How the journalistic dimensions of media systems shape the character of alternative media

Cushion, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7164-8283 2026. How the journalistic dimensions of media systems shape the character of alternative media. Mayerhöffer, Eva, Brems, Miriam Kroman, Ustad Figenschou, Tine and Ihlebæk, Karoline Andrea, eds. Alternative Media in European Contexts: Theoretical Cornerstones, Methodological Challenges, and Systemic Conditions, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan Cham, pp. 267-282. (10.1007/978-3-032-22489-7_15)

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Abstract

This chapter argues that alternative media should be understood through the wider media systems they inhabit, identifying national journalistic influences that shape their production processes, news agendas and engagement with audiences. It begins by examining the relatively narrow prism through which media systems have historically been understood, with many studies focussed on a country’s mainstream media and political identity. As media systems have become more fragmented and niche in the digital age, the chapter explores how they have been characterized as increasingly complex and hybrid in scope. But it also reveals that the role of alternative media has either been ignored entirely or vaguely referenced in media systems scholarship over the last decade. In order to recast the research agenda and develop more cross-national understanding of alternative media, this chapter argues that scholars should focus both quantitatively and qualitatively on understanding national journalistic cultures, and their overarching professional values and norms of media systems. Since alternative media operate today within rather than separate from the worlds of mainstream media and institutional politics, it is concluded that more attention should be paid to comparing journalistic cultures and professional values within nations that shape the editorial character and agendas of alternative media.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Journalism, Media and Culture
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan Cham
ISBN:	9783032224880
Last Modified:	14 Sep 2026 10:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/189553

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