Alternative News Reporting in Brazil 3031269985, 9783031269981

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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN JOURNALISM AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH

Alternative News Reporting in Brazil Claudia Sarmento

Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South Series Editors

Bruce Mutsvairo Auburn University Auburn, AL, USA Saba Bebawi University of Technology Sydney Ultimo, NSW, Australia Eddy Borges-Rey Northwestern University Qatar Ar-Rayyan, Qatar

This series focuses on cutting-edge developments in journalism in and from the Global South and illuminates how journalism cultures and practices have evolved from the era of colonization to contemporary globalization. Bringing previously underrepresented research from the Global South to the English speaking world, this series will focus on a broad range of topics within journalism including pedagogy, ethics, history of journalism, press freedom, theory, propaganda, gender, cross-border collaboration and methodological issues. Despite the geographical connotations of the term ‘Global South’ the series will not be defined by geographical boundaries, as Western countries are home to millions of immigrants and the contributions of immigrant journalists will be covered.

Claudia Sarmento

Alternative News Reporting in Brazil

Claudia Sarmento London, UK

ISSN 2662-480X     ISSN 2662-4818 (electronic) Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South ISBN 978-3-031-26998-1    ISBN 978-3-031-26999-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26999-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Jonathan Oliveira / Getty Images This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI) of the University of Westminster for offering me a scholarship as a doctoral student. Under the supervision of Professor Mercedes Bunz and Professor Graham Meikle, who guided me with great generosity and encouragement, I was able to conduct this research between 2016 and 2019. The thesis defence took place in the end of 2019, a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic. The PhD journey was an incredibly hard but rewarding experience, and without the unequivocal support I have received, I would not have been able to finish this work. I am also immensely grateful to Palgrave Macmillan for believing in my proposal. The attentive reading and the suggestions I have received from anonymous reviewers resulted in a much better project. During the course of this research, many inspiring journalists and academics have contributed with helpful insights and trust, and I refrain from citing names just to avoid the risk of being unfair. My endless conversations with close friends about journalism’s mission and transformation have always been a source of great joy. I owe a lot to them. Finally, many thanks to my family for hanging in there. This book is for all the media producers in Brazil, whether they are professional journalists or not, who are helping to expand the news agenda, to raise unheard voices, to challenge stereotypes and to change attitudes.

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Contents

1 Introduction  1 2 What Is Alternative Journalism? 23 3 The Roots of Alternative Media in Brazil 47 4 The Role of Alternative Journalists in Brazil 81 5 Framing  the News from Peripheral Angles: An Expansion of News Agenda113 6 Sustainability  of Alternative Journalism: A Negotiated Entrepreneurship147 7 Conclusion: The Renewal of a Tradition of Resistance181

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About the Author

Claudia Sarmento holds a PhD in Media and Communication from the University of Westminster, London, UK, and a Master’s Degree in Digital Culture and Society from King’s College London. As a visiting fellow, she has taught postgraduate and graduate courses in the Department of Digital Humanities and in the Department of Culture Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London as well as Media and Communication courses at the University of Westminster. She has an extensive experience as a journalist. She has a quarter century of experience in Brazilian media organisations, ranging from O Globo, where she served as an editor for over a decade, to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo and Radio Globo. She also worked as a foreign correspondent from Moscow, Tokyo and London.

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List of Figures

Fig. 4.1 Fig. 6.1 Fig. 6.2 Fig. 6.3

Self-definitions provided by the interviewees References made by alternative producers to possible forms of funding Mains sources of funding according to interviewees Connections between mainstream and alternative media

88 164 165 169

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List of Tables

Table 5.1 Table 5.2 Table 5.3 Table 5.4 Table 5.5 Table 6.1 Table 6.2

Coding frame of case studies Description of Agência Pública’s content Description of Amazônia Real’s content Description of Nós, Mulheres da Periferia’s content Description of the content of Coletivo Papo Reto Examples of philanthropic support for non-profit media in Brazil Examples of relationship between mainstream and alternative media

120 121 126 130 135 154 166

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

In June 2013, more than one million people gathered in the streets of different Brazilian cities to protest against widespread corruption and lack of investments in crucial areas such as public health and education. The massive popular movement started in São Paulo, driven by discontent with the rise of public transportation fares. The 20 cents increase was just the kickstart of what became known as Jornadas de Junho (June Journeys). At the peak of the movement, more than 1.4 million protesters took to the streets of at least 140 cities, demanding a complex set of agendas, from cheaper transportation fares to more transparency in the public investments to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. After decades of political apathy, Brazilians seemed to have awakened, pushed by hopelessness and disappointment with the establishment. Social media played a key role in the mobilisation, leading to comparisons with the Arab Spring, the pro-democracy uprisings that started in Tunisia in December 2010 and spread to several other Muslim countries. New online channels emerged, shaping political debate and confronting the views of mainstream media. In a rejection of traditional political parties, Jornadas de Junho combined different social classes and ideologies. It generated a series of studies on the intersection of activism and emerging communication technologies in a developing nation. The movement had a lasting political impact in Brazil.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Sarmento, Alternative News Reporting in Brazil, Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26999-8_1

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Analysing its implications and the events that followed, such as the strengthening of far-right groups and the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in 2016, is beyond the scope of this book. Yet, I could say that the June Journeys were the inspiration for this study, even though not from a sociological or technopolitical point of view. Rather, I was thinking about journalism. Living abroad and working as a foreign correspondent for the Brazilian media, I followed the dramatic chain of events on news websites and social media, especially Facebook and YouTube. As a journalist who has always worked for legacy media corporations, I heard from my colleagues working for some of the largest Brazilian newsrooms how hard it was to cover such a movement, which did not have a clear leadership. In the first weeks of the demonstrations, mainstream media presented a negative coverage, focusing mainly on acts of vandalism by the protesters. However, when the police increased the crackdown on demonstrators, also brutally attacking journalists who were covering the events, the country’s main newspapers and TV channels adopted a much less negative stance towards the movement and condemned the violence of the state agents against civilians. An activist group called Mídia Ninja (Portuguese acronym for Independent Journalism and Action Narratives) contributed to change this perspective. Using little more than 3G smartphones to disseminate news from the frontlines of the protests, the collective of activists with no formal journalistic training challenged the dominant narrative and demonstrated the police brutality against the protesters, relying on open Wi-Fi signals and a supermarket cart to carry equipment such as an old generator and two video cameras (Torturra, 2013; Stalcup, 2016). My initial thoughts on Mídia Ninja were overly simplistic. Accustomed to certain professional standards of news coverage and having developed my career as a journalist within the walls of the traditional news industry in Brazil, I was not sure if the content disseminated by the collective should be defined as journalistic. They were activists sharing unedited content and bypassing commercial channels of distribution. They were participants of the protests, rather than observers reporting from a distance; they had a side. I firstly considered them as potential sources, but not exactly as reporters of a historic moment. Nevertheless, the critical information they disseminated made a difference, as it would be discussed in the following chapters. As a postgraduate student in the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London, I had the opportunity to gain a less abstract understanding of the changing nature of media production. Studies on the affordances of participatory culture, as defined by

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scholars such as Henry Jenkins (2006), helped me to reflect clearly and more critically about the role and the relevance of groups such as Mídia Ninja. Their decentralised network fuelled by new technologies mixed activism and reporting, very explicitly rejecting the supposed objectivity of traditional journalism. Elizabeth Lorenzotti (2013) defined the group as media of the future. For Meg Stalcup, Mídia Ninja “aimed to engender a change in subjectivity” (2016:151). This excerpt from Stalcup’s analysis on the forms and practices of the media activists highlights what was at stake in terms of media studies: When a video is live-streamed to viewers who share it through a transnational assemblage of social contacts, this changes its temporality and spatiality, but it is remediated as equipment when purposively employed in ethical practice. This activists’ documentation of the protests and police violence effectively pressured, first, the mainstream media into increasing coverage, and then the federal government to offer a series of concessions, but these were not their only goals. Their commentary laid out explicitly the rationale of their aesthetic idiom, through which they proposed a different political logic and fundamentally, a different relation between making and interacting with media. They were engaged in remediation, fashioning new practices and aesthetic forms as equipment for shaping new political subjects and collectives. (Stalcup, 2016: 146)

Although social media alone cannot explain the causes and consequences of the 2013 popular movement (Porto & Brant, 2015), the prominence of non-mainstream reporting in a critical moment opened up a debate on the values of alternative news channels. Ninjas were acknowledged as relevant media players both by international and by national mainstream media. The ombudsman of Folha de S.Paulo, one of the leading publications in the country, criticised the way professional reporters gave little emphasis to the arrest of protesters and pointed out that the “old fashioned way” to cover protests, anchoring the narrative only on the police’s version and on images from big broadcasters, was no longer enough. It was time to take into account new sources of information (Singer, 2013). Much was written about Mídia Ninja during and after the 2013 demonstrations. The scholarly view of the paradigm shift represented by the collective will be explored in more depth later on. This Introduction aims to emphasise that the example of the Ninjas was helpful to change my perception of how new technologies were transforming the way news

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could be gathered and disseminated, introducing non-conventional producers to the journalistic scene and challenging the privileged position of traditional gatekeepers in Brazil. If they were activists, could they be considered journalists? Or just those who carry a badge of media corporations should be classified as such? On the one hand, mainstream media incorporated their content and recognised their relevance. On the other, those citizen journalists were part of a deconstruction of journalism’s rules, or what we can define as “the erosion of the old way of doing things” to quote the words from the highly cited report “Post-Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present” (Anderson et al., 2012: 22). What does this erosion of traditional journalism really mean? “We don’t own the news anymore”, said the Director of the BBC World Service and Global News Division, Richard Sambrook, in 2005. Almost two decades ago, this speech was considered a surprise. He was talking about the audiences as active participants in the creation and circulation of news, in a stark contrast with the one-way communication model that supported the news business in the twentieth century. Is technology the key element of this now much more consolidated paradigm shift? Could the crowds be more than mismatched voices photographing and filming breaking news events, but leaving it to journalists to make sense of that content? I knew that journalists across the global media industry were facing daunting challenges in their routines as well as in their own struggles with professional identity. This is how Alan Rusbridger, who was the editor-in-chief of The Guardian from 1995 to 2015, defines what journalists used to feel when the world was “vertically arranged”: We—the organs of information—owned printing presses and, with them, the exclusive power to hand down the news we had gathered. The readers handed up the money—and so did advertisers, who had few other ways of reaching our audience. To be a journalist in these times was a bliss—for us anyway. I’m afraid we felt a bit superior to those without the same access to information that we enjoyed. It was easy to confuse our privileged access to information with ‘authority’ or ‘expertise’. And when the floodgates opened—and billions of people also gained access to information and could publish themselves—journalism struggled to adjust. Newspapers began to die in front of our eyes. (Rusbridger, 2018: xix)

The floodgates are definitely open, so who are the new “authorities”? As Brooke Erin Duffy reminds us, “[M]edia specialists are no longer the

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only ones creating professional-quality content; production no longer takes place exclusively in the workplace; and content is no longer tethered to particular media formats” (2013:3). While markets of mass communication were being forced to reinvent themselves, how do small organisations that were born digital and seek a type of production totally different from the journalism practiced by large media companies operate? This research was born from these initial queries, while my aim has always been to investigate these issues in the Global South. I was able to refine my interrogations during my doctoral programme at the University of Westminster (London) with the purpose of examining the emergence of alternative forms of online news production in Brazil. The PhD thesis was defended on October 2019. This book is based on the outcome of the research. Mídia Ninja, the example that opened this Introduction, is not the focus of this work. When my research effectively began in 2016, Brazil had already undergone a wave of perplexing political transformations. New forms of non-commercial journalism were consolidating, some of them without a direct link to social movements or the political polarisation that increased dramatically since Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment. Therefore, what concerns this investigation is what came after the 2013 wave of massive protests. In the context of an increasingly unstable democracy, I examined the emergence of alternative forms of news production with a specific focus on progressive not-for-profit initiatives, combining both the practices of professional journalists and amateurs. I draw on semi-­ structured interviews with media producers from eighteen different small organisations and content analysis. One recurrent element that emerged from the interviews with people involved in the dissemination of content outside mainstream media was the changing boundaries of journalism. Consequently, I have decided not to focus on citizen journalism that thrives only in crisis events. Rather, the following pages are concerned with organised and continuous practices of alternative reporting. They are more suitable to discuss their goals, to examine the challenges of alternative journalism in the digital age and to evaluate to what extent producers have found solutions to the financial precariousness of independent experiments, a topic that deserves attention given the unpredictable nature of media work in the context of a rapidly evolving digital economy. A broad range of scholarly studies had explored relevant aspects of journalism transformation, from the impact of the blogosphere and the rise of

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citizen and participatory journalism to the widespread integration of social media content in newsgathering routines. Predominantly, discussions on the future of journalism are centred on mainstream media, though the study of alternative media has been increasingly arousing the interest of researchers exploring concepts such as the ecology of participation (Barnes, 2014) and online counter-publics (Leung & Lee, 2014), as well as the central role of mediated communications for activism and contemporary social movements (Lievrouw, 2015; Gerbaudo, 2012; Rodríguez et  al., 2014; Atton, 2015; Meikle, 2018). With the arrival of new producers in the media landscape, the boundaries of journalism practice are indeed becoming less clear. Those seeking to investigate the digital environment in which information is now gathered and shared must look into distinct cultural practices and contexts to find answers in a field that is constantly shifting and demanding new and broader definitions. This book contributes to combine journalism and alternative media studies from the perspective of a specific context beyond the Western gaze. It investigates a variety of non-profit alternative media practices in Brazil that contest a highly concentrated and homogeneous way of disseminating news. The empirical findings offer an overview of media outlets and projects that persist in being non-commercial, that is, they are not under pressure to monetise content, though this is not synonymous of ignoring the market-driven forces. Here I should point out a dilemma that is crucial to understanding the practical nature of alternative journalism: these critical projects that defy dominant journalistic practices need resources to maintain a steady operation, “but those crucial resources are present only in the very society that they seek to change or dissolve” (Atton & Hamilton, 2008:26). As scholars have been seeking to examine the impact of the digital disruption on large media corporations, this study looks into “peripheral” practices, hopefully contributing to existing literature on alternative media and journalism studies in general. This book is concerned with social actors, or “writer-gatherers”, to employ the term coined by Nick Couldry (2010), who are engaged in non-traditional, but regular practices of newsgathering to sustain counter-public spheres, rather than on the accidental amateur journalists who act in times of crisis. In focusing the analysis on heterogeneous Brazilian cases, the aim is to bridge the gap in a field dominated by an Anglo-American perspective.

