roles to safeguard democracy in societies where mainstream media is strictly controlled, taking on the role of alternative media to challenge the status quo. This study examines such start-ups in Asia, a fast-growing region with high Internet penetration rates but declining democracy and press freedom in international indices. This study focuses on India, Thailand and Singapore, listed as "flawed democracies" in the Economist Intelligence Unit Democracy Index, to discover the dimensions and roles of alternative media exhibited by selected data journalism start-ups there, particularly in their organizational structure, form, processes, content, and motive. Results show these organizations as focused not primarily on profits but on creating social change, offering to audiences more critical content and community voices, and playing the roles of interpreter, populist mobilizer, and even adversary. That said, politics and government do not tend to be common topics they cover – rather, systemic faults are revealed through investigations into social issues instead, revealing similarities with broader data journalism practice in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the intertwine between street art and the practice of democracy in post-Soeharto Indonesia. It attempts to investigate the role of street art in the contemporary political landscape of Indonesia, especially two decades after the reformasi (reformation) movement. Reformasi, which was marked by the collapse of the New Order regime in 1998, is regarded as a turning point in Indonesia's democracy after 32 years of authoritarian government. Street art took a crucial part in that historic moment as a medium of protest. This study shows cases of the Anti-Tank Project, one of Yogyakarta’s street artists, posters with four prominent issues: human rights, gentrification, rotten politicians, and anti-corruption, which are pivotal issues in strengthening the democracy agenda in Indonesia. I argue Anti-Tank Project has a significant role in the production of a new space of democracy through his works. This article investigates 12 Anti-Tank posters by employing the Peircean semiotic perspective and analyzes them through theoretical and conceptual approaches, namely democracy and participation, relational aesthetics, new social movement, and alternative media.

The digital transformations of contemporary media systems have had severe consequences for democracy and public debates. This introductory article addresses key challenges of what we refer to as varieties of “digital disintegration” within democratic societies. The eight contributions in the special issue are thematised in three parts. The first part explores disintegration within the context of political communication during elections, including data-driven campaigning, populism, and politicised forms of news production. The second part delves into the role of alternative news curators, audience polarisation, and issues of self-censorship in digital information environments. The third part centres on deliberative norms connected to content moderation of user comments within legacy media and the consequences digitalisation has had on journalistic sourcing practices and source diversity over time. The contributions offer valuable empirical insights, as well as new lines of thinking concerning democracy and digital and disintegrative transformations in the Nordic region and beyond.

This article maps and compares digital alternative news environments in two Scandinavian countries: Sweden and Denmark. Drawing on an analysis of over 20,000 public social media accounts that have shared alternative news content on eight different social media platforms from January 2019 to March 2022, we document the importance of different types of curators, such as political actors, social media pundits, public discussion groups, and individual “hyper-tweeters”, in multiplying the reach of alternative news content on social media. The analysis reveals substantial differences in the digital curation of alternative news between the two countries, as well as between the curation of left-wing and right-wing alternative content. In the article, we discuss how different types of alternative news curation practices contribute to the formation of digital counterpublics.

Political communication has taken new and complex forms within the contemporary hybrid media system. In this article, we examine how political campaigning that draws on television news forms utilises the increasingly blurred boundaries between news journalism and politics online. We assess the digital television news channel Riks, which during the 2022 national election was operated by the Sweden Democrats party and distributed via YouTube. Deploying a mixed-methods approach, we analysed all videos published by Riks four weeks prior to the election. Results show that Riks blends descriptive, interpretative, and outrage genres, and strategically frames the most important political issues of the election campaign in favour of the party’s policies. Hence, the study contributes to political communication scholarship by emphasising how news has become an integral part of strategic party communication, challenging established scholarly conceptualisations of alternative media and hyperpartisan news.

