Contesting the Mainstream: Towards an Audience-Centered Agenda of Alternative News Research

IF 5.2 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION Digital Journalism Pub Date : 2023-05-28 DOI:10.1080/21670811.2023.2214791

L. Frischlich, Scott A. Eldridge, T. U. Figenschou, K. A. Ihlebæk, Kristoffer Holt, Stephen Cushion

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Abstract

Abstract In order to better understand alternative news media, we need to focus more centrally on the audiences that regularly consume them. This special issue, entitled “Contesting the Mainstream: Understanding Alternative News Media,” advances such an audience turn. In the introduction, we outline how scholars have understood and characterized alternative news audiences. These have ranged from seeing them as (i) ideal participants and activists; as (ii) being misinformed and manipulated; and as (iii) being critical users. Drawing on studies published in this special issue, we highlight how these studies provide new and revealing empirical insights that advance all three perspectives. Taken together, the articles make a strong argument to move beyond binary ideations of normatively “good” or “bad” alternative news audiences. In our view, they signal the need to better understand the complexity behind audience engagement not just with alternative news media but mainstream journalism more generally. Based on this argument, we identify several starting points for moving the field forward with such an audience turn in mind.

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挑战主流：走向以受众为中心的另类新闻研究议程

摘要为了更好地理解另类新闻媒体，我们需要更加集中地关注经常消费它们的受众。这期特刊题为“挑战主流：理解另类新闻媒体”，推动了这种受众转向。在引言中，我们概述了学者们是如何理解和描述另类新闻受众的。其中包括将他们视为（一）理想的参与者和积极分子；作为（ii）被误导和操纵；以及作为（iii）关键用户。根据本期特刊上发表的研究，我们强调了这些研究如何提供新的、具有启发性的实证见解，从而推进这三种观点。总之，这些文章有力地论证了超越规范性的“好”或“坏”另类新闻受众的二元概念。在我们看来，它们表明需要更好地理解受众参与背后的复杂性，不仅是与另类新闻媒体的互动，而且是更广泛的主流新闻。基于这一论点，我们确定了几个出发点，以推动这一领域向前发展，并考虑到这样的观众转向。

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来源期刊

Digital Journalism COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

11.20

自引率

24.10%

发文量

103

期刊介绍： Digital Journalism provides a critical forum for scholarly discussion, analysis and responses to the wide ranging implications of digital technologies, along with economic, political and cultural developments, for the practice and study of journalism. Radical shifts in journalism are changing every aspect of the production, content and reception of news; and at a dramatic pace which has transformed ‘new media’ into ‘legacy media’ in barely a decade. These crucial changes challenge traditional assumptions in journalism practice, scholarship and education, make definitional boundaries fluid and require reassessment of even the most fundamental questions such as "What is journalism?" and "Who is a journalist?" Digital Journalism pursues a significant and exciting editorial agenda including: Digital media and the future of journalism; Social media as sources and drivers of news; The changing ‘places’ and ‘spaces’ of news production and consumption in the context of digital media; News on the move and mobile telephony; The personalisation of news; Business models for funding digital journalism in the digital economy; Developments in data journalism and data visualisation; New research methods to analyse and explore digital journalism; Hyperlocalism and new understandings of community journalism; Changing relationships between journalists, sources and audiences; Citizen and participatory journalism; Machine written news and the automation of journalism; The history and evolution of online journalism; Changing journalism ethics in a digital setting; New challenges and directions for journalism education and training; Digital journalism, protest and democracy; Journalists’ changing role perceptions; Wikileaks and novel forms of investigative journalism.