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Why Brazil? During the course of this research, Brazil was facing one of its most turbulent times since the end of the military regime. President Dilma Rousseff was deposed in 2016 as a result of a very controversial process of impeachment. Vice-President, conservative Michel Temer, ascended to power, ending 12 years of the Worker’s Party rule. Temer’s government was marked by further political turmoil and corruption allegations, besides an ongoing economic crisis. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the main left-wing political figure in the country, was arrested in 2018 as part of an operation against corruption, being prevented from running for the presidential elections. Lula’s highly disputed conviction deepened the political polarisation. In October 2018, far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro was elected president, initiating a new era of populism in Brazil. The combination of rising extremism, political instability, economic crisis and widespread use of social media deeply affects the way journalists do their work. Political polarisation encourages partisan agendas and, consequently, leads to misinformation (Newman et  al., 2019). If on the one hand, this background of disruption reinforces the need for journalists to hold power into account, on the other media corporations are under pressure to survive in an environment of information overload. Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America, with a population of 202.5 million people, and a highly commercialised and concentrated media system (Albuquerque, 2012; Ganter & Paulino, 2021). According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE, 2021), 82.7% of Brazilian households had internet access in 2019. As technology became more affordable and broadband services were expanded, the nation saw the rise of a growing connected population. In the vast majority of households, the most common way to access the internet is via mobile phone, found in 99.5% of the Brazilian households. With the multiplication of information sources, audiences’ willingness to pay for news content declined, while advertising also turned to digital platforms, following a global trend. The radical disruption for the news business resulted in negative headlines on the struggles of the country’s media corporations. Although it is difficult to pinpoint a precise number of layoffs due to a lack of national record of employability in the media industry, data journalism agency Voltdata states that between 2012 and August 2018 mass redundancies affected 7817 workers in the sector.

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In his analysis of the Brazilian media system, Afonso de Albuquerque (2012) points out some key elements: newspapers have always had a low circulation rate and are mainly addressed to an urban elite; television plays a central role as a source of entertainment and information; and media corporations are almost totally private, mostly family-owned. The largest media groups were the first ones to invest in the online market, thus maintaining their ability to shape the news industry while new digital technologies emerged (Ganter & Paulino, 2021). While the rise of independent blogs was initially celebrated in Brazil for disseminating news beyond the mainstream viewpoints, the blogosphere ended up being colonised by large corporations (Bailey & Marques, 2012). Notably, major news companies in Brazil belong to a few families, such as Grupo Estado and Grupo Globo. Commercial television broadcasters remain a powerful force in the country, though social media have continued to attract more news readers, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 (Newman et al., 2021). Every major Brazilian newspaper has to deal with print circulation decline, in addition to the erosion of advertising revenue. Major shifts on the consuming habits have accelerated the migration of subscriptions to digital platforms, suggesting that the preferred business model for these publications is the paywall. The financial crisis affects journalistic practices and shapes the news to fit particular demographics (Niblock & Machin, 2007). Internet-specific production standards and budget cuts have led to newsrooms’ restructuring to enable real-time distribution of news across multiple channels and to attend the demands of fragmented audiences, a global trend that inevitably generates pessimistic predictions about the future of journalism (Prado, 2011). One may argue that the crisis is not necessarily one of journalism, but rather of the business model that prevailed during the twentieth century (Haak et  al., 2012). Business considerations underpin the journalistic practices of the news industry, so what happens to media that persist in being non-commercial and are not driven by the same news values that have overtaken mainstream media? As media scholars and media pundits have been seeking to examine the impact of the digital disruption on large media corporations, the following chapters look into the “margins”. Although there is a growing scholarship focused on the rise of alternative journalism as a form of civic resistance in countries where dissent is strongly repressed by the state, such as China and Iran (Allan & Thorsen, 2014), fewer studies provide insights into different types of independent

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journalism in Brazil, where in spite of the recent rise of authoritarianism, the media system is currently not under state control, contrary to what happened at other times in the country’s history. Rather than seeing alternative media in Brazil as a new phenomenon, this book goes back to past examples of challenges to media power to offer a deeper comprehension of alternative practices in the context of a developing country. Echoing Guilherme Carvalho and Marcelo Bronosky (2017), alternative journalism is not necessarily revolutionary. Their study is also focused on alternative initiatives in Brazil, pointing out that alternative journalism “appropriates the ways of doing conventional journalism but has its own characteristics that historically demarcate its social role” (2017:26). This argument reinforces the importance of analysing the current diversification of voices involved with the production of different forms of journalism to assess the plurality they generate, beyond activist media. The main research questions that drove this study were: What are the contemporary roles played by alternative media producers in Brazil? How are alternative media projects seeking to overcome the lack of resources and funds, which has so far been a defining characteristic of non-­mainstream practices? To what extent are alternative practices breaking journalistic boundaries and reconfiguring the epistemology of news? This study was planned to answer these three questions. In a turbulent time for the legacy media industry, and more specifically for journalism, I argue that different forms of content production outside the institutional environment of large newsrooms represent a valuable contribution to the dissemination of underreported stories and issues, even if their reach could not be compared to the one of mainstream media. The emergence of independent news producers, anchored by technological innovation and more horizontal organisational experimentations, reflects the need to consider the transformations of journalistic practices in an ecosystem completely altered by digital communication. News content producers who are not interested in replicating the working codes of a conventional newsroom are opening up new horizons for journalism, surpassing the dichotomy of the “we” (alternative media) versus “them” (the mainstream realm). Presented this way, this is a book about practices of alternative media from the perspective of a less developed region, where the creation of independent media cannot be replicated from the Western world. Though data shows a growing global philanthropic support of journalism, 92% of the funding went to US-based organisations between 2011 and 2014

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(Kartens, 2018). In combining different genres of non-commercial journalism, this study will allow readers to better understand the potential impact of alternative news producers in times of continuing technological shifts. What does it mean to practice “alternative” journalism? To what extent do non-mainstream practices subvert the taxonomy of news values? Do alternative journalists adhere to or reject journalism’s core values? And, more specifically, as more and more journalists or media producers are collecting, disseminating and interpreting news without being employed by large media groups, what insights can they provide in relation to the economics of digital journalism? These are some of the discussions that will be of value to those who study or practice journalism in other parts of the world, as well as to media researchers and media activists.

Methodology In investigating organisations that pursue a longer-term engagement with communities (geographic communities or communities of interest) to allow an active counter-public, this book goes beyond the assessment of groups that quickly disperse after a particular event. The research questions considered what encourages alternative media activity, the economic challenges practitioners face, and what kind of voices and media diversity they represent to influence the news agenda. To address these questions, a mixed-method design (Creswell, 2009), based on semi-structured interviews with twenty alternative media producers and qualitative content analysis of four case studies, was applied. Rather than looking for a new term to define diverse forms of journalism being practiced independently from large media corporations, this study prefers the label “alternative media” and, accordingly, “alternative journalism”, as it will be explained in Chap. 2. A qualitative approach was chosen to reach “an interpreted understanding of the social world of research participants” (Ritchie & Lewis, 2003:3). In their exploration of qualitative methodologies for mass communication, Klaus B. Jensen and Nicholas W. Jankowski (1991) suggest four analytical levels to be followed in any investigation: (a) the theoretical framework, (b) the methodology, (c) the analytical apparatus or methods and (d) the object of analysis. The theoretical framework is addressed in Chap. 2. The choices of methods for the research design started with one key inquiry: Who is producing alternative journalism in Brazil?

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First of all, this research had to go further in the discussion of how to differentiate alternative and mainstream media. The fact that “the people formerly known as the audience” (Rosen, 2012) are now engaged in the production of media content makes this distinction even more complex. The ability of non-professionals to disseminate information, sometimes contributing to mainstream material, has changed preconceived ideas of what journalism is and who journalists are (Deuze, 2005, 2008; Meikle & Redden, 2011; Tong, 2018). Consequently, the subject matter here is not data that could be merely quantified or measured, but something to be interpreted through questions about experiences and perspectives. As Bonnie Brennen observes, “[Q]ualitative research is interdisciplinary, interpretive, political and theoretical in nature” (2013:4). Jensen and Jankowski (1991) add: (…) where quantitative analysis would focus on the concrete, delimited products of the media’s meaning production, qualitative approaches examine meaning production as a process which is contextualized and inextricably integrated with wider social and cultural practices. (Jensen & Jankowski, 1991:4)

While a quantitative approach would be more suitable to give a numerical overview of the state of alternative media in Brazil or identify a specific problem to be investigated, the qualitative research “can go further by describing what people are doing on the ground” (Travers, 2001:180). More specifically, in the field of media studies, qualitative researchers are interested in the diversity of meanings and values (Brennen, 2013). Accordingly, the focus of this investigation is in “understanding people from their own frames” (Taylor et al., 2015:7). Furthermore, qualitative research has proved that “statistical sophistication” is not the only route to data quality and collection (Bauer et al., 2000:8). Moreover, in qualitative research, even the researcher’s subjectivity, in the form of reflections, impressions and observations, becomes data (Flick, 2009). This is not to say, however, that quantitative and qualitative designs should be treated as incompatible (Creswell, 2009; Schreirer, 2012). Since this research includes content analysis, some kind of counting is involved, but the goal was to apply complex interpretations and simple ways of counting (Boréus & Bergstrom, 2017). Therefore, on researching the content of Brazilian non-mainstream websites in the very first phase of this research, it appeared that listening

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to the practical experiences of their producers, through interviews, would offer a valuable perspective of how they position alternative journalism within the current increasingly fragmented media environment. However, after the first round of interviews, it became evident that data should be complemented with a different method to assure the validity of research. Hence, qualitative content analysis of four case studies (see Chap. 5) was included in the design to provide a more comprehensive account of what alternative journalists are doing. Triangulation was considered as a suitable proposition to achieve “confirmation” and “completeness” (Arksey & Knight, 1999:21). It is also important to clarify that the initial intention of the research proposal was to use ethnographic methods as a research strategy to observe how practitioners of alternative media work in a daily basis and to describe and interpret their behaviour, goals and attitudes. An “immersion” within communities to detect how alternative outlets act on the observed ground has been tried in many different media studies. Just to mention a study on journalism’s routines that took place in Brazil, Adriana Barsotti (2014) employed ethnography to examine to what extent online journalism maintains the role of the gatekeeper. However, since this study involves a broad range of outlets, with producers of different backgrounds and from different Brazilian regions, the criterion of practicability was crucial to eliminate the option of a participant observation (Rock, 2001). An immersion into the production environment of alternative journalists would not be feasible, since a great number of alternative projects, as will be discussed later, do not take place in a determined single physical space. Not all the organisations analysed here have, for instance, an office or what could be considered as an “alternative newsroom” in which a first-hand examination could take place. Besides that, participant observation would not necessarily provide a better insight into the realities of alternative media groups in different parts of Brazil. In turn, an engagement with their discourses and content production was chosen as the most suitable method to provide a more focused investigation into their views, adding knowledge to the field of alternative media in a developing nation. Here it is also important to address my own professional background, which also admittedly had an influence in the methodology choice. As a journalist with more than 25 years of experience in traditional newsrooms, the nature of interviewing, as an interaction between two individuals with potential benefits and drawbacks (Galletta, 2013), was not considered an approach that needed to be mastered. Nonetheless, very early on in the

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process of collecting data I became aware that my assumptions of what an interview should entail ignored the scientific rigour required by academic research. Without neglecting the efficiency of an interview conducted for journalistic purposes, it was necessary to adapt my skills to a more systematic, reflexive and grounded-in theory way of conducting interviews. Guidelines by Galletta (2013) for semi-structured interviews helped to put aside journalistic habits and to understand the different stages of qualitative research. Galletta discusses the idea of the researcher as an instrument: Reflexivity requires the researcher to be vigilant, always anticipating ways in which research methods and ethics may be compromised. Interference of some kind is predictable in both quantitative and qualitative research. (Galletta, 2013:93)

In addition, the self-presentation of the researcher has an impact on the relationship with the participants (King & Horrocks, 2010). Thus, I considered it vital to identify myself as a journalist, emphasising, however, that I was there as an independent researcher from a British university. To narrow down the focus, I have selected participants who were involved with the production of online content that is critical to dominant forms of doing journalism. More specifically, the outlets mentioned in this book do not repeat the traditional business model of mainstream mass media, neither their organisational arrangements. While different studies on contemporary forms of alternative journalism in the country take into account few cases or very specific types of media, for instance, investigative outlets, media from the favelas or the participatory journalism of Mídia Ninja (Bentes, 2009; Carvalho, 2014; Davis, 2015; Rodrigues & Baroni, 2018), this study aimed to fill the gap in the scholarship by combining a variety of groups that critique, from different perspectives, “the epistemological basis of mainstream news production” (Atton, 2004: 60). The list of outlets that had their content systematically analysed includes a diversity of voices and purposes, but the groups have the following aspects in common: (1) interest in news events, (2) critical approach to dominant narratives and (3) organised as a collective or not-for-profit organisation. Whereas there is no consensus on how to define journalism as a professional activity, I have used as a starting point for this analysis the understanding of journalism as “the concerted activity of reporting and

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commenting on recent human activity, disseminated in well-crafted forms for the benefit of others more often engaged in other activities” (Calcutt & Hammond, 2011:169). Accordingly, this book refers to news production that not only thrives in moments of crisis or emergency but pursues a longer-term engagement with communities (geographic communities and communities of interest) to allow the formation of an active counter-­ public sphere. The focus is not on events, but on the process of sustaining news media work with an emphasis on minority voices. In attempting to define the main elements of alternative journalistic practices, I moved away from blogs or social media pages written with the only goal of giving opinion, even if the authors are identified as journalists. Moreover, since the definition of alternative media applied here implies the opposition to the commercialised economy of corporate journalism as suggested by Chris Atton and James Hamilton (2008), creative arrangements to overcome obstacles such as lack of resources and visibility were also considered. By looking at not-for-profit outlets, this study proposes to shed light on the possibilities and limitations of digital outlets that avoid the economic model of their corporate counterparts. Outlets included in this research were previously examined, for example, by organisations such as the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, Nieman Lab at Harvard University and SembraMedia. I have also looked at alternative outlets that were mentioned as sources for news stories, both by Brazilian and by international newspapers. Another relevant source was an interactive map on new journalistic initiatives in Brazil launched by Agência Pública (Public Agency), an award-winning investigative and independent news outlet. The map records initiatives that were born digital and are not linked to major media corporations, companies or politicians. Available in Portuguese, it encompasses a broad range of collectives that reflect a rupture of the traditional mode of journalist production (Agência Pública, n.d.). The map was a very useful starting point for a deeper academic fieldwork. The selected participants clearly demonstrate that it was not the intention of this investigation to point out a single genre of alternative journalism or a “one-size-fits-all” definition (Forde, 2011:4). In summary, the respondents were linked to heterogeneous types of autonomous organisations with a not-for-profit status. In addition to the interviews with alternative journalists between 2016 and 2018, the content produced by each group or organisation was systematically reviewed. Without dismissing the differences among the working practices of these outlets, the selected

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groups have in common a primary concern with functioning as a counterweight to the often-homogeneous topics and perspectives of traditional media. Hence, exploring the hybridity of the outlets was key to portray a media landscape in transformation. Furthermore, since this study is not only focused on content, but also on organisational structures and practices, the alternative media projects mentioned in the following chapters are all informed by an effort to democratise media in two ways explained by Scott Uzelman (2012): (a) their aim is to distribute marginalised or critical discourses, which imply different strategies; (b) they are concerned with the transformation of dominant relations and practices within the process of media production. All participants were informed of the overall aim of the study. Respondents were contacted again during the preparation of this book. The names identified in the empirical chapters are those who have consented to the publication of excerpts from their interviews.