Online political disinformation often relies on decontextualized or manipulated images. Visual content can make disinformation more attention-grabbing and credible as it offers a direct index of reality. Yet, most research to date has mapped the salience and nature of disinformation by exclusively focusing on textual content. Responding to urgent calls in the literature, this paper relies on an inductive qualitative analysis of visual disinformation disseminated by alternative media platforms. Based on the analysis, we propose a typology of different applications of visuals in disinformation: (1) Signaling legitimacy and adherence to conventional news values through seemingly unrelated images; (2) illustrating authoritative expert consensus through the visualization of disinformation by alternative experts; (3) emphasizing widespread social support for unconventional truth claims through the inclusion of visuals depicting the vox populi; (4) offering decontextualized proof for conspiracy theories and counter-factual claims. This typology intends to inform future empirical research that aims to detect disinformation narratives across different (digital) contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a content analysis of 10 interactive Russian-language and English-language projects to isolate documentaries from them and analyze the structure to derive the principles of constructing the narrative of an interactive film. Based on the study, the authors deduce three patterns of regularities of constructing the narrative of an interactive documentary film: a clear project structure with rationally chosen techniques that complement each other as part of the designer; the choice of a story, whose perception should not be linear and can be formed from independent elements; creation of convenient navigation, intuitive for users, as well as the creation of instructions for a complex project form. Interactive documentary films in this article are compared with video games, with which this direction of documentary science is similar to the user as a coauthor, as well as the use of technology. The article discusses the technology of shooting 360 degrees, which allows the user to "look around". Considering the growing popularity of streaming channels, and web projects, interactive film has a future in documentary filmmaking. Creating an interactive film requires not only knowledge of technology and multimedia storytelling techniques, but also a solid foundation in perception psychology, and storytelling theory, as well as the ability to study and reinterpret the experiences of video game creators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative Online Political Media (AOPM) have become increasingly important within international news landscapes, but their social media practices have received limited academic attention. Our large-scale content analysis (N = 14807) offers the first comprehensive study of how APOM in the UK use Twitter. Drawing on a pertinent model of social media use that enhances notions of "good" and "bad" journalism, and through our own sentiment analysis, we find Twitter norms closely aligned with those of legacy media, including a relatively limited online interaction with audiences. We conclude that while AOPM follow many social media logics consistent with mainstream news sites and add to the wider realm of political analysis, their highly partisan content means that their Twitter use cannot be considered balanced, neutral or objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the idea of publicness, the process of becoming public, as a means of redressing the ambivalent position occupied by those going through the asylum system in relationship to the normative Habermasian public sphere. Through asylum claims and bids for citizenship people going through the asylum system seek entry to normative polities, yet are legally and culturally excluded from them. The paper in particular considers alternative creative communication practices employed by cultural and community institutions that seek to subvert this exclusion. I argue that we need a more flexible conception of how communication occurs in and around such publics to critically accommodate these tensions. The study draws on participant observation in community centres offering creative mediation activities in North East England and South Wales in 2019-2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how the hybrid nature of right-wing alternative news media striving for journalistic legitimacy and partisan credibility plays out on source and topical diversity and balance in article content. The article draws on a sample of 1000 randomly selected articles published by 20 right-wing alternative online news media from six countries (the US, the UK, Germany, Austria, Denmark, and Sweden) from March 2019 to February 2020 (i.e., in "routine" pre-COVID-19 times). The results show that most of the alternative media outlets in the sample cover relatively broad topical spectra. More specifically, US and UK media primarily focus on politics and policy issues, whereas Scandinavian media are more heavily geared toward societal issues and crime coverage. Overall, right-wing alternative news content is characterized by a variety of partisan and non-partisan sources. However, core partisan topic areas, such as politics and mass media, are more likely to include partisan and especially right-wing sources. Often, with respect to these topics, right-wing sources are evaluated positively, and left-wing sources are evaluated negatively. Finally, right-wing and non-right-wing sources often appear in separate articles rather than in direct confrontation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternatif medya, son yıllarda akademik ilgiyi üzerine çeken ve bu sayede önemli bir yazınsal birikime ulaşan bir çalışma konusu olmakla birlikte, bir paradoksu da içinde barındırmaktadır: İlgili yazında ne tür faaliyetlerin alternatif medya kapsamında olduğu muğlaklığının bugüne kadar giderilememiş olması. Üstelik bu kısıtlılığı aşmak adına oluşturulan alternatif medya tipolojilerindeki yaklaşımlar bile birbirini dışlayıcı özellikler sunabilmekte ve muğlaklığı derinleştirebilmektedir. Bu çalışmada söz konusu muğlaklığa ve nasıl aşılabileceğine odaklanılmaktadır. Akabinde Bailey, Cammaerts ve Carpentier sundukları ‘panoptik yaklaşım’da farklı yaklaşımların birleştirilmesinin işlevsel olabileceğini ifade etmektedir. Ancak panoptik yaklaşım potansiyel alternatif medya özelliklerini sıralı ve sistematik bir liste halinde sunmamaktadır. Bu çalışmada da panoptik yaklaşımdan hareketle, farklı tipolojilerindeki yaklaşımlarda ve literatürdeki diğer çalışmalarda değinilen özellikler Alternatif Medyanın Değişken Özellikleri isimli listede toplanmıştır. Listenin medya faaliyetlerinin alternatif medya olarak nitelendirilip nitelendirilemeyeceğinde fonksiyonel bir ‘turnusol kâğıdı’ olması beklenmektedir. Medya faaliyetleri, listedeki özelliklerin birkaçına değişken kombinasyonlar halinde sahip olup bu eksende alternatif medya olarak adlandırılabilir.

