EOTO 2: WHAT I LEARNED

In our 2nd EOTO session for Media Law + Lit class, we learned a lot about types of information, and one that caught my attention was alternative media, and how it relates to mainstream media.



To begin, lets define mainstream media. Mainstream media is information obtained through typical news outlets, such as Fox News, The New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, and many more similar outlets. These are sources that many turn their eyes to when looking for the most recent news story. One important thing to note is that these sources can absolutely still be biased. Take Fox News for example. They are typically more conservative sided, making Republicans appear better than Democrats, while MSNBC is known to have a more liberal public appearance.


Alternative media is easy to understand in definition, but the line between it and mainstream isn't that clear. It usually spawns in direct contrast to mainstream media, and has oftentimes been described as pulling back the curtain of the lack of objectivity in journalism. Take the American Conservative, a news outlet that literally has the word conservative in the title. While they are openly biased, they are still a very widely used news outlet (mostly by conservatives), and for some like me, its hard to tell if it is an alternative media news source, or if it is just biased mainstream media.


It's a topic that I've never really cared to think about in the past, but this class has given me more of an open mind, and gets me thinking about this stuff more often than before. A source of alternative media that immediately comes to mind is Info Wars, a source that deliberately opposed mainstream media, and is VERY FAR right and a supporter of conspiracy theories. I never cared to follow those clowns anyways, but it just makes you think.

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