Overview of the Book In the following chapters, topics briefly addressed in this Introduction will be examined in more depth to situate this book within a growing corpus of studies that examine emerging journalistic practices. Chapter 2 presents the theoretical frames of alternative media and, more specifically, alternative journalism. In reviewing key contributions of authors such as John Downing, Clemencia Rodriguez, Nick Couldry and James Curran, this chapter provides a framework to understand what are the defining elements of alternative media and how we can apply them to study journalism, especially in times of increasingly blurring lines between different types of media. Chris Atton’s various studies, from Alternative Media (2002) to the edited collection The Routledge Companion to Alternative and Community Media (2015), were crucial to the development of the argument. Atton and Hamilton’s research on alternative journalism (2008) helped to shape the scope of this study. Their focal point is media that represents underrepresented groups in society. Those are the voices this book is interested in, but with an exclusive focus on the Brazilian media landscape. Readers will find academic references to more specific topics in the introduction of each chapter. The organisation of the book is

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intended to examine the main topics that drove this research, originally published as a doctoral thesis and later reviewed. Chapter 3 is an overview of alternative media’s history in Brazil, from the colonial times to the resumption of democracy after the military dictatorship (1964–1985). This section demonstrates that the concept of alternative media is not new for Brazilians. Fragmented attempts to challenge hegemonic discourse, usually with a focus on social justice, have always occurred, although the political and historical contexts have changed over time. In looking at past experiences, we have more tools to understand to what extent new models of alternative journalism are replicating the ideals of the alternative press of other times. This chapter gives special attention to the alternative press that developed during the military dictatorship, the so-called imprensa nanica (nano press). With the return of democracy (1985), Brazilian journalism appropriated the discourse of the Fourth Estate and got closer to the watchdog role of the idealised Anglo-American journalistic model (Albuquerque, 2005). At the same time, alternative forms of journalism were maintained through the strengthening of community and grassroots media (Festa, 1986; Peruzzo, 2008). The chapter then explores more recent forms of online alternative media, a field that has been receiving increasing attention from Brazilian scholars. For instance, the example of Mídia Ninja is presented as an echo of the radical experiment of Indymedia. This section of the book suggests that the rise of new forms of news reporting should not be comprehended simply as an opposition to mainstream media coverage of certain themes. Rather, their representational power, albeit in fragmented ways, could be a force in its own right, as argued by Couldry and Curran (2003). To discuss the role of alternative media producers, Chap. 4 examines goals and viewpoints of different practitioners in relation to journalism’s practices. Who are they, what do they want, what are they interested in covering and to what extent do they adhere to conventional journalistic norms? By asking those questions, this chapter investigates distinctive possibilities for these new players to show their dissatisfaction with dominant forms of journalism. The focus here is thus on how alternative producers, both professionals and amateurs, perceive their position within the contemporary Brazilian media landscape. The empirical evidence comes mainly from the interviews with active participants of alternative organisations. For example, veteran journalists who were dissatisfied with their routine in a large newsroom, community reporters from the favelas (slums) who never received a formal journalistic training and producers of

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crowdsourcing digital magazines that put women in the centre of their narratives. The analysis confirms the heterogeneity of the field and reinforces the concern of alternative journalism in giving voice to counter-­ public spheres. Chapter 5 is focused on the actual journalistic output of alternative media outlets. It addresses the type of news stories that alternative media share. Free from the daily news cycle that dominates the routine in traditional newsrooms, alternative production is not dictated by requirements such as breaking news, timeliness, visual appealing, drama or entertaining aspect. Instead, the sample mentioned in this chapter suggests an emphasis on news with a social impact. The discussion is illustrated by four case studies to point out various types of departures from what traditional news corporations consider newsworthy: 1. Agência Pública (Public Agency): Brazil’s first investigative online journalism agency focused on human rights. 2. Amazônia Real (Real Amazon): Investigative journalism agency focused on the Amazon region and its people. 3. Nós, Mulheres da Periferia (We, Women from the Periphery): Women’s collective from the periphery of São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. 4. Coletivo Papo Reto (Straight Talk Collective): Group of community journalists from a complex of favelas, in Rio de Janeiro. The key contribution of the analysis is to discuss what counts as news from an alternative perspective. The four outlets present varied degrees of diversion from traditional journalistic practices, which is consistent with the heterogeneous nature of alternative journalism. They confirm that alternative sites represent a multiplication of news sources, though we must consider the differences between alternative and independent organisations formed by professional journalists covering a broad range of issues and the ones composed of residents of the peripheries who are interested in specific communities. Chapter 6 deals with the economic pressures over alternative projects and solutions to achieve a viable funding model without replicating the traditional business model of mainstream media in digital environments. A central point of the argument is that alternative producers are trying to defy the ephemerality that has always marked initiatives in the field of alternative media. They are interested in going beyond short-lived

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campaigns, but for this to happen they have to overcome limited resources and small audiences. This section deepens the discussion on issues such as whether or not partnerships with mainstream media are viable and what types of organisational structures are needed to gain access to international funding, avoiding at the same time the hierarchical structures of large media corporations. The chapter looks at this tension between economic sustainability and the production of critical narratives, examining possible solutions to funding independent operations. And, finally, in Chap. 7, I tie together the main points raised throughout the book to situate this study within the alternative media and journalism field and to answer the following question: What is alternative journalism for? Here the three central themes and their implications will be reinvoked: the identity of alternative producers, what they actually produce and how they fund their media. The book ends with a reflection on the latest changes that took place in Brazil. Among the new phenomena that can be pointed out as an object for future research are the emergence of partnerships between alternative outlets and a greater focus on combating misinformation and hate speech. This political context increases the relevance of journalism studies in Brazil.

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Atton, C., & Hamilton, J. (2008). Journalism studies: Key texts: Alternative journalism. Sage. Bailey, O. G., & Marques, F. P. J. (2012). Brazilian news blogs and mainstream news organizations: Tensions, symbiosis, or independency? In E.  Siapera & A. Veglis (Eds.), The handbook of global online journalism (pp. 393–411). John Wiley & Sons. Barnes, R. (2014). The “Ecology of Participation”. Digital Journalism, 2(4), 542–557. Barsotti, A. (2014). Jornalista em Mutação: Do Cão de Guarda ao Mobilizador de Audiência. Editora Insular. Bauer, M. W., Gaskell, G., & Allum, N. C. (2000). Quality, quantity and knowledge interests: Avoiding confusion. In M.  W. Bauer & G.  Gaskell (Eds.), Qualitative researching with text, image and sound (pp. 3–17). Sage Publications. Bentes, I. (2009). Redes Colaborativas e Precariado Produtivo. Revista Periferia, 1(1), 53–61. Boréus, K., & Bergstrom, G. (2017). Analyzing text and discourse. Sage. Brennen, B. S. (2013). Qualitative research methods for media studies. Routledge. Calcutt, A., & Hammond, P. (2011). Journalism studies: A critical introduction. Routledge. Carvalho, G. (2014). Jornalismo Alternativo na Era Digital: Análise de Reportagens da Agência Pública. Revista Alterjor, 10(2), 126–142. Carvalho, G., & Bronosky, M. (2017). Jornalismo Alternativo no Brasil: do Impresso ao Digital. Revista Pauta em Geral, 4(1), 21–39. Couldry, N. (2010). New Online News Sources and Writer-Gaherers. In N. Fenton (Ed.), New media, old news: Journalism & democracy in the digital age (pp. 138–152). Sage. Couldry, N., & Curran, J. (2003). Contesting media power: Alternative media in a networked world. Rowman & Littlefield. Creswell, J.  W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage. Davis, S. (2015). Citizens’ media in the favelas: Finding a place for community-­ based digital media production in social change processes. Communication Theory, 25(2), 230–243. Deuze, M. (2005). What is journalism?: Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered. Journalism, 6(4), 442–464. Deuze, M. (2008). Understanding journalism as newswork: How it changes and how it remains the same. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 5(2), 4–23. Duffy, B.  E. (2013). Remake, remodel: Women’s magazines in the digital age. University of Illinois Press.

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Festa, R. (1986). Movimentos Sociais, comunicação popular e alternativa. In R. Festa & C. E. Lins da Silva (Eds.), Comunicação Popular e Alternativa no Brasil (pp. 9–30). São Paulo. Flick, U. (2009). An introduction to qualitative research. Sage Publications. Forde, S. (2011). Challenging the news: The journalism of alternative and community media. Palgrave Macmillan. Galletta, A. (2013). Mastering the semi-structured interview and beyond. New York University Press. Ganter, S., & Paulino, F. (2021). Between attack and resilience: The ongoing institutionalization of independent digital journalism in Brazil. Digital Journalism, 9(2), 235–254. Gerbaudo, P. (2012). Tweets and streets: Social media and contemporary activism. Pluto Press. Haak, B., Parks, M., & Castells, M. (2012). The future of journalism: networked journalism. International Journal of Communication, 6, 2923–2938. IBGE. (2021). Uso de Internet, Televisão e Celular no Brasil. Available at https:// educa.ibge.gov.br/jovens/materias-­e speciais/20787-­u so-­d e-­i nternet-­ televisao-­e-­celular-­no-­brasil.html [Accessed 24th October 2021] Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York University Press. Jensen, K., & Jankowski, N. (1991). A handbook of qualitative methodologies for mass communication research. Routledge. Kartens, E. (2018). The media philanthropy space in 2017. Candid. Available at: https://philanthr opynewsdigest.org/featur es/alliance-­p nd/the-­ media-­philanthropy-­space-­in-­2017?_ga=2.103452676.56756727.1653846947-­ 568938872.1653846946. King, N., & Horrocks, C. (2010). Interviews in qualitative research. Sage. Leung, D.  K. K., & Lee, F.  L. F. (2014). Cultivating an active online counter public: Examining usage and political impact of internet alternative media. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 19(3), 340–359. Lievrouw, L.  A. (2015). Digital media and the news. In C.  Atton (Ed.), The Routlegde Companion to Alternative and Community Media (pp.  301–312). Routledge. Lorenzotti, E. (2013). POSTV, de Pós-Jornalistas para Pós-Telespectadores. Observatório da Imprensa, (752). Available at: http://observatoriodaimprensa. com.br/jornal-­de-­debates/postv_de_pos_jornalistas_para_pos_telespectadores/ [Accessed 15 January 2019]. Meikle, G., & Redden, G. (2011). News online: Transformations & continuities. Palgrave Macmillan. Meikle, G. (2018). The Routledge companion to media and activism. Routledge.

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Newman, N. et  al. (2019). Digital news report 2019. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Available at https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ sites/default/files/2019-­06/DNR_2019_FINAL_0.pdf. Newman. et al. (2021). Digital news report 2021. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Available at https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/ digital-­news-­report/2021. Niblock, S., & Machin, D. (2007). News values for consumer groups: The case of Independent radio news, London, UK. Journalism, 8, 184–204. Peruzzo, C.  M. K. (2008). Conceitos de comunicação popular , alternativa e comunitária revisitados e as reelaborações no setor. Palabra clave, 11(2), 46–61. Porto, M. P., & Brant, J. (2015). Social media and the 2013 protests in Brazil. In L. Dencik & O. Leister (Eds.), Critical perspectives on social media and protest: Between control and emancipation. Rowmand & Littlefield. Prado, M. (2011). Webjornalismo. Genio. Ritchie, J., & Lewis, J. (2003). Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers. Sage. Rock, P. (2001). Symbolic Interactionism and ethnography. In P.  Atkinson, A. Coffey, S. Delamont, J. Lofland, & L. Lofland (Eds.), Handbook of ethnography (pp. 26–38). SAGE Publications. Rodrigues, C., & Baroni, A. (2018). Journalism ethos: Mídia Ninja and a contested field. Brazilian Journalism Research, 14(2), 568–593. Rodríguez, C., Ferron, B., & Shamas, K. (2014). Four challenges in the field of alternative, radical and citizens' media research. Media, Culture & Society, 36(2), 150–166. Rosen, J. (2012). The people formerly known as the audience. In M. Mandiberg (Ed.), Social media reader (pp. 13–16). New York University Press. Rusbridger, A. (2018). Breaking news: The remaking of journalism and why it matters. Cannongate Books. Singer, S. (2013). The Pope, P2 and the Ninjas. Folha de S. Paulo. Available at https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/ombudsman/2013/07/ 1318854-­the-­pope-­p2-­and-­the-­ninjas.shtml [Accessed 10 June 2019]. Schreirer, M. (2012). Qualitative content analysis in practice. Sage. Stalcup, M. (2016). The aesthetic politics of unfinished media: New media activism in Brazil. Visual Anthropology Review, 32(2), 144–156. Taylor, S.  J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resources. John Willey & Sons. Tong, J. (2018). Journalistic legitimacy revisited: Collapse or revival in the digital age? Digital Journalism, 6(2), 256–273. Torturra, B. (2013). Uma entrevista com Bruno Torturra, da Mídia Ninja. R7, 31 July 2013. Available at http://noticias.r7.com/blogs/andre-­ forastieri/2013/07/31/uma-­e ntrevista-­c om-­b runo-­t orturra-­d a-­m idia-­ ninja/.

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Travers, M. (2001). Qualitative research through case studies. Sage Publications. Voltdata. (2018). A Conta dos Passaralhos. Voltdata. Available at: https://passaralhos.voltdata.info [Accessed 2 November 2021] Uzelman, S. (2012). Autonomous media: Re-conceptualizing alternative media practices. In K. Kozolanka, P. Mazepa, & D. Skinner (Eds.), Alternative media in Canada (pp. 65–84). UBC Press.