This study investigates how the transnational news agencies BBC, The Voice of America, Sputnik, Euronews and Al Jazeera Turk, which broadcast in Turkish that use new generation media tools by focusing on the news they developed about earthquakes in Turkey. Using the thematic content analysis method, the article compares new generation media theory and disaster journalism with practical applications and reaches conclusions involving a number of cultural differences. The main problem of the research is that earthquake reporting in Turkey is not effective enough in the national press. The aim of the study is to determine which applications are used by the news agencies that make effective earthquake reporting by using new generation media tools in the earthquake processes. The transnational news media active in Turkey produced news about the earthquake in a wide variety of contexts. When I consider the thematic contexts it is seen that city culture, preventive policies, building technology, education, psychological and sociological causes and effects often coexist. It is also seen that transnational news agencies play an important role in raising the phenomenon of journalism with a high level of political engagement in Turkey to a level of professionalism that takes care of the public interest.

Zimbabwe has a tainted media history under Mugabe replete with examples of state orchestrated repression, draconian legislation, harassment of journalists and violation of their work premises. The post-November 2017 coup period is a critical reference point to understand the political economy of alternative media under the so-called 'New Dispensation' of President Mnangagwa with its promises of prodemocracy reforms. Using political economy as a theoretical approach that analyses media systems in a holistic manner by linking them to politics, economy, legislation and technology, this study assesses the extent to which the 'New Dispensation' has implemented political economy reforms that impact alternative media. Drawing from interviews with selected alternative media journalists and proprietors, the findings reveal that alternative media in Zimbabwe remain entrenched in repression and are in a crisis caused by an exacerbation of the same structural factors that existed before. The 'New Dispensation' has instead led to the entrenchment of a new dictatorship by the military junta. Undue political interference, a fragile economy and state orchestrated repression continue to constrain the democratic functions of alternative media. By teasing the continuities and discontinuities of alternative media repression during the Mugabe era and under the 'New Dispensation', the paper contributes to ongoing debates about the consequence of the 2017 coup and the need for genuine democratic reforms in Zimbabwe post-Mugabe epoch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how political parties and individual politicians in Sweden communicate strategically in an online environment where the close relationship between news and journalistic institutions no longer can be taken for granted. We define the adoption and adaption of journalistic conventions in political communication as a particular communication style, conceptualized as "parasitic news". The article presents an analytical framework that explicates the role of parasitic news across five dimensions: ideological transparency/position, alternativeness, news genres, individual vs. collective media practices, and social media affordances. An analysis of three news projects, representing right-wing populist, liberal/conservative, and left-wing/green ideological positions, reveals that parasitic news is a flexible communication style that blurs the boundaries of politics and media in online spaces. Moreover, parasitic news challenges the relevance of established terms such as alternative, hyper-partisan, and fake news, pointing to the need of a renewed conceptual vocabulary in journalism, media and political communication research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration and border protection have consistently stood at the forefront of issues that divide Australians ideologically. The scholarly literature in this regard documents the role of conservative right-wing media in the formulation of anti-immigration rhetoric, particularly in relation to Muslim immigrants. This research builds on this literature, further exploring the role of ideology in shaping public perceptions. This study examines how an alternative news outlet - The Unshackled - reported on Islamic issues in 2019, the year prior to the COVID pandemic. While there is significant literature on media representations of Islam and Muslims, few studies have explored the relationship between alternative news outlets' use of 'free speech' to spread anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric and Muslim immigration to Australia. By examining the coverage of Islam by The Unshackled, this article posits that, through the frame of free speech, the outlet gave voice and authority to unreliable commentators with anti-Islam, nativist views. This led to dissemination of information that lacked credibility and factual accuracy, reinforcing an image of Islam that contributes to negative sentiments regarding the religion and its followers, and further straining relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article examines the link between religion and conspiracy theories by focusing on religious agents operating two alternative media outlets in Switzerland, opposing perceived mainstream opinions. Informed by Bourdieu's field theory, the article elaborates on the agents' surpassing of field boundaries, spawning an alternative field that accommodates all agents expelled from their initial fields. Through web scraping and qualitative interviews with the content creators, the analysis elucidates the particular significance of religious agents in the production and distribution of conspiracy theories, as they inherently oppose social differentiation, enabling them to contend with dominant authorities convincingly. The article concludes by offering an understanding of the alternative field and, by extension, of conspiracy theories