Organizing media: A political economy typology of alternative media

In this participatory communicative action research (PCAR) project undertaken by the Media Action Research Group (MARG), we use an intersectional political economy framework to better understand how alternative media activists organize and structure their projects. The findings are based on interviews conducted between 2015 and 2019 with 80 media activists in 38 alternative media projects in eleven countries. Based on a granular analysis of the structures and practices of horizontality in grass-roots media projects, we are attentive to five key dimensions of alternative media organizing: structures, funding, labour, imaginaries and intersectional power. This analysis was generative of a typology that categorizes alternative media projects into six ideal types: critical entrepreneurial journalism startups, hybrid vertical–horizontal media projects, hybrid commercial-activist media projects, media workers’ cooperatives, DIY volunteer-run media collectives and DIY autonomous media networks. We find that a strong alignment of media practices and alternative media imaginaries within an alternative media project may be a predictor of its long-term resilience.