CHAPTER 2

What Is Alternative Journalism?

Introduction Various scholars have addressed the question of what alternative media is and, yet, to speak of the term is inevitably to come across a lack of consensus on how to define it. It is hard not to agree with John Downing who argues that “everything at some point is alternative to something else” (2001:xx). “Alternative” could be considered a vague label, especially if we disregard contextual factors. This book doesn’t make an attempt to find a solution for the lack of consensus on how to define what is not mainstream media. The focus of the following chapters is alternative journalism, which is only one facet of alternative media, but similarly it is not possible to point out a single formula to describe what alternative journalists do, as other authors have previously shown (Atton, 2002a; Atton & Hamilton, 2008; Forde, 2011; Harcup, 2013). Looking for a pure set of fixed elements is not helpful to understand why alternative journalism matters. Instead, this chapter presents an outline of key studies on the field of alternative media to situate this research within the broad range of academic literature that investigates challenges to traditional forms of doing journalism. The aim is to explore how the production of digital media outside large news corporations is fostering a more diverse media landscape in Brazil. If we only look at the accounts of what happens in large media companies, or if we focus on the constantly changing journalistic © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Sarmento, Alternative News Reporting in Brazil, Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26999-8_2

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practices from a purely technological perspective, we will be wasting the possibility of understanding more deeply the responses to the dominant practices of journalism. As Chris Atton and James F. Hamilton point out, “[A]s the dominant has changed, the alternative that challenges it has changed as well” (2008:21). This chapter examines multiple perspectives of alternative media and the different labels that can be used to describe non-mainstream experiments, from radical media (Downing, 2001) to peripheral media (Levy, 2018). In doing so, it provides a framework to analyse how dissatisfaction with established media may create new opportunities and interactions that affect the boundaries of journalism. It suggests that the rise of more participatory forms of doing journalism, enhanced by the hyperconnected and collaborative nature of the social media era, should not be studied simply as an issue that has been transforming mainstream media approaches to news coverage but as fundamental new practices that allow us to question the consolidated bases of journalism. As a first step, this book applies Atton’s understanding of alternative media as a practice that is not limited to “the media of radical politics, of publications with minority audiences, of amateur writing and production” (2002a:29). This is a scope that helps to examine the emergence of heterogeneous forms of digital native media in Brazil. This research can be seen therefore as an attempt to identify hybrid manifestations of alternative media, more specifically within the frame of newsgathering.

The Alternative Ideology According to Atton (2002a), critical characteristics of alternative media are: content that is politically, culturally or socially radical; varied visual language; use of technology to reproduce/innovate/adapt; alternative distribution methods; anti-copyright ethos; de-professionalised social roles and collective organisations; and unconventional communication systems, such as “horizontal linkages and networks” (2002a:27). Although it is very unlikely to find all these elements in every outlet, the framing is related to the scenario of digital disruption that has radically transformed the way we produce and consume media and consequently our relationship with news. Alternative media is invariably connected to a decentralised form of media production that considers “how the world might be represented differently” (Atton, 2015:1). This is one of the main ideas that permeates this book.

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Seeking a different representation of the world is at the heart of alternative journalism practice. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power, Atton notes that “alternative media construct a reality that opposes the conventions and representations of the mass media” (2008:216). In a more focused definition, Atton and Hamilton (2008) provide an essential framework upon which this research was built: Alternative journalism proceeds from dissatisfaction not only with the mainstream coverage of certain issues and topics, but also with the epistemology of news. Its critique emphasizes alternatives to, inter alia, conventions of news sources and representation; the inverted pyramid of news texts; the hierarchical and capitalized economy of commercial journalism; the professional, elite basis of journalism as a practice; the professional norm of objectivity; and the subordinate role of audience as receiver. (Atton & Hamilton, 2008:1)

Therefore, to speak of alternative journalism means to speak of resistance to different forms of power. Accordingly, Nick Couldry and James Curran define alternative media as a challenge to concentrations of media power. They argue that media power, or the direct control of media production, is itself an emergent theme of social conflict, adding that “media’s representational power is one of society’s main forces in its own right” (ibid., 2003:4). For them, alternative media “challenge, at least implicitly, actual concentrations of media power, whatever those concentrations may take in different locations” (ibid., 2003:7). In an increasingly complex media landscape that involves distinct social actors fighting over media power, Susan Forde (2011) takes a similar stance to examine a diverse set of contesting media practices. Yet, for her, these practices are essentially linked to democratic purposes and social responsibility. In giving voice to the unrepresented, alternative journalism “is itself a political act” (Forde, 2011:173). Kate Coyer, Tony Dowmunt and Alan Fountain, authors of “The Alternative Media Handbook”, agree. For them, “the political nature of alternative media is often present irrespective of content, located in the mere act of producing” (2007:4). Viewed this way, the term “alternative” is changeable and may cover a variety of alternative practices that place the power of producing media in the hands of networks situated in the margins, in other words, communities who do not feel represented on the mainstream media. There is, thus, a strong element of diversity in the alternative realm, which in the Brazilian

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context, for instance, may include citizen journalists who use digital platforms to portray the reality of the favelas (Baroni et  al., 2011; Davis, 2015; Levy, 2018); online investigative outlets covering human rights violations and providing a public service that defy the commercialised practices of mainstream media (Requejo-Alemán & Lugo-Ocando, 2014); feminist media projects to cover gender-related issues, whose audience has been growing exponentially since 2016 (Costa, 2018); or small organisations that are exclusively interested in the social issues and cultural aspects of the peripheries. Although these networks may appear marginal in comparison to the audience of large media corporations, their growing visibility and productivity deserve attention in order to examine an ongoing shift in power over storytelling. By studying their goals, modus operandi and sustainability models, we can address the expansion of digital forms of news reporting that go beyond sporadic acts of citizen journalism or highly opinionated blogs that disregard, for instance, the verification of facts. Building on this understanding of challenges to media power, one may ask: “Why believe that certain institutions have a special status in narrating the social world, privileged above individuals’ accounts of living in that world?” (Couldry, 2003:42). A similar question might be asked having in mind the role of alternative journalism: is it possible to offer alternative ways of covering the news using sources that are not, in general, the predominant voices in mainstream media? For Olga G. Bailey, Bart Cammaerts and Nico Carpentier, alternative mediated communications are relevant “not only in relation to the mainstream but also in their potential to voice ideas which are important and distinctive in their own right” (2007:xii). Helton Levy’s (2018) study contributes to this discussion by reducing the gap in the alternative media research in contemporary Brazil. Centring his analysis on the grounds of alternative media contributions to politicising inequality from the margins of Brazilian society, Levy introduces the concept of “peripheral media” and stresses the relevance of small-scale online outlets that disseminate demands for social justice. These visions of the periphery will be resumed in the next chapters, attempting to integrate a multiplicity of approaches to critique media representation. Andrew Calcutt and Phillip Hammond argue that “the study of news and journalism often seems stuck with ideas and debates which have lost much of their critical purchase” (2011:10). In that regard, examining the emergence of new actors

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from the margins of legacy media provides an opportunity to advance our understanding of the expanded frontiers of journalism.

Radical, Critical, Citizens’ Media? This book adopts the term “alternative” for its flexibility and comparative aspect, but for a better understanding of the nature of alternative media a deeper look into other specific definitions is essential. Downing (2001) coined the label “radical media” to theorise a diverse range of experiences such as graffiti, dance and political cartooning in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Britain. Nevertheless, new social movements are the manifestations that better encompass the organisational and radical features of alternative media according to his framework. Radical media’s mission is to encourage the public to seek social change “against policies or even against the very survival of the power structure” (Downing, 2001:xi). Downing emphasises the collective non-hierarchical way dissident groups are organised. His focus is on alternative media dealing with radical politics. Although Clemencia Rodríguez (2001) also favours the examination of alternative media in terms of social empowerment, she adopts a different and very influential non-Western perspective. The scholar proposes the term “citizens’ media” (2001). Her focus is on media that serve particular communities. For Rodríguez, more important than the actual output is what the process of citizen media’s production can do to communities excluded from the mass media’s narratives. The emphasis, hence, is centred on the self-expression and self-representation of marginalised citizens. In turn, Tony Harcup (2011, 2013) studies the role of alternative media through the lens of active citizenship, with particular attention to the journalistic methods of such media. Referring to “oppositional reporting”, he considers “ideologically-informed but evidence-based critique of dominant ideas within society” (2013:14), getting closer to the interests of this book. Harcup does not place his research exclusively in the terrain of amateur producers, also including forms of oppositional reporting practiced by local newspapers, for instance. Following a similar approach, Christian Fuchs (2010) prefers the term “critical media” or “mass media that challenge the dominant capitalist forms of media production, media structures, content, distribution, and reception” (2010:178). Drawing from a Marxist perspective, he emphasises practices that are self-organised and small scale, dismissing media that publish a very critical content but are

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organised in a conventional top-down way, such as the publications New Internationalist and Le Monde Diplomatique. Fuchs expresses concern that small-scale community media are not able to reach a larger public sphere or promote political or social change as they “tend to produce fragmented unconnected publics” or to remain “ghettos” (2010:177). He observes that a media landscape in which consumers can become media producers “is not automatically a media democracy” (2010:128), pointing out an issue that is of primary interest for this book: How do alternative projects remain viable and visible in the digital age? On the other hand, Rodríguez argues against labelling alternative media as simply chaotic and doomed to failure because of their ephemerality. She stresses that multiple small forces that “surface and burst like bubbles in a swamp” make democratic communication a live creature “with its very own vital rhythms” (2001:22). Drawing on those previous studies, the following chapters resonate with the understanding of alternative media and, subsequently, alternative journalism, as a source of opposition to hegemonic forces. However, to understand the extent to which alternative producers defy dominant journalistic paradigms and conventions, we should look into their working practices and their values, rather than focusing only on the content they disseminate. As suggested by Bailey et al., the identity of alternative media is related to “the contexts of production, distribution and consumption” (2007:xii). Atton (2004) too puts emphasis on the analysis that combines content and organisational forms.

Rethinking the Public Sphere Before narrowing down this chapter towards an overview of ongoing discussions about emerging newsgathering practices, one should consider whether digital technologies create alternative publics. As Zizi Papacharissi clarifies, there is a difference between “virtual space” and “virtual sphere”: while the former enhances discussions, the latter promotes democracy (2002:11). But firstly, when talking about public sphere, it is central to go back to Jürgen Habermas’ (1989) idealised concept of a domain of social life to promote rational public debate and, as a consequence, national accord. Briefly, Habermas traces the emergence of the public sphere during the seventeenth century in Britain when a new social order was being shaped. The growth in commodities’ traffic demanded an increase in the circulation of news and thus journalism had a crucial role as a forum for

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rational-critical debate. However, the press became commercialised, and in Habermas’ view, manipulable. Considering this critique to the commodification of mass media mainly throughout the twentieth century, could radical shifts in doing journalism present a renewed form of public sphere? To answer this question, we must address the critiques to Habermas’ romanticised view of a single great public. From a feminist perspective, Nancy Fraser (1992) reminds us that women and lower classes were always excluded from this notion of public sphere and proposes a post-industrial model of layered counter-publics formed by minorities. The concept explains why subordinated social groups, that is minorities excluded from the bourgeois public sphere, such as women, non-white communities, gays and lesbians, have come to constitute alternative publics in America. Fraser refers to them as “subaltern counter-publics” (1992:123) or, in other words, communities that do not have the same opportunities to disseminate their collective identities (Papacharissi, 2002). Fraser’s argument against the idea of a single public sphere helps to shape the comprehension of counter-narratives that are central to theorising alternative journalism. Subaltern counter-publics are “parallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counter-discourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs” (Fraser, 1992:123). She mentions as an example, the US feminist subaltern counter-public of the late twentieth century, when feminists came up with new terms, including “sexism”, “the double shift”, “sexual harassment” and “marital, date, and acquaintance rape” (1992:123). Similarly, Seyla Benhabib (1992) contests Habermas’ notion of a monolithic public sphere where the private sphere was excluded from the realm of justice. She argues that while in the bourgeois public sphere men were expecting a democracy, in the household women were subjected to non-egalitarian power relations, oppression and exploitation. Amid declining levels of trust from civil society in established institutions, including traditional media, counter-public spheres offer a gateway to a broader political engagement (Fuchs, 2010). The argument for a plurality of more inclusive public arenas is, thus, directly linked to alternative media as a space for underrepresented publics to raise their voices, to build social identities and to fight experiences of prejudice and oppression. With the widespread access to new technologies, the concept of multiple public spheres seems even more relevant to evaluate the activities of alternative media producers, including journalists.

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Manuel Castells defines virtual community as “a self-defined electronic network of interactive communication organised around a shared interest or purpose, although sometimes communication becomes the goal in itself” (2000:352). Digital technologies have allowed citizens to create virtual communities that can interact beyond geographical boundaries, thus enlarging avenues for public participation in political and social debates. In that sense, it is useful to think of alternative media as a rhizome to stress the heterogeneity of interconnections between technologies and people as opposed to the homogeneity and rigidity of the state and the market (Bailey et al., 2007). Accordingly, alternative media producers may use local communities as a starting point, but their practices may result in translocal networks. The focus of this theory is the fluidity and the dialectics between the local and the global, a connection that can be expanded by digital media. Twitter, for example, changed news distribution as well as the traditional format of news, besides providing a new platform for the demands of different social actors (Gerbaudo, 2012; Hermida, 2012; Papacharissi, 2015). It can also facilitate alternative journalistic efforts. When examining the protests against the 2010 G20 summit in Toronto, Thomas Poell and Eric Borra (2012) found that Twitter was the most useful platform for crowd-sourcing alternative reporting in comparison to YouTube and Flickr. The platform has also played an important role in the reporting of other news events such as the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008, the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and the Arab Spring in 2011, expanding the range of voices that disseminate news (Hermida, 2012). In this way, we can argue that social media can reinforce a networked journalism that confronts the gatekeeping role of traditional media. However, simply celebrating the potentials of digital technologies to give voice to the voiceless, or to allow anyone to become a journalist with global reach (Gillmor, 2008), means succumbing to an idealistic interpretation that has been largely contested and it no longer makes sense as the control exercised by tech giants and their business models becomes clear. While the internet increases the visibility of alternative media projects and enables alternative journalists to expand the size of subaltern counter-­ publics (Atton & Hamilton, 2008), Natalie Fenton warns of the risk of fetishisation of technology, reminding us that “networks are not inherently liberatory; network openness does not lead us directly to democracy” (2016:166). While the digital ecosystem has expanded diversity of information, it has also given more visibility to misinformation and

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disinformation (Figenschou & Ilhlebaek, 2018), besides representing a new logic of accumulation as Zuboff argues (2019). The political events of recent years in Brazil certainly demand research, for example, on the emergence of alternative voices that oppose the views of mainstream media through the propagation of partisan information and far-right ideologies. Previous studies have shown how far-right media have framed mainstream journalism as “inherently biased, deceitful and distanced from the concerns of ordinary people” (Figenschou & Ilhlebaek, 2018:2). Nevertheless, this book is focused on progressive alternative projects, living aside media of the far-right that represent, above all, arguments against democracy. Even so, I tried to avoid here the claim of thinking that I could find a single vision of alternative journalism.