as a process of dedifferentiation, striving for a realignment of the current structure of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has noted that alternative media often facilitate debate between activists and advocates for political policies. However, such research does not typically address the processes for those debates. In recent years, political influencers have increasingly made debates important content in the alternative media they produce through streaming services. In 2021, I observed a debate between three influencers that took place through YouTube and Twitch. In this research project, I engaged in a qualitative content analysis of key texts, using concepts concerning debate from past political communication research. Specifically, I examined the pre-debate, debate and post-debate stages in order to identify different attacks, acclaims or defences utilised by the influencers. The findings, viewed through the lens of mediated construction of reality described by Couldry and Hepp, demonstrate that those linear stages established in past campaign research do not fully apply to the context of alternative media found on streaming services. Instead, this debate was a nonlinear process in which the "pre-debate" stage was actually the debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that right-wing hyperpartisan media have been quite successful online and on social media—especially in comparison with their mainstream media counterparts. However, the bulk of this research has not taken the theme of the media products themselves into account, looking into the types of themes dealt with by different types of media actors—and how such themes appear to influence audience engagement. With this in mind, the study presented here provides insights into news use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on Facebook and differentiating between news related to and not related to the pandemic, we ask: Does the success of Scandinavian hyperpartisan media outlets prevail also in times of societal crisis? Results indicate that for pandemic-related news, what are referred to as established media outlets perform better than hyperpartisan actors in terms of having their posts shared. As such the study differentiates our knowledge of hyperpartisan popularity online, providing further insights into how this popularity is fashioned in the three Scandinavian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Pseudomonas spp is one of the biological agents that has many abilities. With the high cost of synthetic media used as a medium for the propagation and growth of this bacteria, it is necessary to have alternative media that are cheap and environmentally friendly, one of which is by utilizing organic waste. This study aims to determine the comparison of the growth of Pseudomonas spp on alternative media from organic waste. Method: The design used was a non-factorial Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 3 (three) treatments using types of bacteria propagation media, namely P0 = selective media formulation (Pseudomonas Isolation Agar), P1 = soybean water stew waste, and P2 = coconut water waste and repeated 6 times. Result: The results showed that the bacteria tested were Pseudomonas spp based on the Gram staining test and the pendar fluorescence test. The highest number of colonies on day 5 was found in coconut water media as well as the results of the absorbance test and the Pseudomonas spp had antagonistic properties against Xanthomonas sp. Conclusion: Alternative media from organic waste coconut water are the best media for the growth of Pseudomonas spp which have antagonistic properties against Xanthomonas sp.

In this article, I will explore the role of memory in the context of homosexual liberation movements. I will do this through the lens of the queer press, which will serve as a doorway for the exploration of activist mnemonic labour. Activists undertake mnemonic labour to craft narratives that weave together historical oppression and resistance with hopes for a better future. These narratives are used to motivate and sustain activists in their present struggles. The queer press helps spread narratives across borders and creates shared memoryscapes for activism. My proposal is to view memoryscapes as schemata that inform activist mnemonic labour. On one hand, memoryscapes offer a shared purpose and direction for activists spread across different countries. On the other hand, they serve as arenas for mediation and comparison, linking distinct histories from diverse social groups and revealing their shared threads. This turns memory into a resource for building alliances across borders, and among different political and social groups. I will adopt this perspective to study two Argentinian homosexual liberation groups from the 1960s-70s: Nuestro Mundo and Frente de Liberación Homosexual (FLH). I will explore activist mnemonic labour on Nuestro Mundo’s bulletins and the FLH’s periodicals: Homosexuales and Somos. I will focus on two main aspects: (1) how activists adapt transnational narratives to the local context, and (2) how Argentinian activists weave narratives that blend historical oppression and resistance with visions of a different future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premiered in 2020, and although representing a grim story to narrate the Khashoggi story – a Saudi prominent journalist – who was ambushed, killed, and his body dismembered in his own country's consulate, The Dissident is more than simply a documentary. It is arguably a narration of the need for freedom of expression and political reform in the Arab world generally and Saudi Arabia in particular. This paper highlights the struggle to disseminate The Dissident documentary publicly as none of the major media corporation streamers (HBO, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple) offered to carry it. The way giant media corporations treat the information in this case not only as a commodity but as a means to avoid political tensions affecting their revenues in the markets. The article addresses this case study from a freedom of expression and the right to communicate perspective arguing for the need of an