Chris Atton

Sourcing Routines and Representation in Alternative Journalism: a case study approach

Abstract This study is a first attempt to examine how the alternative media select, represent and deploy their news sources. The literature suggests that, in contrast to mainstream sourcing routines, the alternative media privilege “ordinary”, non-elite sources for their news and, through what has been termed native reporting (Atton, 2002a), offer such sources a platform to speak directly to audiences. The primary research examines a single publication, the UK activist newspaper SchNEWS. The papers sourcing routines are examined through a triangulated approach that combines interviews with content and discourse analysis. Superficially the findings confirm what the literature argues: that the paper does indeed privilege “ordinary” sources above elite sources. However, the depth of the study reveals nuances that are absent from the literature. In particular, the findings of the study suggest that a counter-elite dominates sourcing practices at SchNEWS, and the deployment of these sources is just as reliant on expertise, authoritativeness and legitimacy as are mainstream sourcing routines. Strikingly, the papers use of “ordinary” citizens (that is, those not explicitly politicised through grassroots activism) is very low, suggesting that the papers counter-elite sourcing practice is determined more by its own political ideology than by any radical media philosophy.

What is "Alternative Journalism"?

The recent flurry of research into alternative media (most significant being the book-length studies by Atton, 2002, Downing, 2001, Rodriguez, 2001, and Part 3 of Couldry, 2000) has illuminated contemporary practices within alternative media that present ways of reporting radically different from those of the mainstream. Rodriguez (2001) has conceptualized such media as ‘citizens’ media’. By this she means a philosophy of journalism and a set of practices that are embedded within the everyday lives of citizens, and media content that is both driven and produced by those people. Approached in this way alternative media may be understood as a radical challenge to the professionalized and institutionalized practices of the mainstream media. Alternative media privileges a journalism that is closely wedded to notions of social responsibility, replacing an ideology of ‘objectivity’ with overt advocacy and oppositional practices. Its practices emphasize first person, eyewitness accounts by participants; a reworking of the populist approaches of tabloid newspapers to recover a ‘radical popular’ style of reporting; collective and antihierarchical forms of organization which eschew demarcation and specialization – and which importantly suggest an inclusive, radical form of civic journalism. Whilst recent scholarship has provided us with richly theorized empirical accounts of alternative media praxis (and, in particular, the use of such media by new social movement actors), it has had little to say about the historical conditions under which these media enact their journalism; it offers little understanding about the role and status of these alternative journalists; much less does it present what such journalism actually looks like. The aim of this issue of Journalism is to address these absences. Alert to the journal’s subtitle, we hope to present contributions that critically assess the nature of alternative journalism and propose theoretical bases from which to explore both historical and current practices. By way of laying some groundwork for what follows, let us begin with those dimensions of alternative media practice that have to do with economics Journalism

Far-right media on the internet: culture, discourse and power

This study examines the discourse of the British National Party’s (BNP) website. It explores the site as a form of alternative media, focusing on how it involves members and supporters in its discursive construction of racism. It finds that the discourses and identities produced are played out through a radical reformation of the concepts of power, culture and oppression. Drawing on the post-colonial notion of the Other, the BNP seeks to present itself, its activities and its members as responses to racism and oppression that, it argues, are practised by the Other. While this discourse is constructed through the everyday experiences and attitudes of its members, the hierarchically-determined nature of the site prevents those members from sustained, active involvement in the construction of their own identities. For this reason, the study concludes, the BNP’s site is far from the more open, non-hierarchical practices of ‘progressive’ alternative media.

Blogging down a dictatorship: Human rights, citizen journalists and the right to communicate in Zimbabwe

This article examines the use of blogs to mediate the experiences of citizens during a violent election in Zimbabwe. It focuses specifically on how people disseminated and shared information about their tribulations under a regime that used coercive measures in the face of its crumbling hegemonic edifice. The article frames these practices within theories of alternative media and citizen journalism and argues that digitization has occasioned new counter-hegemonic spaces and new forms of journalism that are deinstitutionalized and deprofessionalized, and whose radicalism is reflected in both form and content. I argue that this radicalism in part articulates a postmodern philosophy and style as seen in its rejection of the elaborate codes and conventions of mainstream journalism. The internet is seen as certainly enhancing the people’s right to communicate, but only to a limited extent because of access disparities on the one hand, and its appropriation by liberal social movements whose configuration is elitist, on the other. I conclude by arguing that the alternative media in Zimbabwe, as reflected by Kubatana’s bloggers, lack the capacity to envision alternative social and political orders outside the neoliberal framework. This, I contend, is partly because of the political economy of both blogging as a social practice and alternative media as subaltern spaces. Just as the bloggers are embedded to Kubatana’s virtual space to self-publish, Kubatana is likewise embedded to a neoliberal discourse that is traceable to its funding and financing systems.

