EOTO - Connecting to a New Group's Topic

The inner-workings of the media-sphere

[https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/fostering-psychological-coherence/33020]

I decided to reflect on a fellow group of classmates presentation surrounding the topic of the media-sphere. The subtopics incorporated in the presentation included mainstream media, alternative media, echo chambers in media, citizen journalism, and whistleblowing. I chose to narrow in on the alternative media subtopic researched by one of the presenters as well as I compiled some additional information from my own searching. 

Alternative media is media outside of the more dominant and established media. This can include print, audio, video, internet material, and even visual street art. Some examples of alternative media are south front, signs of the times, and truth-stream media. 

Some of the questions you could ask yourself to see if the news source you are viewing counts as alternative media include: 

- Is the media corporately owned? 

- What is its context? 

- How is the media being produced and distributed?

- What is the purpose of the media piece?

Ask yourself if the type of media is looking for either a social change or a political change? The difference between alternative and mainstream media is that mainstream is profit oriented whereas alternative is more objective. Alternative is often simply doing whatever it takes to get their message across. 

Next, the presenter discussed some of the pros and cons of alternative media compared to the common main stream media. Pros included several perspective of the story being told, a weaker censorship of the content, a faster report, no set time and are able to report the stories any time/anywhere, news is updated a lot quicker, and lastly, the scale of the story doesn't matter. Moving onto the cons, the lack of censorship can sometimes cause disagreement, the content often has a poor production quality meaning that since some projects are only funded by supports then they don't have a lot of funds, their are fewer sources and less connections to gain information in comparison to mainstream such as NBC, their are fewer filters on content but we don't want that to turn into fake news, and finally, there can be a stronger personal bias because people simply want to get their opinions out. The audience needs to take this all into account when viewing alternative media because it may only point out one side of a multiple perspective debate. 

Overall, I really enjoyed learning about the different forms of media in the media-sphere as discussed in this groups presentation as it also relates to an abundance of my personal interests. I am a media production major with a minor in marketing so I am very interested in learning the different tactics that are already out their in the industry, as well as things that I need to be on the look out for as I enter into a marketing internship this upcoming summer!