Exploring the Alternative-Mainstream Dialectic: What “Alternative Media” Means to a Hybrid Audience

Rauch, Jennifer

doi:10.1111/cccr.12068

Cited by 55 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…But, such caveats notwithstanding, the voices of the audience members taking part in this study do now provide us with empirical evidence to support many of the conceptual arguments found within the literature on alternative journalism and do reinforce the findings of the limited number of earlier audience studies. Members of the audience in this study do indeed seem to be prompted to read the Leeds Citizen because of their dissatisfaction with much mainstream media and because the site's alternative approach to journalism helps them make sense of the world and provides them with useful information, as Rauch (2015) and Ewart et al (2005) found in the US and Australian contexts respectively. This study has also found evidence to support arguments that engagement with alternative journalism can be seen as facilitating forms of "public conversation" (Meadows, 2013) and as simultaneously prompting, reinforcing and reflecting readers' active democratic engagement as citizens (Boyle and Schmierbach, 2009).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…More recently, Jennifer Rauch (2015) conducted a survey of more than 200 people who identified themselves as being "alternative media users". Interestingly, those completing her questionnaire included some who considered Fox News, the Huffington Post and National Public Radio to be alternative, alongside more commonly accepted outlets such as The Nation, Alternet and Mother Jones (Rauch, 2015: 131).…”

Section: Literature Review: 'A Huge Gap In Our Research Knowledge'mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More than a decade after his call we have seen relatively few additions to the audience research literature as far as alternative journalism is concerned (see Ewart et al, 2005;Rauch, 2015), and the audience voice has once again been described as "the missing element in virtually all of the discussion around journalism" (Meadows, 2013: 49). This dearth is all the more noteworthy for the fact that members of this audience tend to be written about as being a particularly discerning and socially aware collection of individuals who, when they gather within the conceptual spaces of an alternative or counter public sphere, have the potential to transcend individual consumerism and become something approaching a public, an active citizenry.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Asking the Readers

Harcup¹

2015

Journalism Practice

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Alternative forms of journalism are said to challenge the passive role of audience members as receivers (Atton and Hamilton, 2008) and to foster active citizenship among alternative journalists and audiences (Harcup, 2013). Yet the scholarly literature on alternative journalism contains more assertions about than evidence from the audience. Downing (2003) has described the audience for alternative media as "the virtually unknown", prompting him to urge journalism scholars to undertake more audience research to help increase our understanding of this allegedly active and civic-minded public. This exploratory study of the people who regularly read a contemporary example of alternative journalism -an investigative local blog covering one UK city -is intended to contribute towards filling the gap identified by Downing. Audience views are explored by means of questionnaires and focus groups, providing some evidence that individuals are attracted to alternative journalism by their dissatisfaction with mainstream media; that they see alternative media as helping them make sense of the world; and that, to an extent, engaging with such media is both a prompt to, and a reflection of, readers' democratic engagement as citizens. Recognising the limitations of this small study, the article concludes by reiterating Downing's call for further research.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Literature Review: 'A Huge Gap In Our Research Knowledge'mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Asking the Readers

Harcup¹

2015

Journalism Practice

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“…Quanto ao género, a divisão da nossa amostra apresenta uma distribuição representativa da população ativa portuguesa que, segundo dados de 2014, obtidos pela consulta da POR-DATA, está percentualmente dividida em 51,3% homens e 48,7% de mulheres (PORDATA, 2014 …”

Section: Discussionunclassified

O Mundo Em Casa: O Sucesso Da Televisão Por Cabo Na Era Da Internet

Figueiredo

2016

Revista INFAD de Psicología

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RESUMOEste artigo é baseado num estudo longitudinal, entre 2005 e 2015, acerca do consumo da TV por cabo de famílias, numa área urbana do Norte de Portugal. Na última década, a televisão por cabo tem ganho dimensão e relevância, em paralelo com o crescimento do consumo da Internet, dois ícones da cultura digital de hoje. Em ambos os casos, a televisão e a Internet tendem a ser práticas crescentemente individualizadas e personalizadas, expressando identidade, preferências e diferença, e não mais rituais familiares coletivos. Ao contrário, porém, das perspetivas sobre o futuro da televisão, segundo as quais a expansão do consumo da televisão através da própria Internet, em casa e fora de casa, tende a liquidar a televisão como nós a conhecemos, a questão é que a cultura da televisão muda conforme muda a sociedade e a família, de modo que ver televisão sentado diante do aparelho continua ainda a ser uma marca distintiva do continuum cultural entre a casa e o mundo.Palavras-chave: Televisão por cabo; Internet, cultura digital; consumo dos media; espaço doméstico ABSTRACTThis article is based on a longitudinal study, between 2005 and 2015, on households cable television consumption in an urban area of northern Portugal. During the last decade, cable television has gained dimension and relevance in parallel with the growth of Internet, two icons of today's digital culture. In both cases, television and Internet consumption at home tends to be increasinglyindividualized and personalized practices, expressing identity, preferences and difference, and no longer collective family rituals. However, contrary to the perspectives on the future of television, according to which the expansion of streaming television through the Internet, both at home and away from home, tends to liquidate television as we know it, the question is that television culture changes as society and family change, so that to watch TV sitting in front of the television set still continues to be, in the age of Internet, a hallmark of the cultural continuum between home and the world.

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“…There is no generally accepted definition of what exactly constitutes an alternative (media) source (Rauch, 2015;Schweiger, 2017). Categorizations vary strongly dependent on whether one evaluates content (e.g., politically balanced vs. slanted), production standards (e.g., meeting journalistic standards), producers (e.g., paid journalists vs. voluntary users), business models (e.g., profit-orientation), audiences (e.g., size or composition), or audience perceptions of the sources.…”

Section: Source Categorization and Party Messagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

(Alternative) Media Sources in AfD-centered Facebook Discussions

Bachl¹

2017

Preprint

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In this research report, I investigated which (media) sources were shared on 122 AfD-related Facebook pages during the year 2016. Results show that mainstream media outlets were not absent from these discussions. The established media sources Welt and Focus were by far the most frequently shared sources, and all major media outlets were represented. However, many of the outlets, which were often mentioned in the debates on an alternative-right (online) media universe, were also highly visible. They were supplemented by a variety of less well-known websites and YouTube channels, many of which are explicitly positioned against the (self-perceived) political and media mainstream. The comparison of party and user messages indicated that the AfD and its supporters preferred somewhat different sources. The party communicators were more likely to refer to more intellectual, conservative-right outlets; the users were more likely to share more controversial and less well-known alternative sources.

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Exploring the Alternative-Mainstream Dialectic: What “Alternative Media” Means to a Hybrid Audience

Cited by 55 publications

References 47 publications

Asking the Readers

Asking the Readers

O Mundo Em Casa: O Sucesso Da Televisão Por Cabo Na Era Da Internet

(Alternative) Media Sources in AfD-centered Facebook Discussions

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