actual media reform within the middle east media system so journalists, like Khashoggi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movements respond and adapt to the social and historical environment, and global connections have allowed activists to envision an array of alternatives. This has led present-day movements toward autonomous practices, such as non-hierarchical leadership, prefigurative politics, and decentralizing Western perspectives. Autonomous movements' communication and media projects are formed by these political ideals and epistemologies, dependent upon their contextual situation. Such movements see change as inevitable and rigidity and dogmatism as stifling to the political imagination. Despite criticisms leveled against autonomous practices from other leftist political paradigms, these prefigured alternatives create change in the small and ephemeral ways available to them. This research outlines the political parameters of many current social movements, offering a framework by which to study grassroots media endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores voters' populist alternative news use during (different types of) democratic elections and investigates starting points for preventing potentially harmful effects. We draw from two combined data sets of web-tracking and survey data which were collected during the 2017 German Bundestag campaign (1523 participants) and the 2019 European Parliamentary election campaign in Germany (1009 participants). Results indicate that while populist alternative news outlets drew more interest during the first-order election campaign, they reached only 16.5% of users even then. Moreover, most users visited their websites rather seldom. Nonetheless, our data suggest that alternative news exposure is strongly linked to voting for (right-wing) populist parties. Regarding the origins of exposure, our analyses punctuate the role of platforms in referring users to populist alternative news. About 40% of website visits originated from Facebook alone in both data sets and another third of visits from search engines. This raises questions about algorithmic accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new media landscape shows that traditional media are no longer the main source of information for users, who have acquired a new role in which they demand to be an active subject. The lack of control and the speed of the digital environment has prevented the correct checking of content, giving rise to the so-called fakes. In this context, this qualitative study comparatively studied the verification filters used by traditional, independent and alternative media in the Bío Bío Region, Chile. Through semi-structured interviews with journalists from 10 media outlets, it was observed that traditional and independent media have not gone deeper into verification techniques, even though they continue to offer guarantees of news quality, since their work guidelines include the contrast and analysis of data. Meanwhile, alternative media (peripheral, extra-systemic) do not have prior validation processes, being guided purely by what they receive from users in social networks, which influences the quality of the product offered and the spread of misinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article consists in a case-study of the Portuguese site Notícias Viriato (NV), which has controversially been registered by the Portuguese Regulatory Authority (ERC) as a 'general information' site, officially recognised as drawing close to mainstream journalism in a context of accusations of rightwing bias. We will argue that NV's registration with ERC marks a new phase for the far right in the Portuguese political and journalistic spheres, due to grounding legitimation in the Constitutional right to freedom of expression. By drawing close to officialdom, this news site bypasses the inexistence, in the Portuguese juridical framework, of advocacy journalism. According to the Portuguese Constitution, partisanship excludes journalistic activity, with journalism being of an 'informative', and therefore objective, nature. While the dangers of partisanship are recognised, the existence of an advocacy continuum within journalism are ignored. In a digital era in which journalistic objectivity has ceased to be the norm, the labelling of journalism as 'general information', defined against 'partisanship', is incapable of responding to the challenges posed by alternative media in redefining professional journalism. This demonstrates the need to update both the Portuguese Constitution and prevalent media legislation to accompany changing times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to investigate how the differentiation between traditional and alternative media is reinforced through the mutual attention among journalists, based on field theory. It further argues that a significant social movement can serve as a critical event which intensifies mutual monitoring among journalists. Focusing on the anti-extradition law amendment bill movement in Hong Kong, this study conducted interviews with 20 reporters from traditional and alternative media. The analysis revealed two mechanisms of mutual monitoring: (a) direct monitoring at protest sites and (b) monitoring published works. Such monitoring activities reinforce the differentiation between traditional and alternative media through encouraging boundary work exercised by traditional media journalists and providing cues for alternative media reporters to cover important perspectives which are missing in the mainstream coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses media ownership and shifting power dynamics of critical political economy within a digital media framework. It questions the term media ownership and calls for reconceptualisation of the term in an era where media ranges from old media (television, radio, and newspapers), social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, TikTok), interactive webpages and blogs to podcasts and streaming services. A case for the argument of shifting power relations in media ownership is the recognition that the concept of media and the regulations for media ownership were first