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Español: Veré si puedo encontrar la versión en español. Es un artículo publicado por Iinter Press Service sobre Medios Alternativos. Contiene varias entrevistas a miembros de OURMedia.

English: This IPS report on alternative media contains several interviews with OURMedia members. Clemencia

SPECIAL REPORT-MEDIA:  Alternative and Influential?

Miren Gutierrez*

ROME, Oct 29 (IPS) - When you hear "alternative media," it is
 often alongside such words as "collective," "citizen-oriented,"
and "public." But what does it have to do with journalism? And
how influential are groups like Indymedia, which recently had
some of its computers seized?

Within the "alt media" world there is as much diversity of
 opinion as there are mediums. What is obvious to all is that the
so-called "alternatives" are now so prominent that some are
becoming "mainstream."

 "Alternative media is the most inclusive definition," says John
 DH Downing, director of the Global Media Research Centre at
Southern Illinois University and one of the most renowned experts
on the topic.

 The term embraces "webzines, small-circulation religious
 bulletins, hobby listservs, cell-phone use in the demonstrations
that brought down Philippines president Estrada in 2001,
graffiti, as well as politically oriented national and
international examples, such as 'Il Manifesto', global labour
media, the Indymedia network and -- at a radically different
political location -- neo-Nazi rock music or jihadist
communiqués," says Downing in an e-mail interview from
Carbondale, Illinois.

 The term came into popular use in the United States during the
 social unrest of the 1960s, when small publications appeared
almost overnight, usually opposing the war in Vietnam and
segregation, and pushing for things like expanded women's rights.
"Alternative media" was enshrined in the 1970s with the New
International Order of Information and Communication - an
initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation.

 But these new various forms of communication became a global
 phenomenon thanks to several international events: in 1994 in
Mexico, against the backdrop of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), the Zapatista National Liberation Army emerged
wielding an array of communication technologies it used to
mobilise supporters.

 The same techniques, such as instant messaging, were in place –
 and enhanced -- during the anti-World Trade Organisation (WTO)
protests in Seattle in 1999; at the World Social Forum (WSF),
which started meeting annually in 2001; during protests against a
meeting of the world's richest countries (the G8) in Genoa in
2001, and at 2003's World Summit of the Information Society
(WSIS).

 In Genoa "there were so many camcorders; they helped to raise
 the issue of violence by the riot police against protesters. The
videos started to circulate in alternative websites, until also
the mainstream media in Italy, for example, had to broadcast them
and this led to a big debate," says Stefania Milan, an IPS writer
and researcher of "alternative media."

 "The G8 in Genoa was, for 'alternative media', much more
 important than their reporting on peaceful events like the
Social Forum," she adds.

 In 2000, during the protests against the inauguration of
 Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori’s third five-year term, a
network of small local radio stations, using the Internet, broke
the control that Fujimori and his master spy Vladimiro Montesinos
had on the country’s media.

 Eventually Fujimori fled to Japan; Montesinos is in prison
 charged with corruption and human rights abuses.

 In addition, "alternative media" played a key role in the 2001
 downfall of Philippines President Joseph Estrada, who had been
accused in an impeachment trial of corruption and bribery.

 With their rise through internet and mobile telephone
 technology, the "alternative media" became more difficult to
define.

 "Alternative media is rapidly becoming an irrelevant term as
 the number and types of outlets for news constantly expands,"
says Bill Kovach, founding director of the Washington-based
Committee of Concerned Journalists, in an e-mail interview.

 Clemencia Rodríguez, professor in the department of
 communication at the University of Oklahoma, concedes the term
is now obsolete.

 In 2001 Rodríguez published her own proposal in 'Fissures in
 the Mediascape', in which she coined the term "citizens' media"
as an "attempt to capture the fluid and complex nature of
alternative media."

 In an effort to overcome "oppositional frameworks"
 traditionally used to theorise about "alternative media," such
as "that-which-is-not-mainstream-media," Rodríguez began defining
them in terms of the "transformative processes they bring about,"
and also as a departure from the notion that the "mediascape" is
inhabited by "the powerful (mainstream media) and the powerless
(alternative media)."

 She sees them as community media that have other priorities
 than profit; are connected to social movements; open to
participation; employ few full-time personnel and many local
volunteers; do not go by the motto "anything goes" but filter the
contents; are associated with progressive movements; and respect
diversity.

 "A skinhead radio station may have an agenda, but doesn't
 respect diversity; a fanatic leftist group doesn't qualify
either," says Rodríguez in a telephone interview from
Barranquilla, Colombia.

 "Citizen's media" is close to "public journalism," often
 described as "bottom-up journalism," which reports on public
affairs from the public's point of view.

 "They include, for instance, communitarian radios in Southern
 Chile, whose main audience is civil society: indigenous groups,
women activists, fishing associations, hip-hop groupings, who see
the need to get together and learn about other organised groups,"
Rodríguez adds.

 Proponents of "alternative media" often argue that the
 mainstream media is biased, because of the political and
commercial interests of the owners or due to government and party
influence. While sources of "alternative media" are also
frequently biased, the bias tends to be different, hence
"alternative."

