Alternative and Mainstream Media The converging spectrum

by Kenix, Linda Jean

• ISBN13: 9781849665209
• ISBN10: 1849665206
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-01-03
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Alternative media have historically been a central force in social change. Kenix argues, however, that they do not uniformly subvert the hierarchies of access that have always been fundamental to mainstream media. In fact, their journalistic norms and routines have always drawn on the professional standards of the mainstream. Through comparative analysis Kenix posits the perception of 'mainstream' and 'alternative' as a misconception arguing that they've always existed on the same continuum and continue to converge. Her vision recalibrates the media spectrum. This book examines alternative media while being cognizant that they are not situated completely outside the ideological mainstream, carrying distinctive identities excluded from entrenched, elite systems of power. The alternative media can - and do - construct distinct 'alternative communications' but they do so along a strikingly different continuum than hitherto envisaged. Kenix's text will tease out differences and similarities across a range of media. Examples will be drawn from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand.

Author Biography

Dr Linda Jean Kenix is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Canterbury. She was previously Assistant Professor in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Since receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 2001, her work has been published broadly in international journals and she has presented her research at over 30 international conferences, winning 'best paper' four times. In 2008, she was awarded a prestigious Erskine Fellowship and placement as a Visiting Researcher at Oxford University. She has been awarded another visiting Research Fellow position at the University of Cambridge for 2010.