Alternative Journalism, Alternative Voices

198 Pages·2013·1.79 MB·English

by  Tony Harcup

ALTERNATIVE JOURNALISM,
ALTERNATIVE VOICES
Bringing together new and classic work by Tony Harcup, this book considers the
development of alternative journalism from the 1970s up until today.
Bringingtheoryandpracticetogether,Harcupbuildsanunderstandingofalternative
media through the use of detailed case studies and surveys. Including opinions of
journalists who have worked in both mainstream and alternative media, he considers
the motivations, practices and roles of alternative journalism as well as delving into
ethical considerations.
Moving from the history of alternative journalism, Harcup considers the recent
spread of ‘citizen journalism’ and the use of social media, and asks what the role of
alternative journalism is today.
TonyHarcupisSeniorLecturerattheDepartmentofJournalismStudies,Universityof
Sheffield.Hispreviouspublicationsinclude:Journalism:PrinciplesandPractice(2ndedn,
2009); The Ethical Journalist (2007); Newspaper Journalism (2010, co-authored with Peter
Cole)andANorthernStar:LeedsOtherPaperandthealternativepress1974–1994(1994).
ALTERNATIVE
JOURNALISM,
ALTERNATIVE
VOICES
by Tony Harcup
Firstpublished2013
byRoutledge
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SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
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©2013TonyHarcup
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Harcup,Tony.
Alternativejournalism,alternativevoices/byTonyHarcup.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Journalism,Regional–GreatBritain.I.Title.
PN5124.R44H372012
072–dc23
2012024267
ISBN:978-0-415-52186-4(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-52189-5(pbk)
ISBN:978-0-203-07721-4(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
To Chris Searle, without whom …
… who knows?
CONTENTS
List of tables ix
Acknowledgements x
Foreword by Chris Atton xi
PARTI
Alternative media, alternative voices 1
1 Introduction: from ‘native reporting’ to ‘native researching’ 5
2 An insurrection in words: East End voices in the 1970s 18
PARTII
The alternative local press: a critical overview 33
3 A northern star: Leeds Other Paper and the alternative
press 1974–1994 37
4 The alternative local press 53
PARTIII
Reporting from the ground up: alternative
journalism in practice 61
5 ‘The unspoken – said’: the journalism of alternative media 63
6 It wasn’t all about Arthur: alternative media and the
miners’ strike 81
viii Contents
7 Reporting the voices of the voiceless during the miners’
strike: an early form of ‘citizen journalism’ 88
PARTIV
Alternative media activists: motivations and reflections 99
8 ‘I’m doing this to change the world’: journalism in
alternative and mainstream media 101
9 Citizens in the newsroom: democracy, ethics and journalism 120
10 Alternative journalism as active citizenship 128
PARTV
Alternative media today and tomorrow 145
11 Alternative journalism: oppositional reporting in practice 149
Appendix 1: statements published in The Other Paper, LOP and
Northern Star 168
Appendix 2: ‘views on the news’ 171
Appendix 3: national conference of alternative papers 176
Index 181
LIST OF TABLES
5.1 Coverage of the 1981 Chapeltown riots in the Yorkshire Evening Post 71
5.2 Coverage of the 1981 Chapeltown riots in Leeds Other Paper 72
5.3 Coverage of the initial court hearings arising from the 1981
Chapeltown riots 73
7.1 Coverage of the 1984–1985 miners’ strike in the 51 issues of
Leeds Other Paper published during the dispute 92
7.2 Identifiable sources quoted or cited in the coverage of the
1984–1985 miners’ strike in the 51 issues of Leeds Other Paper
published during the dispute 93
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to everyone at LOP from whom I learned so much; to all the alternative
mediaactivistswhogavetheirtimeandansweredmyquestions;tostudents,colleagues
and everyone else who has discussed alternative media with me in seminars,
conferences, public meetings or in the pub; to peer reviewers for some insightful
feedback; to editors and publishers for permission to reproduce material; to Chris
Searle for all-round inspiration; to Cathy Leman for letting us loose in the storeroom
to print our alternative school magazine; to Alan Gilbey and the other Basement
Writers for being so much better than our schools expected us to be; to Chris Atton
for his very generous Foreword; to Gordon Wilson for Appendix 2; to Terry Wragg
forsupport,proofreadingandmuch,muchmore;andtoeveryoneatRoutledgewho
helped make this book a reality.
FOREWORD
Local journalism, radical
reporting and the everyday
Chris Atton, Professor of Media and Culture at Edinburgh
Napier University
To speak of alternative journalism and alternative voices is inevitably to raise the
longstanding spectre of definition that haunts so many studies in this field (and what
we call the field is itself therefore open to argument). Once raised, it is hard to
ignore. I share a preference with Tony Harcup for the term ‘alternative journalism’,
for reasons of inclusiveness. This is not to deny the oppositional politics of media
practicesnecessarytoJohnDowningetal.’s(2001)notionof‘radicalmedia’orthe‘citi-
zens’media’ofClemenciaRodriguez(2001).Moreover,itisimportanttodistinguish
Rodriguez’s radical community model of journalism from what seems a modish and
banaluseoftheterm‘citizenjournalism’bycommercialmediaorganisations(although,
as Xin (2010) shows, even the latter term can have radical implications in different
cultural settings). Much of what Harcup addresses in this book is both radical media
and community media – his essays deal with the deployment of media to enable the
voices ofthe marginalised to be heard, to allow voices otherwise unacknowledged to
speak to audiences unaware of their presence. As is so often said in studies of alter-
native media, those unheard voices are in essence the voices of media audiences
themselves. The self-reflexive activities of alternative media production thus perform
radicalcritiquesonwhatitmeanstobe‘inthenews’,whatitmeanstobeanaudience
and what it means to be a journalist.
All of which suggests at the very least a radical cultural politics of representation –
preciselytheimportthatDowningandRodriguez bring totheirchosenterms. Why,
then, does this book speak of ‘alternative journalism, alternative voices’? For me, the
strength of those terms – and therefore the significance of the book itself – lies in
what they imply about the relationships between dominant, professionalised media
and the kinds of endeavours, projects and ideologies that Harcup presents. Some
readers might find the term ‘alternative’ far too vague, or redolent of a politics of
lifestyle that has more to say about a culture of solipsistic detachment than about an
engagement with the world through media critique and practice. Let us therefore