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Abstract
The national media converged on Baltimore, Charleston, and Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 and 2015 to cover protests in response to police violence toward African American males. Although national and local media covered the events and the aftermath, alternative media sought to provide additional viewpoints and spur readers to respond. This study analyzed the practices, content, and public discourse connected to alternative weekly newspapers in Baltimore, Charleston, and St. Louis. The study examined whether the publications reflected ideal roles of alternative media, including representing different viewpoints, using non-traditional methods of content, and providing a space for the public to challenge systems of power and oppression. The authors also studied the online forums associated with all three publications, including each organization’s website and Facebook page, as potential spaces for alternative publics to emerge around a shared interest in collective action. The publications showed some characteristics of the ideal form of alternative media, but most lacked the diverse voices and critical calls to action needed to represent the normative standard. The discourse the news organizations spurred also fell short of the ideal. The forums lacked rational and critical engagement, and commenters largely failed to promote sincere attempts to engage in community conversation.