Alternative Media

Alternative Media

When one turns on the news, most of the time the channels that come up are the larger, more prominent channels, like CNN, FOX, and MSNBC. However, after some digging into the Internet, one can easily find alternative media. Alternative media is any media that is outside the dominant, established media. These companies come in many forms, such as blogs, prints, podcasts, or shows. They can take any form of the media and spread their ideas to anyone who listens. Two particularly influential alternative media sites are South Front and Signs of the Times, two news outlets that communicate with the community that supports them. South Front writes about their own takes on big news stories of the week, and Signs of the Times is a magazine and program for people who want to spread their ideas but have no experience or platform for them to do.

In many situations, one can easily determine if a media source is alternative media. If the company is corporate owned, they are not alternative media, as a corporate owned publication or news company gets its money from the corporation and not from its supporters. If it is produced and distributed independently and without the oversight of a parent company, the source is alternative media. Finally, the context and the purpose of the media is the most important factor to weigh, as an alternative media company will try to distribute the media for people that believe the same things as they do and to people that they thing will believe them. 

On the plus side, alternative media sources often look at the full story when discussing an issue and do not take much stuff out of context since they have the time and effort to do so. They are not hindered by tight schedules like larger corporate bodies and also want to read into every source they have at their disposal. There is also less censorship when it comes to alternative media as there is no governing company that can silence them when and how they want. However, the lack of censorship can be a disadvantage as it is easy for those alternative media sources to be taken out of context themselves. Additionally, there tents to be a lot more personal bias on the part of the authors, reporters, and hosts of the alternative media sources since they have a lot more power than those in a larger company. In short, it is beneficial to get some news from an alternative media company, but it should not be the only sources one gets their news from. There is a lot more information but also some bias and lack of censorship, so it is suggested that one treads lightly when listening to alternative media.

Sources:

https://southfront.org/

https://www.signsofthetimes.com/