"Spectacles of the poor": Conventions of alternative news

Journalism and Mass Communication Quaterly

Volumn 75, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 177-193

  Hindman, Elizabeth Blanks ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0040094164     PISSN: 10776990     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/107769909807500117     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. James W. Carey, The Communications Revolution and the Professional Communicator, The Sociological Review Monograph, no. 13 (Keele: University of Keele, 1969), 23-38 .
2. Carey, "Communications Revolution," 32-33.
3. Carey, "Communications Revolution," 33.
4. Gaye Tuchman, Making News (NY: Free Press, 1978); Mark Fishman, Manufacturing the News (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1980); Leon V. Sigal, "Sources Make the News," in Reading the News, ed. Robert Karl Manoff and Michael Schudson (NY: Pantheon Books, 1986), 9-37; Herbert Gans, Deciding What's News (NY: Vintage Books, 1979); Stuart Hall, "The Rediscovery of 'Ideology': Return of the Repressed in Media Studies," in Culture, Society and the Media, ed. Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran, and Janet Woollacott (London: Methuen, 1982), 56-90; Judy Van SlykeTurk, Information Subsidies and Media Content: A Study of Public Relations Influence on the News, Journalism Monographs, no. 100 (Columbia, SC: AEJMC, 1986).
5. Gaye Tuchman, Making News (NY: Free Press, 1978); Mark Fishman, Manufacturing the News (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1980); Leon V. Sigal, "Sources Make the News," in Reading the News, ed. Robert Karl Manoff and Michael Schudson (NY: Pantheon Books, 1986), 9-37; Herbert Gans, Deciding What's News (NY: Vintage Books, 1979); Stuart Hall, "The Rediscovery of 'Ideology': Return of the Repressed in Media Studies," in Culture, Society and the Media, ed. Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran, and Janet Woollacott (London: Methuen, 1982), 56-90; Judy Van SlykeTurk, Information Subsidies and Media Content: A Study of Public Relations Influence on the News, Journalism Monographs, no. 100 (Columbia, SC: AEJMC, 1986).
6. Gaye Tuchman, Making News (NY: Free Press, 1978); Mark Fishman, Manufacturing the News (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1980); Leon V. Sigal, "Sources Make the News," in Reading the News, ed. Robert Karl Manoff and Michael Schudson (NY: Pantheon Books, 1986), 9-37; Herbert Gans, Deciding What's News (NY: Vintage Books, 1979); Stuart Hall, "The Rediscovery of 'Ideology': Return of the Repressed in Media Studies," in Culture, Society and the Media, ed. Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran, and Janet Woollacott (London: Methuen, 1982), 56-90; Judy Van SlykeTurk, Information Subsidies and Media Content: A Study of Public Relations Influence on the News, Journalism Monographs, no. 100 (Columbia, SC: AEJMC, 1986).
7. Gaye Tuchman, Making News (NY: Free Press, 1978); Mark Fishman, Manufacturing the News (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1980); Leon V. Sigal, "Sources Make the News," in Reading the News, ed. Robert Karl Manoff and Michael Schudson (NY: Pantheon Books, 1986), 9-37; Herbert Gans, Deciding What's News (NY: Vintage Books, 1979); Stuart Hall, "The Rediscovery of 'Ideology': Return of the Repressed in Media Studies," in Culture, Society and the Media, ed. Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran, and Janet Woollacott (London: Methuen, 1982), 56-90; Judy Van SlykeTurk, Information Subsidies and Media Content: A Study of Public Relations Influence on the News, Journalism Monographs, no. 100 (Columbia, SC: AEJMC, 1986).
8. Gaye Tuchman, Making News (NY: Free Press, 1978); Mark Fishman, Manufacturing the News (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1980); Leon V. Sigal, "Sources Make the News," in Reading the News, ed. Robert Karl Manoff and Michael Schudson (NY: Pantheon Books, 1986), 9-37; Herbert Gans, Deciding What's News (NY: Vintage Books, 1979); Stuart Hall, "The Rediscovery of 'Ideology': Return of the Repressed in Media Studies," in Culture, Society and the Media, ed. Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran, and Janet Woollacott (London: Methuen, 1982), 56-90; Judy Van SlykeTurk, Information Subsidies and Media Content: A Study of Public Relations Influence on the News, Journalism Monographs, no. 100 (Columbia, SC: AEJMC, 1986).
9. Gaye Tuchman, Making News (NY: Free Press, 1978); Mark Fishman, Manufacturing the News (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1980); Leon V. Sigal, "Sources Make the News," in Reading the News, ed. Robert Karl Manoff and Michael Schudson (NY: Pantheon Books, 1986), 9-37; Herbert Gans, Deciding What's News (NY: Vintage Books, 1979); Stuart Hall, "The Rediscovery of 'Ideology': Return of the Repressed in Media Studies," in Culture, Society and the Media, ed. Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran, and Janet Woollacott (London: Methuen, 1982), 56-90; Judy Van SlykeTurk, Information Subsidies and Media Content: A Study of Public Relations Influence on the News, Journalism Monographs, no. 100 (Columbia, SC: AEJMC, 1986).
10. Carey, "Communications Revolution," 32.
11. Lauren Kessler, The Dissident Press (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1984).
12. Laurence Leamer, The Paper Revolutionaries: The Rise of the Underground Press (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1972), 23, 25.
13. Robert J. Glessing, The Underground Press in America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970), 99.