 So, are all these organisations, big and small, local and
 global, "doing" journalism?

 "There are alternative sources on the internet and elsewhere
 that are simply peddling a party line or propaganda, so in many
cases the alternative material is a classic example of 'consumers
beware'," says Kovach.

 "In their reporting of news events," he adds, "I believe they
 should be held to the same standards of verification as any
other media. What good would they be if they knowingly
distributed lies or self-interested propaganda?"

 As far as "citizen’s media" is concerned, Rodríguez says it has
 space for professional journalism, but its practitioners go
beyond that - with the local community their main concern.

 "I found an example of this in a village in Colombia that had
 been occupied by the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia) at Christmas time," she says.

 "Instead of focusing on the violence around them, the local
 radio decided to cover how people had taken to the streets to
sing carols, since they perceived that their community needed to
hear about that instead of reports about violence."

 For Downing also, author of 'Radical Media: Rebellious
 Communication and Social Movements', published in 2001,
"alternative media" may include journalistic work, but is much
wider in scope.

 "The journalism they practice differs, from varying attempts to
 use news for direct mobilisation and agitation, to providing
in-depth information centred on basic social justice issues for
an already well-informed audience," like 'Le Monde Diplomatique',
Free Speech TV News in the United States or 'Página Doce' in
Argentina, he says.

 Milan and Arne Hintz say in a paper presented at Porto Alegre,
 Brazil recently: "Alternative media are 'alternative' in a
structural sense, focusing on collective production, economic
independence and a non-hierarchical organisational model, but
especially they are 'alternative' in terms of content.
Counter-information is their main objective."

 "I agree that counter-information is their goal, and I think a
 worthy one," says Kovach, "so long as the information is based
on factual information and not simply emotional opinion or
self-interested propaganda."

 Downing thinks "the 'counter-information' model has validity,
 but a limited validity, because it implies there are two truths,
a false one and an accurate one, and that all we need is fresh
and accurate facts for the world to find a new and better axis on
which to pivot. Historically, that's naïve, unfortunately."

 Some observers might say that much of the "alternative media"
 is actually doing what the so-called "mainstream" was meant to
do.

 Kovach said recently: "A journalist is never more true to
 democracy, is never more engaged as a citizen, is never more
patriotic, than when aggressively doing the job of independently
verifying the news of the day."

 According to Downing, "Kovach puts it very well. I wish the
 brainless pseudo-nationalist voices proliferating in American
talk-radio were capable of responding to what he says, but that
would require both character and intelligence."

 "Having said that, it depends who defines what journalism is
 'supposed' to be," he adds. "Its corporate owners are sometimes
more interested in profits than politics, and that has led in a
number of cases to some very innovative and insightful
journalism."

 "Where the owners' agenda is explicitly ideological, then their
 journalists are 'supposed' to toe the line. Notions of the
'fourth estate' are okay if they serve to encourage journalists
to think independently, but often they serve to lull them into
extensive bouts of self-congratulation," argues Downing.

 As for "alt media's" influence and impact, Kovach believes "we
 are seeing an important strengthening of 'alternative' media in
the U.S. today, in the important role that internet bloggers
(those who write logs on the world wide web, called "blogs") have
assumed in fact-checking the rhetoric of political campaigns and
the failure of some mainstream media to adequately do that job."

 "The questions raised by bloggers about documents used to
 support a report on CBS-TV was a perfect example of how
important alternative sources of information can be," he adds.

 CBS anchor Dan Rather admitted in September he was tricked into
 using dubious documents about U.S. President George W Bush's
service during the Vietnam War.

 It was "a landmark moment for the balance between the
 'blogosphere' and mainstream media," said Orville Schell, dean
of the School of Journalism at the University of California in
Berkeley, quoted by CNN.

 Influence and power can also be determined by negative
 reactions.

 Two-dozen websites belonging to Indymedia, a "democratic media
 outlet for the creation of radical, accurate and passionate
tellings of truth," and one of the most well-known "alternative
media" organisations were shut down for six days recently.

 "To date not 'The New York Times', the 'Washington Post' or the
 'Los Angeles Times' have seen fit to comment upon it," says
Downing.

 "In their cases, it is a classic instance of the selective
 ethics that permeate corporate mainstream media, and that give
the blunt lie to their professions of 'all the news that's fit to
print,' the vital role of independence from the state, the
scandals of censorship. Nauseating hypocrisy!" he adds.

 As for the impact of Indymedia and their counterparts,
 "measurement of their effectiveness is too often stupidly
conducted, comparing their operation with that of mainstream
media," says Downing.

 "Alternative media, especially politically radical media, do
 not aim to communicate in the same way or with the same publics
or for the same duration, as corporate or state media. Their
audiences are typically large-scale or small-scale social
movements, sometimes in full flood, sometimes in periods of
relative quiescence, gathering their forces for the next
upsurge," he says.

 "Impact?" says Rodríguez. "Well, think about it … A few years
 ago nobody knew about us; now I cannot possibly answer to all
the requests for interviews and conferences I get."

 *Miren Gutierrez is IPS Editor-in-Chief.. (END/2004)