Using critical thinking as a basis for library user education.

Abstract The article focuses on the critical examination of information in rewriting an undergraduate course of bibliographic instruction. By learning to ask questions, by learning from each other, by thinking critically and by taking responsibility for their own learning, students become effective and confident information users.

Writing about listening: alternative discourses in rock journalism

‘Alternative’ publications challenge the conventional discourses of rock journalism. In particular, the dominant discourses of authenticity, masculinity and mythology might be countered by publications that emphasise historical and (sub)cultural framing, and that present radicalised ‘spaces of listening.’ Using Bourdieu’s field theory to identify autonomous and semi-autonomous sites for rock criticism, the paper compares how a fanzine (the Sound Projector) and what Frith has termed an ideological magazine (the Wire) construct their reviews. The findings suggest that, whilst there is no evidence for an absolute break with the dominant conventions of reviewing, there is a remarkable polyglottism in alternative music reviewing. The paper emphasises differing cultural and social practices in the multiple ways the publications write about music, and argues for the value of such polyglottism.

Popular Music Fanzines: Genre, Aesthetics, and the “Democratic Conversation”

Research into fanzines has tended to locate them as subcultural artefacts whose significance is found in their symbolic fit with the subculture responsible for producing them. As a consequence, fanzines have mostly been interpreted homologically as acts of political resistance, with little attention being paid to the aesthetic arguments they contain. In contrast, by considering fanzines as types of genre-cultures it becomes possible to examine amateur writing about music not as explicitly oppositional, but as contributions to the critical discourse of popular music. This article explores a single fanzine to examine the ways in which its writers—and the musicians it features—evaluate the music they favor. A genre-culture approach offers insights into the cultural politics of fanzine writing that take into account historically situated and contemporary constructions of genre pleasures.

Why alternative journalism matters.

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The Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media

The Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media provides an authoritative and comprehensive examination of the diverse forms, practices and philosophies of alternative and community media across the world. The volume offers a multiplicity of perspectives to examine the reasons why alternative and community media arise, how they develop in particular ways and in particular places, and how they can enrich our understanding of the broader media landscape and its place in society. The 50 chapters present a range of theoretical and methodological positions, and arguments to demonstrate the dynamic, challenging and innovative thinking around the subject; locating media theory and practice within the broader concerns of democracy, citizenship, social exclusion, race, class and gender. In addition to research from the UK, the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, the Companion also includes studies from Colombia, Haiti, India, South Korea and Zimbabwe, enabling international comparisons to be made and also allowing for the problematisation of traditional - often Western - approaches to media studies.This chapter provides an overview of political economy questions that arise when discussing the relationship of capitalist and alternative social media. We begin by clarifying the notion of social media, before going on to examine aspects of the political economy of alternative media. We then apply these aspects to the realm of social media in order to discuss the relationship between capitalist and alternative social media. This includes a discussion of the contradictory character of social media in the Occupy movement.

The infoshop: the alternative information centre of the 1990s

This article introduces the infoshop movement, a network of independent information centres run by political activists throughout Europe and the USA. The article defines and describes the nature of the infoshop, the services it provides and the nature of its organisation. It then goes on to present a theoretical model for the infoshop, based in particular on Hakim Bey’s concept of the “temporary autonomous zone”. It examines the significance of the infoshop as a node in the complex networks of information‐exchange and activism that constitute the contemporary “alternative public sphere”. It notes the autonomous, non‐hierarchical nature of infoshops and how they might be thought of as “free spaces” connected by complex, though informal, communications networks. Finally, it proposes that infoshops play a key role in developing autonomy, solidarity and reflexivity in the creative processes of activist politics.