14. According to Peck, the underground press declined for several reasons. First, the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam removed the most obvious political issue of the time. Second, more mainstream press began to adopt some of the topics and style of the underground. Third, the "Movement" of the 1960s itself began to diminish (Abe Peck, Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground [NY: Pantheon, 1985], 287-88). The underground newspapers that survived were usually the ones able to move toward the mainstream, and become more professional (David Armstrong, A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Press in America [Boston: South End Press, 1981], 183).
15. According to Peck, the underground press declined for several reasons. First, the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam removed the most obvious political issue of the time. Second, more mainstream press began to adopt some of the topics and style of the underground. Third, the "Movement" of the 1960s itself began to diminish (Abe Peck, Uncovering the Sixties: The Life and Times of the Underground [NY: Pantheon, 1985], 287-88). The underground newspapers that survived were usually the ones able to move toward the mainstream, and become more professional (David Armstrong, A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Press in America [Boston: South End Press, 1981], 183).
16. Armstrong, A Trumpet to Arms, 183.
17. The term "neighborhood" is used to refer to the new, urban neighborhood-oriented newspapers. "Community," or "metropolitan," when used in reference to newspapers, means the primary established newspaper of the area - the county or city paper.
18. Morris Janowitz, The Community Press in an Urban Setting (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1952).
19. Phillip J. Tichenor, George A. Donohue, and Clarice Olien, Community Conflict and the Press (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1980).
20. Jean Ward and Cecilie Gaziano, "A New Variety of Urban Press: Neighborhood Public-Affairs Publications," Journalism Quarterly 53 (spring 1976): 61-67, 116; Jean Ward and Cecilie Gaziano, "The Neighborhood Press: A Citizen-Based Communications Tool," Ekistiks 268 (1978): 116-19.
21. Jean Ward and Cecilie Gaziano, "A New Variety of Urban Press: Neighborhood Public-Affairs Publications," Journalism Quarterly 53 (spring 1976): 61-67, 116; Jean Ward and Cecilie Gaziano, "The Neighborhood Press: A Citizen-Based Communications Tool," Ekistiks 268 (1978): 116-19.
22. Cecilie Gaziano and Jean Ward, "Citizen-Developed Neighborhood Press," Mass Comm Review 5 (spring 1978): 14-18.
23. Ward and Gaziano, "A New Variety of Urban Press"; Cecilie Gaziano, "Neighborhood Newspapers, Citizen Groups, and Knowledge Gaps on Public Affairs Issues" (Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1983).
24. Ward and Gaziano, "A New Variety of Urban Press"; Cecilie Gaziano, "Neighborhood Newspapers, Citizen Groups, and Knowledge Gaps on Public Affairs Issues" (Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1983).
25. Leo W. Jeffres and Jean Dobos, "Neighborhood Newspaper Audiences," Newspaper Research Journal 4 (summer 1983): 31-42; Leo W. Jeffres, Mick Latkovich, and Jim Ceasar, Grassroots Journalism in the City: Cleveland's Neighborhood Newspapers, Communication Research Center Monograph, no. 6 (Cleveland: Cleveland State University Press, 1982).
26. Leo W. Jeffres and Jean Dobos, "Neighborhood Newspaper Audiences," Newspaper Research Journal 4 (summer 1983): 31-42; Leo W. Jeffres, Mick Latkovich, and Jim Ceasar, Grassroots Journalism in the City: Cleveland's Neighborhood Newspapers, Communication Research Center Monograph, no. 6 (Cleveland: Cleveland State University Press, 1982).
27. Gaziano, "Neighborhood Newspapers," 16.
28. Ward and Gaziano, "A New Variety of Urban Press," 62.
29. Gaziano and Ward, "Citizen-Developed Neighborhood Press," 16.
30. Jeffres and Dobos, "Neighborhood Newspaper Audiences," 31.
31. Ward and Gaziano, "A New Variety of Urban Press."
32. Ward and Gaziano, "A New Variety of Urban Press," 67.
33. Gaziano and Ward, "Citizen-Developed Neighborhood Press," 15.
34. The Alley is published monthly and its 12,000 copies are offered free to Phillips residents. Normally twelve or sixteen pages long and tabloid sized, the Alley looks like a typical small-town newspaper, with traditional design and photos. It accepts advertising and attempts to maintain a 30:70 advertising to news ratio. Because it cannot support itself on advertising revenue, the non-profit Alley also relies on grants and contributions.
35. The editor, a single father in his forties, has a degree in political science and calls himself a "left-wing radical." At the time of the study he had been the Alley's editor for eight years and was the longest-serving editor. As was clear from conversation with him and board members as well as a reading of earlier Alleys, he is the first editor to value the professional conventions of mainstream journalism so highly.
36. This statement was retracted the next month. The subject of this story, Ferris Alexander, was ultimately convicted of violating federal racketeering laws, a conviction upheld by the United States Supreme Court (Alexander v. United States, 509 U.S. 544 [1993]).
37. Carey, "Communications Revolution," 33-34.
38. The volunteer writers meet in the evening once a month, their equivalent of a news huddle.
39. The NPA is an organization of the thirty-some neighborhood newspapers active in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Not all of these are inner-city activist papers like the Alley; some are for-profit and cover affluent neighborhoods. All have as their goal, however, coverage of their local communities.
40. The six or so regular volunteer writers include two with journalism degrees and another with an English degree. Like the writers Ward and Gaziano studied, these writers are neighborhood activists, interested in promoting particular values and causes. Unlike those Ward and Gaziano studied, however, they are not all neighborhood residents, though they all either live nearby or work in Phillips. In addition, they do not represent the neighborhood demographically; all, including the editor, are white.