Defying Conventions Briefly, journalism’s mission is “linking citizens to political life” (Dahlgren, 2009:150) or, in other words, providing citizens the information they need for the common good of democracy (Papacharissi, 2009; Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2014). Michael Schudson (2008) synthesises six primary functions that news has served in democratic societies: (1) information; (2) investigation; (3) analysis; (4) social empathy; (5) public forum; (6) mobilisation and publicising representative democracy. Stuart Allan (2010) argues that news-reporting practices enhance the idea of journalism as a profession and points out elements such as “speed, accuracy and the ability to work under pressure as essential characteristics of the ‘respectable’ journalist” (2010:41). Amid rising power of mass media, which demanded a division of labour and hierarchical organisations (Witschge & Nygren, 2009), journalism began to be seen as a profession by mid-nineteenth century (Allan, 2010). The emergence of the doctrine of journalistic objectivity and neutral point of view, breaking from a partisanship approach, is linked to this development, especially after the First World War, as different scholars have observed (Kaplan, 2009; Allan, 2010; Brock, 2013). The objectivity regime was a very problematic notion even before today’s digital age, and I will return to this issue on the following chapters. Here, my point is to highlight the ideology of truth telling that has always surrounded the discourse of professional journalists. Mark Deuze (2005) prefers to explore journalism as an occupational ideology, an activity that shares common characteristics and values in a daily routine and which reinforces the self-perception of professional

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journalists as “watchdogs of society” (ibid., 2005:449). Jane Singer (2003) adds that journalistic codes are not mandatory but agrees that journalists usually see themselves as abiding by ethical guidelines in the name of their public service duties. Furthermore, “the provision of reliable, factual information by impartial watchdogs is seen almost universally as a central journalistic function” (Singer, 2015:22). Past research has highlighted how the commercialisation of mass media, and consequently the growing concentration of media ownership, undermines the ideal of journalism’s independence and the notion of the press as a Fourth Estate (Curran, 2002; Hampton, 2009). Daya Thussu (2007) suggests that the rise of global media conglomerates and their concern with maximising profitability have produced the trend of infotainment, that is news with the aim of entertaining. Yet, as Harcup notes, imperfect as they might be, “journalists play a social role that goes beyond the production of commodities” (2015:6). But who defines what society needs to feel informed? Despite rejecting the assumption that the internet equally empowers citizens, digital media undeniably amplify the opportunities for audiences to express their disillusionment with the way news is framed, facilitating participatory forms of news gathering outside the realm of corporate newsrooms. For example, in Rio de Janeiro citizen journalists are helping to document the residents’ routine in the favelas through their own channels of communication. Some of these groups, such as Viva Favela, not only offer a digital sphere for individual contributions but also serve as a hub for the development of smaller media projects (Davis, 2015). In April 2015, a collective of citizen journalists from Complexo do Alemão, one of Rio’s largest favelas, reported on the killing of a 10-year-old boy who was shot by policemen. Equipped with smartphones, members of the collective Papo Reto filmed the crime scene, the family’s despair and the community’s revolt against the police brutality. By posting the video on YouTube, they prevented the police of accusing drug dealers for the child’s murder. Mainstream media quoted these community journalists as a source to report the crime. Such mediated involvement with their own reality of social exclusion can be linked to the expansion of the concept of citizenship described by Rodríguez (2001), who points out three fundamental elements of citizens’ media: (1) a collective activating the notion of citizenship to change the media landscape; (2) contestation of social codes and relations; (3) practices that empower the community. The example coming from the favelas can certainly be interpreted in the light of citizens and community

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media theories and strongly resonates with the challenges to dominant practices of journalism, though it is necessary to emphasise Rodríguez’s (2014) call to avoid a technological determinism. For Andrea Medrado, who examined the case of a community TV station (TV ROC) in the Favela da Rocinha, in Rio de Janeiro, community media projects are far from perfect, but they should be celebrated for informing residents citizens “with a mirror to see themselves” (2007:134). The tension between different perspectives of social realities can be seen, therefore, as a contest over media power (Couldry & Curran, 2003). In acknowledging newer conditions for enhancing audiences’ participation in the process of making news, the study of journalism demands constant revaluation. Here we might consider what Atton (2002b) conceptualises as “native reporting”: Native reporters use their role as activists in order to represent from the insides the motives, experiences, feelings, needs and desires of the wider social movements they thus come to represent. Dealing with events and actions, their contributions superficially resemble eyewitness reports in mainstream media. Native reporting can usefully define the activities of radical journalists working within communities of interest to present news that is relevant to those communities, presented in a manner that is meaningful to them and with their collaboration and support. (Atton, 2002b:495)

Hence, alternative journalism represents a shift in conventional notions of doing journalism by replacing objectivity with advocacy (Atton, 2004; Atton & Hamilton, 2008). In addition, alternative journalism is usually based on collective and anti-hierarchical forms of organisation, suggesting more inclusive practices. However, the changes within the digital news ecosystem transcend the interaction between media and activism. Vincent Campbell sustains that instead of speaking of alternative journalism, we should adopt the notion of “alternative journalisms” as there are a broad range of alternative journalistic structures (2004:183). Accordingly, what concerns this book are alternative forms of digital reporting that confront not only the content disseminated by established news organisations, but also the structures and conventional norms that surround news production. From this viewpoint, public journalism, for instance, is not really alternative. Proposed in the last decade of the twentieth century and mainly adopted by American newspapers, public journalism was a movement concerned with the disconnection between news organisations and citizens,

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urging journalists to cover issues that were deeply important to communities (Nip, 2006). It moved away from the ideal of detachment, encouraging community action. Nonetheless, it operated in a similar way as traditional journalism, that is, within large corporate and professionalised structures, without giving citizens the power to tell their own stories (Atton, 2003). According to public journalism’s critics, it was merely a marketing strategy for media companies, rather than a genuine effort to empower communities (Rosenberry & St. Jonh III, 2010).

Citizen Journalists The concept of citizen journalism adds complexity to this discussion on how to define alternative journalism since it breaks with the traditional view of who should be defined as the “owner” of the news. Although the term citizen journalism lacks a clear definition, it can be generally understood as a participatory form of communication that includes amateurs in the process of newsgathering and distribution. Indeed, citizen journalists are relevant participants of the digital media ecosystem in which audiences have the ability to disrupt the hegemony of traditional gatekeepers. It is about “the act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information” (Bowman & Willis, 2003:9). Blogs, collaborative publishing, group chats and posts on social media can be a form of citizens’ engagement with news. More specifically, Allan (2013) notes that citizen journalism often thrives during times of crisis, when ordinary citizens happen to be present on the scene and can actively join the news making process. Currently, many terms can be used to refer to audiences’ contribution to the news: citizen journalists, user-generated content, participatory journalism, pro-am journalism. Contemporary news coverage is replete with examples that illustrate this participation. News events with global impact have highlighted this shift, such as the tsunami in Southeast Asia (2004), the London bombings (2005), the Mumbai terrorist attack (2008) and the coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris (2015). According to Melissa Wall, ordinary citizens acted as reporters, distributing “words and images of death and survival, destruction and renewal, hope and despair; in sum, some of the essential moments of life on earth” (2015:797). In turn, Nicky Couldry (2010) prefers to define these news-source actors as “writer-gatherers”. He refers to citizens who are regularly engaged in writing and gathering information outside

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mainstream media. While recognising that the sustainability of these activities is still a problem, Couldry’s analysis of the values and aims of writer-­ gatherers in the UK points out two positive aspects: improved communications within professional and campaigning groups and the emergence of new types of source actors acting independently. Even if professional journalists express concern about audiences’ participation in the news production process (Lewis et  al., 2010), citizen journalists are increasingly essential to complement—and sometimes counterpoint—the narratives of mainstream media. On the other hand, it would be an exaggeration to define citizen journalism as an erosion of the power of corporate media. In their attempt to provide news 24 h a day, news organisations have long learned how to incorporate content produced by the audiences. During the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, big media outlets, such as CNN and BBC, were firstly reluctant to trust reports about the day to day life in Baghdad that were shared by bloggers on the ground. But they ended up publishing those contributions and paving the way to consolidate collaboration between ordinary citizens and professional journalists. Twenty years later this is routine especially in crisis events, though studies have shown the limitations of the so-called Twitter effect (Bruno, 2011). As Graham Meikle (2014) points out, citizen journalism does not replace the work of professional journalists: Professional journalists—acting professionally—can analyse and sift raw material, can test evidence and redact details that may endanger named individuals, can offer context to help the reader interpret the material, can access high-status sources of official information, and can shape the data into stories, reports and commentaries that make sense of the material for audiences who lack, of course, the time and expertise to process specialised documents and intelligence for themselves. (Meikle, 2014:181)

Papacharissi (2009) presents a similar reflection regarding blogs. She argues that bloggers did not replace journalists, rather they engage in a different type of information gathering, blending public and private agendas, which became one of the main elements of the social media age. The historical trajectory of participatory journalism confirms this convergence. For example, the Korean website OhmyNews was launched in 2004 by a professional journalist and was open to popular contributions from citizen journalists. The experience caught the attention of international media for being the first professionalised model of citizen journalism, which at first

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may seem contradictory. On the one hand, the initial manifesto promised a revolution in the Korean media landscape in the sense of “giving power to the people”. The mantra was “Every Citizen is a Reporter”. On the other, employees needed to follow a code of ethics that was based on deontological codes of journalism to ensure the veracity of information and the quality of the content. It was also a for-profit business funded mainly by advertisement (Atton & Hamilton, 2008; Moretzsohn, 2014). This convergence of practices shows how it is increasingly difficult to establish clear differences between mainstream and alternative methods (Kenix, 2011). In 2010, OhmyNews was redesigned to become a forum for the discussion of citizen journalism. It was also a financial flop (Meyer, 2010). What would be, then, the role of citizen journalists when we are not talking about breaking news, the capture of a historical moment or the expression of personal opinions? Rodríguez (2014) provides an important distinction: based on her fieldwork in Colombia, she concludes that there are non-professional reporters who, with access to digital technology, have the capacity to bear witness to news events, and there is what she defines as a Latin American approach to citizen journalism, that is “a practice of resistance” moved by social responsibility and public interest (2014:201). Rodríguez, once again, highlights that citizen journalism is driven by the needs of communities. The emphasis on alternative journalism concerned with communities to nourish democracy is a valuable theoretical approach to explore, for instance, the actions of citizen journalists from the favelas or from regions where there is an informative void in Brazil. Here we can also take a cue from Leah Lievrouw: “Alternative/activist new media projects do not only reflect or critique mainstream media and culture, they constitute and intervene in them” (2011:19).

The Example of Indymedia During the last decade, social media has transformed the way news is gathered, disseminated and consumed. To understand what happens when audiences become both consumers and producers of news content, it is worth it to go back to the radical experiment of Indymedia, one of the first global challenges to the role of traditional gatekeepers and a seminal case to study alternative media, long before the age of the algorithms. The Independent Media Centre (IMC), or Indymedia, was born during the protests against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle in 1999,

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though the software that the sites used was created in Sydney (Meikle, 2002). Acting as a coalition of anti-globalisation movements, activists created their own digital media to contest the coverage of protests by traditional media. Put it simply, anyone could distribute a report, a photo, a video or an audio through the use of open publishing software. After Seattle, many local IMCs spread around the globe, reaching a peak of more than 170 regional centres in the mid-2000s (Giraud, 2014). Indymedia defines itself as “a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate and passionate telling of the truth”, according to the “about us” page of its website, which adds: “We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media’s distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to save humanity” (Independent Media Center, no date). Indymedia’s uniqueness did not rely only on its radical content, but mainly on how it negotiated power relationships (Pickard, 2006). Although editors of each Indymedia centre could exert control over unsuitable contributions, the platform was open to all, which was the defining feature of Indymedia (Meikle, 2002). The decision-making process was based on open collective meetings in which decisions were taken through consensus after discussions and debates, both online and offline (Pickard, 2006; Giraud, 2014). Atton (2004) stresses that, although a small collective ran each IMC, such groups should not be seen as an elitist leadership. In Downing’s (2003) words: The IMCs are not heaven-sent. They are ours, us at work, to act as best we can to make them empowering agencies and fora—not uniquely so, but as part of the tapestry. (Downing, 2003:254)

Using the Seattle IMC as a case study, Victor Pickard (2006) describes a set of tensions within the networks, among them the conflict between members who supported an unlimited radical democratic attitude and those who advocated a pragmatic approach to control, for instance, abuses committed by hate groups such as neo-Nazis. Nonetheless, Pickard’s analysis is mostly positive, examining how the internet unleashed new opportunities for the radical democracy practiced by Indymedia’s activists. There was some editorial control (Atton, 2004), but the collectively run nodes largely allowed participants to produce content without the same level of centralisation that occurs in the mainstream media. Even though some of the dilemmas faced by Indymedia editors regarding what to publish were

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not so different of those that mainstream media professionals have to deal with, ideologically the horizontal IMC model “assumes a close and non-­ hierarchical relationship between reader and content” (Platon & Deuze, 2003:350). By putting the power of the storytelling in the hands of those within the movements, Indymedia challenged the vertical form of decision on what is and what is not considered news (Meikle, 2009). Mercedes Bunz (2016) adds a helpful approach by comparing the open journalism produced by Indymedia with the current use of social media platforms. The difference, as she notes, is related to the question of ownership. Indymedia’s platform emerged without an owner, whereas Facebook, Twitter and others belong to tech giants. Despite its contribution to the creation of counter-publics without the pressure of economic interests, Indymedia’s centres rapidly declined in the midst of the transformations brought by Web 2.0. Social media and mobile communications support different types of social mobilisation and freedom of expression that raise a completely different set of questions about audiences’ participation, although Indymedia’s legacy should not be underestimated. Its core practices were appropriated by contemporary movements that anchored their actions on Twitter and Facebook, whereas Paolo Gerbaudo (2012) warns against an overestimation of the power of social media in the outbreak of movements such as the Arab Spring, the Indignados and Occupy Wall Street. Nevertheless, Downing (2018) argues that among the major differences between past forms of alternative media and current digital forms are the growing access to making media tools, transnational distribution, portability and rapid mobilisation. These features combined with the “Be the media” message of Indymedia (Giraud, 2014) explain the emergence of a movement called midialivrismo in Brazil, which can be translated as “activists of free media”. Media activism in Brazil will be unpacked in the next chapter. As stated in the Introduction, Mídia Ninja (Portuguese acronym for Independent Journalism and Action Narratives) and its attempt to challenge the hegemonic discourse of the mainstream media when a wave of mass protests swept some of the country’s major cities in 2013 (Rodrigues & Baroni, 2018) was the starting point of the academic research explored in this book.

