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 a profit motive.
This criticism springs from observers of all political orientations.
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
(or, again paradoxically, views considered "dissident"
from whatever the perceived mainstream; contributors to
Democratic Underground and Free Republic are diametrically
opposed to each other politically, and both are likely to
consider themselves dissidents from an oppressive mainstream).
Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky proposed
a concrete model for the filtering processes (biases) of
mainstream media, especially in the United States, called
the propaganda model. They tested this empirically and presented
extensive quantified evidence supporting the model. Authors
such as Louis Althusser have also 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.
The term "alternative" has come
under fire for its linguistic connotations of self-marginalization.
Many media outlets now prefer the term "independent"
over "alternative," suggesting that the content
provided is free from corporate influence, as well as influential
beyond a small demographic or audience.
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
