Alternative media

Alternative media are media that differ from established or dominant types of media in terms of their content, how they are produced or how they are distributed. Alternative media take many forms including but not limited to print, audio, video, Internet and street art. Some examples include the counter-culture zines of the 1960s, ethnic and indigenous media such as the First People’s television network in Canada (later rebranded Aboriginal Peoples Television Network), and more recently online open publishing journalism sites such as Indymedia.

While mainstream mass media on the whole represent government and corporate interests, alternative media tend to be non-commercial projects that advocate the interests of those excluded from the mainstream, for example, the poor, political and ethnic minorities, labor groups, feminists, and GLBTQ identities. These media broadcast ignored or overlooked viewpoints, such as those heard in the progressive news program Democracy Now!, and create communities of identity, as seen for example in the It Gets Better Project that was created on YouTube in response to a rise in gay teen suicides at the time it was created.

List of alternative media (U.S. political left)

This is a list of alternative media espousing the views of the American political left. It covers alternative media sources including talk radio programs, blogs and other alternative media sources.

See also

References

Alternative media (U.S. political right)

Alternative media in the United States usually refers to internet, talk radio, print, and television journalism and opinions which present a point of view that counters the alleged bias of mainstream media. It is rooted in the presumption that the alleged bias is toward liberalism and that modern journalism's goal of "objectivity" is essentially moot, though it has been criticized for, ironically, having its own bias, albeit toward the other end of the political spectrum.

History

The perception of a liberal-leaning bias in the mainstream media is not a new one. Ronald Reagan made it a running joke during his term in office.

As chronicled in David Halberstam's The Powers That Be, the Los Angeles Times, which had fiercely supported Nixon's first run for the United States House of Representatives, declined to support as strongly his run for the Senate, his 1960 presidential campaign, and his 1962 California gubernatorial campaign. The paper's final break with Nixon came during the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. At roughly the same time, Henry Luce's Time began running articles critical of the Nixon administration. Not long after this, then Vice President Spiro Agnew began attacking the media in a series of speeches — two of the most famous of these were written by White House aides Patrick Buchanan and William Safire — as "elitist" and "liberal".