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Digital Native Non-profit Journalism: A New Collective Force? The premise of Indymedia was its fundamental independence from commercial and corporate interests (Platon & Deuze, 2003). Nevertheless, even within the principle of openness that characterised the movement, is it possible to speak of total independence when referring to alternative forms of media? If on the one hand the rejection of the business model of corporate media enables the expansion of content production without the same economic pressures, on the other it raises doubts about the ability of outlets supported by very scarce funds to remain relevant and economically viable. Unlike their commercial media counterparts, alternative journalists usually work in small-scale organisations, which are often dependent on volunteering or underpaid work. Even so, and despite the affordances of online technologies to reach broader audiences, finding a financial solution that does not affect the essential character of the alternative mission is a challenge (Atton & Hamilton, 2008; Skinner, 2012). As David Skinner suggests, “[A]lthough the web offers seemingly infinite possibilities for independent media, finding ways to finance and sustain them in this venue generally remains elusive” (2012:26). Overall, previous research has pointed out that emerging non-profit news outlets have not yet found a sustainable business model in the long term (Konieczna & Robinson, 2014). Nevertheless, there are suggestions to be followed. In the US, 60% of non-profit news organisations are funded by private foundations (Scott et al., 2019). Crowdfunding campaigns have been largely used in North America to fund feminist media content for instance (Hunter & Di Bartolomeo, 2018), while Latin America has been seeing an increasing number of independent digital native outlets founded by laid-off journalists or non-trained citizen journalists interested in covering their communities (Salaverría et al., 2019). According to a report published by Sembra Media in 2017, entrepreneurial journalists are transforming the Latin American media ecosystem by building sustainable businesses around quality journalism. The organisation defines them as “generators of change”. While these perspectives are relevant to better understand the impact and the challenges these new actors face, empirical work is needed to analyse the specific context of Brazil.

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Conclusion This chapter could not possibly cover all the different academic views on alternative media or studies about non-conventional forms of journalism. New modes of media diffusion are emerging along with changing communication technologies, representing unprecedented challenges for news publishers, either from large media corporations or from small independent organisations. The studies mentioned here have in common the fact that they explore the field of alternative media production as an essential form of communication aimed at nurturing counter-public spheres and, consequently, counter-narratives to that of the mainstream media, though the emergence of new forms of reporting demands an extended gaze, beyond the most analysed regional contexts. In sum, “there is nothing secondary about alternative media” (Coyer et al., 2007:10). I add that the same could be said about alternative forms of doing journalism. By contesting dominant norms, alternative journalism is essentially political, but that does not mean that it is synonymous with social movements. There is no way to find a single definition for contending practices that challenge the expected ways of doing journalism. The main aim of this chapter was to provide a general background discussion of today’s alternative uses of digital media to gather and disseminate news, setting the stage for the empirical research. Informed mainly by Atton’s theoretical insights, starting with Alternative Media (2002a, 2002b), I have adhered to the comparative and analytical term “alternative” because its flexibility allowed the inclusion of different genres of content production outside the corporate environment of large newsrooms, while terms such as “radical media” (Downing, 2001), “citizen’s media” (Rodriguez, 2001) or “activist new media” (Lievrouw, 2011), just to mention some of the definitions explored in this chapter, would be more limited for the purpose of this book. More specifically, groups examined in the following chapters fit under the umbrella of alternative journalism according to the definition of Atton and Hamilton: journalism that “proceeds from dissatisfaction not only with the mainstream coverage of certain issues and topics, but also with the epistemology of news” (2008:1). Despite a variety of forms, alternative media and consequently alternative journalism dismiss the ideal of objectivity. Practitioners take sides, but on the other hand they defend their journalism as legitimate (Atton, 2004; Atton & Hamilton, 2008). Although alternative media projects could

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hardly be interpreted as a replacement of conventional journalism, web-­ based media expands their potential to impact the media landscape. As a consequence, the lines between professional and amateur journalism are becoming increasingly blurred, as well as differences between the practices of leading newsrooms belonging to large media groups and small independent news outlets. Indeed the literature on digital media highlights the fact that news is no longer an exclusive product of established media corporations, and the implications of this shift can only be fully grasped with more research that takes into account social and political contexts. The effects of these changes on traditional newsrooms, which are attached to a set of values and routines, have been extensively analysed, but new modes to produce a sustainable non-commercial journalism need to be further studied in the Global South. Even the supposed subjectivity of alternative journalism is a more complex issue than it seems and can be debatable, especially at a time when alternative journalists are trying to differentiate themselves from groups that spread intentionally distorted information. Indymedia’s horizontal model of communication has proved valuable in examining journalistic practices from a non-conventional perspective in a context of changing media culture. However, with the growing power of social media platforms, a broad range of heterogeneous networks and mediated projects has enabled new discursive arenas and led to newer ways of thinking about journalism, going beyond the idea of citizens’ engagement with the news only in times of crisis. The media landscape today is much more diverse and chaotic. Assuming that we could not clearly point out any longer the division between journalists and the audiences, is it possible to find a common ground between digital native media dedicated to expand the news agenda? While agreeing with Atton and Hamilton, who consider the definition of alternative journalism “infuriately vague” (2008:1), the following chapters aim to show that understanding journalism practiced outside mainstream media institutions is a critical issue for those who seek to reflect on the news production process not only as part of an industry, but also as a social practice.

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Couldry, N. (2010). New online news sources and Writer-Gaherers. In N. Fenton (Ed.), New media, old news: Journalism & democracy in the digital age (pp. 138–152). Sage. Couldry, N., & Curran, J. (2003). Contesting media power: Alternative media in a networked world. Rowman & Littlefield. Coyer, K., Dowmunt, T., & Fountain, A. (2007). The alternative media handbook. Routledge. Curran, J. (2002). Media and power. Routledge. Dahlgren, P. (2009). The troubling evolution of journalism. In Changing faces of journalism—tabloidization, technology and truthiness (pp. 146–161). Routledge. Davis, S. (2015). Citizens’ media in the favelas: Finding a place for community-­ based digital media production in social change processes. Communication Theory, 25(2), 230–243. Deuze, M. (2005). What is journalism?: Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered. Journalism, 6(4), 442–464. Downing, J. D. H. (2001). Radical media—rebellious communication and social movements. Sage. Downing, J. D. H. (2003). Audiences and readers of alternative media: The absent lure of the virtually unknown. Media, Culture & Society, 25(5), 625–645. Downing, J. D. H. (2018). Looking back, looking ahead: What has changed in social movement media since the internet and social media. In G. Meikle (Ed.), The Routledge companion to media and activism (pp. 19–28). Routledge. Fenton, N. (2016). The internet of me (and my ‘friends’). In J. Curran, N. Fenton, & D.  Freedman (Eds.), Misunderstanding the internet (pp.  145–172). Routledge. Figenschou, T. U., & Ilhlebaek, K. A. (2018). Challenging journalistic authority. Journalism Studies, 1–17. Forde, S. (2011). Challenging the news: The journalism of alternative and community media. Palgrave Macmillan. Fraser, N. (1992). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. In C.  Calhoun (Ed.), Habermas and the public sphere (pp. 109–142). MIT Press. Fuchs, C. (2010). Alternative media as critical media. European Journal of Social Theory, 13(2), 173–192. Gerbaudo, P. (2012). Tweets and streets: Social media and contemporary activism. Pluto Press. Gillmor, D. (2008). We the media. O’Reilly Media. Giraud, E. (2014). Has radical participatory online media really “Failed”? Indymedia and its legacies. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 20(4), 1–19. Habermas, J. (1989). The structural transformation of the public sphere. Polity Press.

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Hampton, M. (2009). The fourth state ideal in journalism history. In S.  Allan (Ed.), The Routledge companion to news and journalism (pp. 3–12). Routledge. Harcup, T. (2011). Alternative journalism as active citizenship. Journalism, 12(1), 15–31. Harcup, T. (2013). Alternative journalism, alternative voices. Routledge. Hermida, A. (2012). Social journalism: Exploring how social media is shaping journalism. In E. Siapera & A. Veglis (Eds.), The handbook of global online journalism (pp. 309–328). John Wiley & Sons. Harcup, T. (2015). Journalism principles and practice. Sage. Hunter, A., & Di Bartolomeo, J. (2018). We’re a movement: Crowdfunding, journalism, and feminism. Feminist Media Studies, 19(2), 273–287. Kaplan, R. (2009). The origins of objectivity in American journalism. In S. Allan (Ed.), The Routledge companion to news and journalism (pp. 25–37). Routledge. Kenix, L. J. (2011). Alternative and mainstream media: The converging spectrum. Bloomsbury. Konieczna, M., & Robinson, S. (2014). Emerging news non-profits: A case study for rebuilding community trust? Journalism, 15(8), 968–986. Kovach, B., & Rosenstiel, T. (2014). The elements of journalism. Three Rivers Press. Lewis, S., Kaufhold, K., & Lasorsa, D. (2010). Thinking about citizen journalism: Perspectives on participatory news production at community newspapers. Journalism Practice, 4. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616700903156919 Levy, H. (2018). The internet, politics and inequality in contemporary Brazil. Peripheral media. Lexington Books. Lievrouw, L. A. (2011). Alternative and Activist New Media. Digital Media and Society Series. Polity. Medrado, A. (2007). Community media: Important but imperfect. A case study of a community television station in a Brazilian favela. In N.  Carpentier (Ed.), Media technologies and democracy in an Enlarged Europe (pp. 123–136). Tartu University Press. Meikle, G. (2002). Future active: Media activism and the internet. Routledge. Meikle, G. (2009). Interpreting news. Palgrave Macmillan. Meikle, G. (2014). Citizen journalism: Sharing and the ethics of invisibility. In S.  Allan & E.  Thorsen (Eds.), Citizen journalism: Global perspectives (pp. 171–182). Peter Lang. Meyer, E.  L. (2010). By the people: The rise of citizen journalism. Center for International Media Assistance. Moretzsohn, S. (2014). Citizen journalism and the myth of redemptive technology. Brazilian Journalism Research, 10(2), 238–261. Nip, J.  P. Y.  M. (2006). Exploring the second phase of public journalism. Journalism Studies, 7(2), 212–236. Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The virtual sphere. New Media & Society, 4(1), 9–27.

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Papacharissi, Z. (2009). In Z. Papacharissi (Ed.), Journalism and citizenship: New agendas. Routledge. Papacharissi, Z. (2015). Toward new journalism(s): Affective news, hybridity, and liminal spaces. Journalism Studies, 16(1), 27–40. Pickard, V. (2006). Assessing the radical democracy of indymedia: Discursive, technical, and institutional constructions. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 23(1), 19–38. Platon, S., & Deuze, M. (2003). Indymedia journalism: A radical way of making, selecting and sharing news? Journalism, 4(3), 336–355. Poell, T., & Borra, E. (2012). Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr as platforms of alternative journalism: The social media account of the 2010 Toronto G20 protests. Journalism, 13(6), 695–713. Requejo-Alemán, J. L., & Lugo-Ocando, J. (2014). Assessing the sustainability of Latin American investigative non-profit journalism. Journalism Studies, 15(5), 222–232. Rodrigues, C., & Baroni, A. (2018). Journalism ethos: Mídia Ninja and a contested field. Brazilian Journalism Research, 14(2), 568–593. Rodriguez, C. (2001). Fissures in the mediascape: An international study of citizens’ media. Hampton Press. Rodriguez, C. (2014). A Latin American approach to citizen journalism. In S. Allan & E. Thorsen (Eds.), Citizen journalism: Global perspectives. Rosenberry, J., & St.John III, B. (2010). Public journalism 2.0: The promise and reality of a citizen-engaged press. Routledge. Salaverría, R., et  al. (2019). A brave new digital journalism in Latin America (pp. 1–19). Innovation & Quality. Scott, M., Bunce, M., & Wright, K. (2019). Foundation funding and the boundaries of journalism. Journalism Studies. https://doi.org/10.108 0/1461670X.2018.1556321 Singer, J. B. (2003). Who are these guys? Journalism, 4(2), 139–163. Singer, J. B. (2015). Out of bounds: Professional norms as boundary makers. In M. Carlson & S. C. Lewis (Eds.), Boundaries of journalism: Professional, practices and participation (pp. 21–36). Routledge. Skinner, D. (2012). Sustaining independent and alternative media. In K. Kozolanka, P. Mazepa, & D. Skinner (Eds.), Alternative media in Canada (pp. 25–45). UBC Press. Schudson, M. (2008). News and democratic society: Past, present, and the future. The Hedgehog Review.. Available at: http://www.iasc-­culture.org/ eNews/2009_10/Schudson_LO.pdf. Accessed 8 April 2017 Thussu, D. K. (2007). News as entertainment: The rise of infotainment. Sage. Witschge, T., & Nygren, G. (2009). Journalism: A profession under pressure? Journal of Media and Business Studies, 6(1), 37–59. Zuboff, S. (2019). The age of surveillance capitalism. Profile Books.

