Conceptualizing Global Justice Audiences of Alternative Media: The Need for Power and Ideology in Performance Paradigms of Audience Research

Mediating Social Media's Ambivalences in the Context of Informational Capitalism

“…Ideology represented the main access to a culturally materialist narrative of power (and counter power) in which media appeared as the main protagonists (e.g. Althusser, 1971;Atkinson, 2005;Horkheimer & Adorno, 1974;Debord, 1967;Freedman, 2015;Gramsci, 1971;Hall, 1982). However, as Peck (2006), Artz, Maceck and Cloud, (2006), Reading, (2014 and Aune (2004) claimed, most of media research seems to still operate within the idealist assumption that ideas produce social reality instead of social reality producing ideas.…”

“…This consists of the audience producing consciousness but also articulating ideas by consuming commodified culture. Atkinson (2005), for instance, foregrounded issues of power and ideology in his assessment of global justice activism. He used an analysis of alternative media audiences to show that such avenues aid the resistance efforts of activists but do not provide a means of absolute inversion of power and ideological structures.…”

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

“…The form dimension of alternative media focuses on financial, structural, and technological processes of production and distribution, including attributes such as: operating on a nonprofit or noncommercial basis; being organized for collective ownership or decision‐making; using horizontal or two‐way communication; embracing de‐professionalized roles or citizen producers; being small‐scale or niche‐oriented; employing channels that allow greater reach or cheaper access (cf. Atton, ; Atton, ; Atkinson, ; Dowmunt, ; Downing, ; Fuchs, ; Hamilton, ; Rodriguez, ). The content dimension of alternative media describes attributes such as: criticizing mainstream media; reporting on oppositional politics and radical culture; covering neglected stories; featuring marginalized voices; offering sympathetic coverage of social movements; providing information to mobilize readers (cf.…”

Alternative Media and Social Justice Movements: The Development of a Resistance Performance Paradigm of Audience Analysis

“…To accomplish this task, we engaged in an empirical study of alternative media and alternative media audiences who are activists in social justice movements-movements that work to advocate for people who are economically, socially, or politically marginalized in local communities and global society (see Frey, 1998;Frey, Pearce, Pollock, Artz, & Murphy, 1996;Ryan, Carragee, & Schwerner, 1998). Social justice activists who are audiences of alternative media represent an important illustration of performances of resistance through the use of media (Atkinson, 2005a;Huesca, 2001). For the purposes of this essay, we defined alternative media as any media that are produced by noncommercial sources and that attempt to transform existing social roles and practices by critiquing and challenging power structures (see Atton, 2002;Downing, 2003;Downing, Ford, Gil, & Stein, 2001;Hebdige, 1979;Jakubowicz, 1991).…”