Alternative media

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Alternative media are media (newspapers, radio, television, movies, Internet, etc.) which are alternatives to the business or government-owned mass media. Proponents of alternative media argue that the mainstream media are biased. While sources of alternative media are also frequently biased (sometimes proudly so), the bias tends to be significantly different than that of the mainstream media, hence "alternative". As such, advocacy journalism tends to be a component of many alternative outlets.

Because the term "alternative" has connotations of self-marginalization, some media outlets now prefer the term "independent" over "alternative".

[edit] Propaganda model

Main article: Propaganda model

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.^[1] 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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Media

[edit] Press

The alternative press consists of printed publications that provide a different or dissident viewpoint than that provided by major mainstream and corporate newspapers, magazines, and other print media.

Factsheet Five publisher Mike Gunderloy described the alternative press "as sort of the 'grown-up' underground press. The alternative press is often leftist, often concerned with building a better world, and usually deadly serious. Whole Earth, the Boston Phoenix, and Mother Jones are the sorts of things that fall in this classification."^[2] In contrast, Gunderloy described the underground press as "the real thing, before it gets slick, co-opted, and profitable. The underground press comes out in small quantities, is often illegible, treads on the thin ice of unmentionable subjects, and never carries ads for designer jeans."^[2]

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