EOTO2: Alternative Media - What Could Go Wrong?
Oxford Word Reference defines alternative media as "Non-mainstream media forms such as graffiti, street theatre, fanzines, pamphlets, and community newsletters—especially when used by minority groups for campaigning on particular issues." In the age of information, digital advancements have become the root of information warfare. More recently, American distrust in government and institutional media has paved way for more routes of alternative media. Blogs, secondary news networks, and podcasts have given far more power to the common man than ever before when dealing with news delivery. For centuries, the general public relied on specified media personnel to reveal the dealings with the rest of the world. Now, people can engage in personal research and thanks to vast educational expansion the information is much more viable.
That being said, there are plenty of these self proclaimed journalists that exist to only indoctrinate their mindsets unto others even if they are far more extreme or questionable in the eyes of the general public. A fine example would rest in the past election. With Trump supporters being a peak example of present day extreme nationalism, this paved way for a plethora of government conspiracy theorists to bring what they believe to be true to light. Organizations such as QAnon or theorists of the government cabal have been given access to a much larger platform than seen in the past by a great deal. Thanks to Trump's "Swamp Mindset", theories; Americans lost a great deal of trust in the government as a whole. With that being the case, the vast amount of skeptics created a forum for the spread of such theories as well as tying in of their own antisemitic and racial biases furthering the lack of credibility to such resources. This is one of the negative ways alternative media can affect the country.
However, they also exist in an effort to give information to those who feel underrepresented in media. Political party members of the Libertarian party are able to access things like The Cato Podcast or other media outlets such as Politico: Right, Left, Center as a means to get news for their party which is often underreported via mainstream news sources.
The utopian idea would be that everyone could get a neutral news source where there was little to no reported bias. This is just that though, an idea. There has been no true success story with the matter. Fox News claims to be fair and balanced but is right leaning. CNN claims to be a neutral news source but employs mostly opinion editorial writers as a means of reporting. More recently Newsmax has entered the scene and they're so opinionated on the far right handling of the nation, it has become propaganda. The implications here are fairly evident, as the news expands to represent those who watch. It loses its journalistic approach and becomes riddled with bias inherently destroying the idea of news and simply becoming an open forum of conversation. Soon, the only accurate reporting will be able to be dealt by the government on genuine happenings but no one trusts them. This forms a cycle of distrust and could lead to an era of catastrophic societal repercussions.
Alternative media serves as an amazing place for its creators but rests as a huge issue for the future of news as a whole. There could be a day where there are so many sources and thusly sources of bias where people could not discern what is true and what is just a matter of opinion. At this current moment, all this means is that the general public really needs to learn how to properly vet the sources they are reading and sharing. If that doesn't start happening at a bigger scale than what we have seen in the past decades, the divide in America could grow too large to manage.
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