drafted in many countries when digital media and mobile technologies as we know them today had not emerged. Today, independent digital media, social media platforms and mobile app technologies are a critical 'alternative' news source. Therefore, the questions guiding this article are: How do we conceptualise media ownership in an increasingly mediated environment? To what extent has digital media contributed to shifting power dynamics in the media landscape in Kenya? With social media increasingly shifting from 'alternative' to 'mainstream' sources of news consumption, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have not only become sources of breaking news but also become spaces for diverse voices and content. The article will focus on independent and alternative media ownership and shifting power relations within an emerging digital media framework in Kenya driven by user-generated content and repositioning users not only as media creators but also as media owners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative media has typically defied the status quo both in journalistic practice and in ways that challenge commonly held tenets of press ethics. Unicorn Riot's alternative coverage of the 2020 social justice protests marked a milestone in decentralized, street-level storytelling shattering norms of both journalistic production and digital modes of publication, in the process renewing public and academic discourse on journalistic principles. This study argues that Unicorn Riot's unique brand of alternative media can function as a form of activist journalism capable of meeting the urgent needs of the 2020 protests through methods liberated from comparatively restrictive, and in some cases moribund, journalistic storytelling forms and production practices. IndyMedia, a network of alternative news organizations, has faded in visibility given its reliance on free labor and its non-compliance with government entities. Unicorn Riot's production practice, which relies on hours-long livestreaming video featuring interviews with protesters and community members rather than government officials, prompts reconsideration of digital journalism principles of objectivity and citizen journalism while bringing new meaning to the role of advocacy in activist reporting. Interpretive critical analysis of media texts suggests several core principles of journalism have been preserved, transformed, and/or threatened in the example of Unicorn Riot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As boundaries blur between mainstream and alternative media online, with each taking on characteristics of the other, much research has centered on their convergence within the liberal West, and their continued divergence in authoritarian states like in the Middle East. This study uniquely examines this alternative-mainstream dichotomy in hybrid societies susceptible to Western liberal ideals but whose media systems are subjected to authoritarian control or influence, by examining Asia's two global cities, Singapore and Hong Kong. Through in-depth interviews with online newsworkers, this study uncovers how they define "alternativeness" in the digital age and their assessments on how "alternative" their news outlets currently are or are able to become. By analyzing their content offerings, community and audience engagements, organizational structures, and ownership and control, results indicate that the online space has not caused a significant merge between alternative and mainstream media in these two cities. That said, the extent to which Hong Kong's online-only news outlets are "alternative" is much more significant than in Singapore, particularly where political engagement is concerned. Additionally, what it means to "be alternative" is also vastly different, pointing to the need to acknowledge both differences in "how alternative" and "what alternative is" across contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The media milieu in India is predominantly commercialized, with increasing concentration of media ownership and institutional political alliances. Nonetheless, there are media in India that operate within a framework distinct from the dominant media system. This paper presents a case study of one these media, the People's Archive of Rural India (PARI), a multi-media digital platform on rural India founded in 2014 by a veteran Indian journalist, P. Sainath. This paper examines how PARI's ideological stance, organizational structure, content ownership, production, and distribution practices set it apart from corporate news organizations. In doing so, this study presents PARI as an alternative media that challenges the primarily capitalist values and practices of India's dominant media. However, PARI also incorporates the institutionalized practices of legacy media, exhibiting hybridity in its organizational form, production, and distribution. The paper also highlights PARI's limitations and challenges. The author concludes by discussing the need for alternative media to build bridges within and beyond the field of media, to be reflexive and adaptable in navigating its identity, and to respond to the dominant conceptions of journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2019 to 2020, Hong Kong faced public unrest due to the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement. Political graffiti became a prevalent way to express dissent and different perspectives. This study uses linguistic landscape theory to examine the sociolinguistic and political characteristics of the graffiti that emerged during the protests. The goal is to highlight the counter-narratives that developed during this time. The findings, based on primary data (photos of graffiti) and secondary data (newspaper reports and social media posts on graffiti) collected from August 2019 to February 2020, suggest that protesters aimed to push forward the discourse on Hong Kong as a global economic hub that is succumbing to 'mainlandization.' As a result, much of the graffiti was written in English and other global languages. Although many of these messages were insightful and timely, some promoted radical ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]