CHAPTER 3

The Roots of Alternative Media in Brazil

Introduction Academic studies on Brazilian journalism have been traditionally dominated by research on mass media institutions or grande mídia (Chagas Amorim, 2007). Historical accounts of non-mainstream journalism are rarer in the academic literature, with the exception of oppositional forms of reporting that challenged authoritarianism mainly during the military dictatorship, from 1964 to 1985 (Abramo, 1988; Kucinski, 1991; Woitowicz, 2009). This was a moment in the Brazilian history when media organisations were silenced by censorship and repression. The suppression of freedom led to the birth of small publications that operated underground to overcome the barriers imposed by the military government. Still today, the term “alternative press” (imprensa alternativa) is widely identified by the Brazilian society as the oppositional print press from the 1970s that condemned the military regime (Festa, 1986). However, alternative journalism in Brazil didn’t emerge with the dictatorship. This chapter presents a chronological overview of the development of the Brazilian media system with a focus on alternative experiences. Over time, groups that have sought to disseminate non-hegemonic content were invariably persecuted, repressed or simply seen as irrelevant if compared to the power of mass media. To better understand the potential capabilities and limitations of alternative media within the national © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Sarmento, Alternative News Reporting in Brazil, Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26999-8_3

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context, this chapter considers the interests of the state and the dominant powers to review the conditions under which the Brazilian media system, and consequently its journalism, has developed. In Brazil, mediated spaces for dissenting voices have often been part of temporary, semi-artisanal experiments that did not survive market pressures or, in specific moments, state repression. Susan Forde (2011) argues that alternative journalism is not entirely dependent on the environment in which it is constructed, but local contexts will often affect its responses. Accordingly, this overview confirms that one should not look for a universal type of alternative journalism. Rather, we should see it as “an ever-changing effort to respond critically to dominant conceptions of journalism” (Atton & Hamilton, 2008:9). What was the motivation of small publications that resisted the views of dominant sources, even in a fragmented and temporary way? Understanding this historical trajectory can shed light on the roots and on the continuities of alternative journalism in a country strongly shaped by widespread social and economic inequalities. The examination of historical accounts is relevant for discussing to what degree current practices of alternative journalism are revitalising old values of the alternative press and to identify journalistic activities that go beyond reactions to what mainstream media publish. Considering the goal of this research, the focus of this chapter is twofold: firstly, it briefly reviews the overall history of the Brazilian media system; and then it examines the differences between alternative and mainstream journalism throughout the development of the Brazilian media landscape. Thus, the aim is not to present a comprehensive examination of the culture, routines and dynamics of past alternative practices—something that would demand much more than a single chapter. Instead, this section reviews Brazilian authors (quotes from literature in Portuguese were translated by me) as well as international scholars who have researched the theme in an attempt to trace the purposes of alternative journalists. Previous studies demonstrate that alternative media, and more specifically alternative journalism, should not only be valued when democracy is under siege. As we see today, there have always been initiatives aimed at giving a voice to those who did not feel represented by the dominant media, even before the rise of commercial journalism. Historical events influenced the development—and the extinction—of alternative publications, confirming that context matters when we address the conceptual framework of alternative media.

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First, the chapter examines the birth of the media in Brazil during the colonial times. Crucial for this account is the extensive work written by Nelson Werneck Sodré, The History of the Brazilian Press (1966). In contrast to most studies that neglected the importance of the so-called small press, Sodré emphasised the significance of the pasquines from the nineteenth century. Their democratic, popular and satirical content challenged the conservatism of the era. Next, the chapter reflects on the development of the media system during the first republican decades, a moment in History marked by dramatic economic changes and political turmoil. It further explores the rise of the broadcast industry and the consequent influence of American journalism, to then address the defining moment of the military dictatorship, when alternative media, more specifically underground newspapers, played a crucial role. One of the most comprehensive accounts on how small publications challenged the dictatorship comes from Bernardo Kucinski’s (1991), himself an active member of the alternative press. The chapter concludes with the changes on the socio-political function of alternative media after the democratisation and, finally, describes contemporary forms of online alternative media, a field that has been receiving increasing attention from Brazilian scholars. The echoes of the radical networked experiment of Indymedia with its “be the media message”, a phenomenon widely discussed in previous studies (Meikle, 2002; Downing, 2003; Atton, 2004; Giraud, 2014), allow a better understanding of the previously mentioned Mídia Ninja, an example of participatory media in Brazil that emerged in 2013 when a massive cycle of protests, known as Journeys of June, marked a new era of political mobilisation in the country. The movement was initially motivated by an increase in public transportation fares, but then was amplified to become a historical explosion of popular dissatisfaction against different issues, such as corruption and the lack of public investments in health and education. In her study of the protests, Marcela Canavarro (2019) suggests that disagreement with the mainstream media coverage of the protests helped to increase the protesters’ revolt. In this context, Mídia Ninja became a relevant alternative online source with its live streaming of the demonstrations. It is an emblematic case of use of digital technology to challenge the mainstream narrative.

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The Birth of the Brazilian Press The Brazilian press was born under censorship, 300 hundred years after Brazil was officially “discovered” by a Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral, who was on his way to India. Brazil was the main base of the Portuguese colonial system, and for centuries every word published in the territory was controlled by the empire. Libraries, universities, industries and printing facilities were forbidden. As the colonisers were not interested in allowing schools or books, the first journalists took on the role of educators (Lustosa, 2003). Brazilian first newspaper was only launched in 1808, when the Regent of Portugal Dom João VI and the royal family arrived in the colony, scaping the Napoleonic invasion. Not surprisingly, Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro was mainly concerned in publishing news on the state of the European monarchy and official information about the Court. To bypass the censorship imposed by Portugal, in the same year another newspaper, Correio Braziliense, was founded in London by Hipólito da Costa. The exiled intellectual was born in Brazil and educated in Portugal, where he was persecuted for his connections with the Freemasonry (Marques de Melo, 2009). The publication was shipped regularly to Brazil. As it was not printed in the colony, it was initially tolerated by the Royal Press Office, an administrative office that had to consent to any publication (Candiani, 2009). As a monthly newspaper, Correio Braziliense was intended for a limited readership as only a minority of Brazilians were literate. It was a critical and influential publication, attacking authorities in the colony, questioning religious beliefs and spreading European liberal ideals, such as a free press. Some contemporary scholars defined it as “alternative” (Aguiar, 2008). Interestingly, it did not support the independence from Portugal from the start (Sodré, 1966; Martins, 2008; Marques de Melo, 2009). According to historian Isabel Lustosa (2003), Hipólito da Costa was influenced by the British Freemasonry, an organisation that supported Constitutional Monarchy. Sodré highlights the fact that Correio Braziliense was moralising and ethical, although not radical (1966). As Victor Uribe-­ Uran notes, “[I]ndividual freedoms and liberties that today we take for granted were foreign to the colonial world” (2000:428). In a society with low rates of literacy, it was under the influence of the Enlightenment that the first Brazilian journalists were mainly identified as intellectuals, often exposed to the European education and values or to

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the humanist education of the Catholic Church (Candiani, 2009). A public opinion that was beginning to challenge the imperial power of Lisbon was rising, shaped by the thoughts of emerging bourgeois segments. This new class of intellectuals found in the independent newspapers the channel they needed to disseminate liberal ideas in the colony and to show their erudition. Some argue that journalists in Brazil were alternative from the start, in this case for promoting political debate to improve the life of the Brazilian population. We can, therefore, point out an early articulation of resistance in an environment largely dominated by oppression and censorship. Publications that proliferated at that time offered an alternative view to the official sources of the Royal Court. They helped to spread a nationalistic sentiment among Brazilians, and some celebrated the nature of the tropics and the miscegenation of races to counterbalance the Portuguese discourse that classified Brazilians as “savages” (Lustosa, 2003). Still, the debate was far from open to all. It is wise to pause here to remember that Brazil was a territory with no educational system, with millions of enslaved people (Skidmore & Smith, 2005), therefore completely excluded from any form of public debate. The persuasive Correio Braziliense was concerned with discussions of colonial issues with an analytical point of view. It fought for the Brazilian interests in response to Portugal’s abuses but not necessarily with what could be called revolutionary ideals (Sodré, 1966). Da Costa believed that the reforms to allow Brazil’s progress needed to be carried out by the government, without a revolution by the people (Lustosa, 2003). He closely followed the independence of the Spanish colonies, informing Brazilians about what was happening in other parts of the world. His publication ceased to exist when the Brazilian Independence was declared in 1822. To understand the birth of the Brazilian press, Afonso de Albuquerque (2005) notes that it is essential to differentiate the Brazilian colonisation process from that of the colonisation of the United States. While the ideal of “building a new world” enabled the early American settlers to enjoy a considerable freedom of thought, the Brazilian society was controlled by Portugal on every economic and political level (Albuquerque, 2005). Besides that, the American independence required a violent rupture with the British Crown, while Brazilian independence process “was an elite-­ level arrangement” that maintained the monarchy till 1889 (ibid., 2005: 489), as well as the social structures of an agricultural economy supported by two tiers: the aristocracy (landowners) and their exploited  enslaved

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workers  (Skidmore & Smith, 2005). Sugar production and later coffee exports were completely depended on enslaved  labour. In his extensive investigation into the history of slavery in Brazil, journalist and researcher Laurentino Gomes recalls that no other territory in the Western Hemisphere has received so many enslaved Africans: 5 million people or 40% of human beings forcibly sent to the American continent in transatlantic voyages. Abolition of slavery only occurred in 1888, but former enslaved people and their descendants were kept on the margins of society. “They were never treated as citizens”, Gomes (2019:31) points out to explain the legacy of this humanitarian tragedy that shaped Brazil as a country deeply marked by social and racial inequalities. To compare Brazil’s social and economic development with what was happening in other parts of the world at that time, it is worth noting that by the mid-eighteenth century, bourgeois journalism was already firmly stablished in Europe, allowing space for contestation to absolutist powers and the Church (Atton & Hamilton, 2008). Therefore, even with a series of class, race and gender limitations, the so-called public debate represented by the rising bourgeoisie started in European countries much earlier than in colonial Brazil.

The Pasquins In sum, in its early days, the Brazilian printed publications were essentially an alternative to the colonisers’ interests and were produced by and targeted at the liberal elite. Still, an interesting radical-popular element existed in the rising nation. Sodré (1966) provides a rare account of early forms of popular publications in Brazil. According to him, the first half of the nineteenth century in the former colony, especially during the Regency Period (1831–1840), saw the birth and the death of dozens of small opinionated newspapers—the so-called pasquins. These handicraft publications were characterised by a broad range of political ideologies. Their printed pages, or sometimes no more than a simple pamphlet, were made by one man or by small groups representing what we would define today as the civil society in formation. Pasquins were extremely ephemeral and used virulent language and satires to advocate their causes, mocked individuals or institutions and share their political ideologies. It was as if all the literate Brazilians have suddenly decided to print and distribute their opinion (Barbosa, 2013). They could represent both left views in some cases and right in others, often

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reflecting the brutal division between liberals and conservatives (Lopes, 2008). Historically, though, they were judged merely by their radical aesthetics. Interestingly, when analysing the birth of the Brazilian media, scholars have condemned these publications as “spurious, meaningless and marginal manifestations” (Sodré, 1966:200). This tendency seems to persist today (Chagas Amorim, 2007). Instead, Sodré argues that those old satirical newspapers represented a democratic content that should not be dismissed. He wrote: Its plebeian form, naturally, awakens the dislikes of the aristocratic intelligentsia  that judges and condemns it. However, its forms translate with exemplary fidelity the best of the time, what was more expressive, most genuine, most popular, most democratic. It corresponds, on the other hand, to the artisan period when it was possible to produce a newspaper alone. (Sodré, 1966:207)

Although these publications were not defined by previous studies as “radical” or “alternative”, it is possible to place them within the sphere of alternative media studies. The more, pasquins can be compared to the radical underground publications from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that offered a revolutionary platform for certain minorities both in Britain and in the United States. John Downing (2001) describes abolitionist news pamphlets, minority ethnic newspapers and the first women’s suffrage publications as early examples of how print media has embraced different forms of radical communication in the Western world: Its counterhegemonic impact has varied from the imperceptible—especially out of context—and the long-term, to the instantaneous shock of humor and outrage. Radical print media have overflowed borders, clothed themselves in the external pieties of patriarchy and religion, and still repeatedly brought down retribution on the heads of the activists who produced and distributed them—and even on the heads of those who were merely found reading them. (Downing, 2001:156)

A counter-hegemonic impact, as Downing describes here, can also be claimed when examining the pasquins. Sodré emphasises the creativity and authenticity of those publications and even states that the period from 1830 to 1850 constituted “the greatest moment of the Brazilian press” (1966:206). After this brief time of unprecedented freedom that leads to an increase of printed independent publications in Brazil, a wave of

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technological developments transformed the media landscape in the second half of the nineteenth century. Newspapers began to be treated as a business, following the same trend seen earlier in Europe. In comparative terms, one should note that by the end of the seventeenth century the general European public was already receiving a regular supply of news, a dynamic that played a crucial role in the creation of public opinion (Allan, 2010). As early as in 1814 The Times, for instance, was being published on a high-speed printing machine, and around the middle of the nineteenth century a number of newspapers were already functioning as large commercial enterprises (Habermas, 1989). In turn, as already seen in this chapter, in Brazil access to education was limited and printing facilities were only allowed after 1808. Economic activities were restricted, aimed simply to generate revenues to Portugal. Censorship silenced dissident voices, while illiteracy, widespread inequalities and lack of urbanisation prevented the dissemination of non-official information. Due to those historical reasons, the process of keeping the public informed had a late development in Brazil (Targino, 2009; Albuquerque, 2012).

The Modern Press On November 15, 1889, Brazil was officially declared a Republic. Printed publications, reflecting the ideals of the new political order, supported the modernisation and the accelerated urban transformations, while colonial values and aristocratic privileges of the Court were maintained (Martins, 2008). Commercial media had begun to consolidate in those years, sustained by political propaganda and advertising. The artisanal period of the press was over, giving place to the initial stages of a mass market. A new era, dominated by profound technological and economic changes, was beginning, along with the rise of the bourgeois. “The newspaper as individual enterprise, as an isolated adventure, disappeared in big urban centres”, observes Sodré (1966:315). Scholars who have studied this process of media industrialisation emphasise that the early forms of journalism practiced by the first Brazilian news organisations were not only driven by commercial interests but mostly by partisan interests. The so-called First Republic (1889–1930), a presidential regime dominated by traditional families and landowners from the rich and powerful Southeastern states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, constantly interfered in the newspapers’ editorial line. The governors from those states represented the economic interests of the powerful

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coffee and milk producers and used their influence to determine who would be in charge of the federal government. This period saw the emergence of the political cartoons as a powerful expression of criticism, a feature that would remain strong in all the major Brazilian newspapers to this day (Lustosa, 1989). The newspaper O Estado de São Paulo is a relevant example of established press that was born and rose in those times. Still one of the largest newspapers in Brazil and owned by the Mesquita Family, it was founded in 1875. Tania Regina de Luca (2008) describes this expansion of the news industry as a key moment for the Brazilian media system, in which technological advances and the growth in readership demanded larger and more professionalised staffs, including writers, critics, reporters, foreign correspondents, designers and photographers. In such a context of economic development, advertisement and paid subscriptions became essential to guarantee the survival of newspapers and magazines, a business model that remained vital throughout the whole twentieth century. Special interests allowed magazines to show their expertise in social affairs, sports or religion, or to focus on women or children’s issues (Cohen, 2008). They also served as a channel for the country’s greatest writers and intellectuals to disseminate their thoughts, often mixing journalism and literary style. But if on the one hand these printed publications were experiencing a growing financial independence, on the other politicians cracked down on freedom of expression. Different governments put the urban centres under state of emergency (Eleutério, 2008). The rural economic elite with the support of the army abused their legal rights to control individual liberties and, consequently, journalists.

