Towards an Understanding about Complexities of Alternative Media: Portrayals of Power in Alternative Media

Abstract

In this study I conducted qualitative content analysis of alternative media in order to uncover the different categories about corporate power presented to activist audiences in social justice movements. I found that there were two dominant categories about corporate power disseminated through alternative media: (1) “traditional” corporate power and (2) hegemonic corporate power. “Traditional” corporate power is based on the idea that corporations dominate resources in society. Hegemonic corporate power is based on the idea that corporations dominate the ideological assumptions in contemporary society. Both of these categories hold significant implications for comprehension and classification of alternative media.

Keywords:

• Alternative media
• Categories of power
• Organic intellectual
• Qualitative content analysis
• Social justice movements

The author would like to thank the dissertation chair Dr. Debbie Dougherty for her help and insight.

Notes

This paper was part of a larger dissertation written by the author at University of Missouri-Columbia.

1. Mystical City was a mid-sized Midwest community. Names of places, people, or organizations have been changed to protect the anonymity of participants.

2. Twelve of the participants were female and 15 were male. Twenty-one of the audience participants were Caucasian, three described themselves as Jewish, one Indian female, one Pakistani male, and one American-Filipino male. Nine of the audience participants were students enrolled at Mystical State University, while 12 had graduated from a college or university, two were post grads with PhDs, two were active graduate students, one had dropped out of Mystical State, and one had a high-school education. The audience participants ranged in age from 21 to 55.

3. Although NPR accepts corporate contributions, most of the audiences whom I interviewed were unaware of this practice. The audiences considered NPR to be alternative media because of the multiple perspectives and voices included in the programming. They felt that such programming defied the propaganda model that filters out public voices and depoliticizes the general population (see Herman & Chomsky, 1988; McChesney, 1998), thus transforming media practices and encouraging participatory politics. Such a vision of transformation of social roles and power structures fit the definitions of alternative media utilized in my research.

4. A male anarchist who felt that corporations and governments are corrupt because they harm individuals; he felt that such institutions should be abolished.

5. A female social justice activist who helped organize a social justice group known as Peace Alliance.