Analysis Of Alternative Media And Mainstream Media

1 Introduction

The contemporary society is a “society of spectacle” (Debord 12). The spectacle is not a mere collection of images. It is rather a sum of interpersonal social relations mediated by images. The spectacle is both a visual deception produced by mainstream media and a materialized worldview. In a “society of spectacle” all the existing media can be virtually divided into two categories – alternative media and mainstream media (Waltz viii). The mainstream media products, through which our mediated culture is produced and consumed, are ubiquitous. Due to the growing concentration of media ownership, fewer voices can be heard within the mainstream media landscape. Under such conditions, alternative media counterbalance the mainstream

media market has been constantly developing. It has witnessed the emergence of new types of media, ranging from the print press, radio, television to the Internet-based websites and social media. And it has experienced huge ownership transformations, which has led to the recent amalgamation of the U.S. media market, concentration of media ownership in the hands of a small number of big media corporations, as well as emergence of multinational media conglomerates. Irrespective of how the U.S. media market has been developing, all the American media could always be virtually divided into two categories (or niches) - alternative media and mainstream media. Mainstream media have created a dominant news discourse in the American society. Alternative media have tried to diversify the mainstream news feed by presenting counterbalancing arguments and voicing distinct

First, the thesis explores multiple theoretical approaches to studying alternative and mainstream media. It offers various criteria, on the basis of which we can distinguish between these two media categories. The thesis suggests that alternative and mainstream media can be regarded as two separate media categories and as two intersecting media categories. It thus assumes the binary logic and the convergence of the alternative-mainstream media spectrum. Second, the thesis analyzes the evolution of Rolling Stone on the U.S. media market from the alternative and mainstream media perspective. It demonstrates how the magazine has shifted its market orientation from the alternative media covering the American countercultural trends of the 1960s towards the mainstream media writing about the contemporary American popular culture. The thesis discloses the interrelatedness between alternative media and counterculture on the one hand, and the link between mainstream media and popular culture on the other hand. Third, the thesis researches the coverage of the 1972 and 2012 U.S. presidential campaigns in Rolling Stone. It aims at showing how the magazine has touched upon the same issue under completely different political, social, economic and cultural conditions that have been present in the USA in the two distinct time periods under consideration. The thesis analyzes Rolling Stone’s 1972 and 2012 U.S. presidential campaigns