Publications from the Margins of Society In that atmosphere of commercial expansion and technological innovation on one side and political oppression on the other, small publications had few chances to thrive. The academic literature on media that challenged the discourse of dominant groups and sought to represent minorities in Brazil at that time is limited. In History of the press in Brazil (História da Imprensa no Brasil, 2008), edited by Ana Luiza Martins e Tania Regina de Luca, the development of national media is analysed by different authors. The emergence of printed publications aimed towards specific communities is mentioned by Ilka S. Cohen (2008) as an example of oppositional press. She refers to immigrants, anarchists and diasporic community-based

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printed media that, in the first half of the twentieth century, sought to raise their voices and to demand better working conditions. Among them there were Italians, Germans, Hungarians and Japanese who launched community associations and religious congregations to preserve their culture in their new land. Other excluded social groups, such as former enslaved people and their descendants, attempted to produce their account of an unequal society by producing small periodicals. They addressed racial discrimination and economic and social injustices, allowing a rare chance to share information about the Afro-Brazilian communities. Cohen mentions some titles that defied racial prejudices, such as O Menelick, A Chibata, Quilombo and Senzala. Small and ephemeral, these efforts to represent ordinary people, and not the economic elites, could rarely out-­ live the idealism of their founders (Cohen, 2008). Greater scholarly attention was given to the proletarian movement (Sodré, 1966; Prado, 2008; Escudero & Teixeira, 2009), which produced independent publications to mobilise workers against the oppressive conditions inside the factories and to strengthen the labour unions that emerged in the first decades of the twentieth century, many of them led by immigrants. They were influenced by the anarchist ideals disseminated by European citizens who moved to Brazil in search of working opportunities or fleeing political persecution. The anarcho-syndicalism activism, which aimed to form self-governing collectives based on trade unions to replace state organisations (Williams, 1983), produced small newspapers to expose poor working conditions and to formulate libertarian views (Lopes, 2008). Such examples represented the opposite of the celebratory image of the economic development, accelerated urbanisation and demographic transformation provided by commercial publications. Produced by and aimed at immigrants, proletarian papers were a rare option for politicised critique free from the pressures of advertisers and the political elite. They had an impact on major strikes in São Paulo, where most part of the immigrants were placed in the first decades of the twentieth century (Escudero & Teixeira, 2009). Publications dedicated to workers’ causes, such as La Bataglia (published between 1904 and 1913 in Italian) and Terra Libre (published 1905–1906 in Spanish), provided a social, political and cultural network to overcome isolation in a foreign country (ibid.). Examples like these can surely be linked to Clemencia Rodriguez’s theory on citizens’ media (2001) discussed in the previous chapter. They incorporated resistant community strategies to reshape their social environment in an

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attempt to democratise the media space. They published letters, reports and complaints without an aesthetic concern with graphic design and with an openly anti-capitalist character (Lopes, 2008). They faced not only economic constraints, but also brutal repression. Brazilian authorities did not tolerate anarchist and socialist political agitation, destroying copies of the oppositional tabloids, breaking printing presses and arresting the leaders of labour movements (Sodré, 1966; Cohen, 2008; Lopes, 2008). Though it is beyond the scope of this book to research this specific period of the Brazilian history, this brief outline of historical studies supports the argument that there was always a radical-popular mediated effort to oppose the establishment in Brazil, albeit fragmented and impermanent.

Fascist Inspiration While small publications dedicated to marginal causes struggled to remain relevant in times of rapid industrialisation and political instability, commercial publications also had a hard time to operate with full-time professionals who were not willing to serve as a government spokesperson. In 1930 the first republican era of Brazil came to an end with a revolution led by Getúlio Vargas, the most influential political figure in the country in the first half of the twentieth century. Supported by military leaders, he became a dictator after a coup in 1937. Soon, the government’s news agency, Departamento de Imprensa e Propaganda (Press and Advertisement Department), would dictate the official version of the news, establishing censorship to exercise full control over the country’s information and cultural life. Vargas’ regime, or Estado Novo (New State), “Brazil’s milder version of Europe’s fascist mode” (Skidmore, 2007:31), lasted till 1945, with the end of the Second World War. Under Vargas’ rule, all media had to reinforce a nationalistic identity of a unified country (Bailey & Barbosa, 2008). The government also used financial incentives to explore cultural production as a propaganda tool, particularly radio broadcasting. These historical circumstances deepened the steady intertwinement of the state’s and private businesses’ interests. Control over mass media was over thanks to a new Constitution approved in 1946, but the state maintained the right to grant broadcasting licences (ibid.).

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The Power of the Broadcast Industry Different studies have stressed the role of the broadcast media in the expansion of private and state interests in Brazil (Straubhaar, 1996; Waisbord, 1999; Bailey & Barbosa, 2008). The country’s first radio station was Radio Sociedade do Rio de Janeiro, founded in 1923 with equipment financed by the government (Bailey & Barbosa, 2008). The most powerful Brazilian radio station, Radio Nacional, was founded in 1936, combining public funds and advertising. It pioneered the launch of radio soap operas in the 1940s and started to broadcast to all of Brazil in 1942. The station was considered a Brazilian Hollywood, producing soup operas that were not only enormous commercial hits but also helped to shape behaviours and attitudes (Azevedo, 2003). Radio Nacional became state owned under the first Vargas’ regime (1937–1945). And even though there were private broadcasters, they were also dependent on the state as they needed an official licence to operate. The rise of the television industry reinforced this media-state interdependence, especially during the military dictatorship (1964–1985). According to Afonso de Albuquerque (2012), especially in the democratic period from 1946 to 1964, Brazilian newspapers openly supported particular political groups. Partisanship was the rule, not neutrality: These connections with political actors were essential for the survival of the newspapers as organizations. Their low circulation and the absence of significant private advertising investments did not allow for the development of a market-based press. Rather, the economic health of the newspapers depended on the government investments, advertising by state-owned organizations, loans “to be paid on doomsday”, and also on bribes. (Albuquerque, 2012:80)

Albuquerque (2005) points out an apparent inconsistency: during and after the Second World War, the influence of an American type of journalism, that is a journalism theoretically objective, fact-centred, became more evident in Brazil. However, at the same time, the Brazilian media system did not experience the same solid market conditions as the American system. To guarantee state subsidies, private media groups maintained a complex and closed relationship with the official power. Still, Brazilian journalists adopted professional norms that came from the American journalism, such as the informative style text and the ideal of objectivity.

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Interestingly, Albuquerque notes that the development of professional journalism in Brazil established “an unspoken alliance” between owners of conservative papers and a large number of leftist journalists (2012:82). On the one hand, publishers needed journalists who could innovate the news production with a style that was less literary and more fact-centred. On the other, leftist journalists, including members of the Communist Party, were in need of jobs and political protection. “The language of professionalism was convenient for both owners and journalists”, explains Albuquerque (2012:83). In parallel with this professionalisation of journalism, the rise of the television industry reinforced the power of media organisations. Different authors have discussed how the military regime (1964–1985) invested in the telecommunication infrastructure, benefiting the interests of Brazilian large media organisations, in particular TV Globo, the most important medium owned by the Marinho family, also one of the world’s largest television networks (Straubhaar, 1996; Bailey & Barbosa, 2008). Hence, on the one hand the military government placed journalism and entertainment under a strict censorship, but on the other supported the development of the mass media industry through investment on telecommunication infrastructure and advertisement, allowing the expansion of private oligopolies. TV Globo was founded in  1965. By 1971, it was already the most popular TV station in the country producing high-quality entertainment programmes (Straubhaar, 1989). The corporation understood the consolidation of the Brazilian consumer market from the 1970s and stablished a new television standard, distributing content with high international quality (Nassif, 2003). Production was largely driven by drama series exemplified by the telenovelas (soap operas). Globo defeated the competition and became the largest media company in Brazil, a title that it holds until today. Jesus Martín-Barbero defines the 1970s as a time when “the economic apparatus took possession of the media” (2016:456). For Silvio Waisbord (1999), a concentrated media system driven by political and commercial interests left a legacy of power inequalities in terms of access to the means of public expression. Fernando Antonio Azevedo (2006) adds that it was only with the expansion of the television market that Brazil really entered the era of mass communication. In this landscape, news sources that differed from the hegemonic ones had scarce chances to penetrate the mainstream thinking.

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Alternative Press Versus the Dictatorship It is not the aim of this chapter to detail the role played by traditional media in supporting a coup d’état by the Armed Forces that overthrow the leftist President João Gourlart in 1964, starting a dictatorship that would last for 21 years. Rather, the focus here is to address how the opposition to the military regime led to a unique multiplication of alternative publications in Brazil. Between 1964 and 1980, a time of political repression, and while media oligopolies consolidated their influence, Brazil saw the rise and decline of 150 news periodicals that opposed the dictatorship, according to Kucinski (1991). These publications were sold at newsstands, by subscription or, in some cases, were secretly distributed for free. A broad range of them lasted only for a very brief period, but some had a significant political and journalistic impact as channels for the articulation of a “resistance communication” (Festa, 1986:10). In spite of all the limitations and pressures they had to face, they managed to register and tell the trajectory of different social and political movements throughout the 1970s. These small newspapers and magazines were called “alternative press” or, more specifically, imprensa nanica (tiny press). Kucinski (1991) explains that alternative publications were the result of the articulation of two social forces: leftist groups who were fighting for the end of the military regime and journalists who were prevented from publishing any kind of criticism against the government in the mainstream media. In its political and ideological combat to the dictatorship, the alternative press also represented heterogeneous groups or organisations, such as feminists, students, labour unions, LGBT movements and environmentalists (Woitowicz, 2009). Therefore, it is not possible to point out one single approach to news reporting in a time of widespread violations of human rights, including massive arrests of opponents of the regime, torture, censorship and murder. Still, one can claim that these groups have represented the “voiceless” in an era known as Anos de Chumbo (“Years of Lead”). In contrast, Bailey and Barbosa (2008) describe how mass media, under the control of the military government, helped to support the state’s ideology: The psychosocial control of the population was exercised through massive use of the media, particularly television, use of an extensive network of intelligence services, widespread censorship, the reduction of civil rights, and the control of labour and political organizations. Despite this, the structural

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changes introduced by the military government in the telecommunications sector, particularly the building up of a modern infrastructure for national and international telecommunication services, constituted a decisive factor in the development of the broadcasting industry in Brazil. (Bailey & Barbosa, 2008:55)

Different authors have described how censors were put inside the newsrooms to veto anything that could be seen as an antagonistic practice to the military. Repression and censorship were increased after December 13, 1968, when Institutional Act number 5 (AI-5) was enacted and the Congress was shut down. Words such as “communism” and “torture” could not be published (Aguiar, 2008), for instance. Forbidden to leave a blank in place of censored content, newspapers had to fill their pages with harmless texts such as cooking recipes and weather forecasts. In turn, the official discourse was deconstructed by small underground publications, which openly demanded a return to democracy and criticised the military government large-scale development projects (Kucinski, 1991). Interestingly, the first alternative publication to raise the voice against the regime embraced humour as the language of resistance. Released just 1 month after the military coup, the magazine Pif-Paf was launched in Rio de Janeiro by writer, cartoonist and humorist Millôr Fernandes. It lasted merely 3 months, but its cartoons and political satires influenced the alternative way of doing journalism under the dictatorship (Kucinski, 1991; Kushnir, 2004). Kucinski claims that financial vulnerability, which invariably resulted in short-term projects, was one of most common traces of the alternative press: It had as a basic component the repudiation of profit and, in some newspapers, there was even contempt for administrative, organizational and commercial issues. Paradoxically, the insistence on an uneconomical national distribution, the inability to form large bases of subscriber-readers, a certain triumphalism over the effects of censorship, all contributed to making the alternative press not a permanent formation, but a temporary, fragile and vulnerable thing. (Kucinski, 1991:13)

This point confirms a consistent element of alternative media, in that it is common to see self-managed, short-lived, underfunded initiatives. Indeed, O Pasquim, launched in 1969 and to this day a symbol of

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counterculture in Brazil, disregarded basic rules of business administration (ibid.), even though the weekly newspaper reached an impressive circulation of 250,000 copies (Gaspari, 2002). Although this circulation was phenomenal for an alternative publication, its founders identified themselves as a group of bohemian friends from Rio de Janeiro rather than publishers or managers (Kushnir, 2004). Such definition reflected a concern with challenging the hierarchical corporate model of mainstream media. Besides the critical approach of their content, non-mainstream publications were also alternative in their search for more horizontal newsrooms’ structure (Pereira, 1986). The alternative press never had the financial and material resources to actually compete with the traditional media (Abramo, 1988). Entrepreneurialism was not part of their vocabulary. Furthermore, the political repression made the survival of alternative media almost impossible. Every content was subject to prior censorship. Not surprisingly, non-mainstream publications could not count on any form of official advertisement. Still, these obstacles did not prevent some publications from having an impact on the history of journalism in Brazil.

Counterculture, Irreverence and Resistance Through political and social satire and a very unconventional newsroom, which exempted, for instance, the figure of a chief-editor (Silva, 2013), O Pasquim was an important milestone of political humour and journalistic experimentation. It mocked not only the dictatorship, but also the traditional conservative family values of the Brazilian middle class. It was influenced by the American Counterculture of the 1960s and by the principles of Existentialism. Produced in Rio de Janeiro by renowned journalists and cartoonists, some of whom had lost their jobs in traditional media, O Pasquim faced censorship and the arrest of its team by the military, in 1970. Still, through a colloquial language, this weekly newspaper impacted the journalistic style. Letters to the editors, often replied by the newsroom through mockery or irony, created “a direct communication, of the horizontal type, so often proposed by alternative projects and rarely achieved” (Kucinski, 1991:109). Behavioural and social themes, not necessarily aligned with traditional left-wing ideologies, made O Pasquim one of the greatest national references of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture in Brazil (Barros, 2003).

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One particular interview was a milestone that should be addressed in more depth since its impact would lead to the radicalisation of the censorship practices. On November 20, 1969, O Pasquim published an interview with Leila Diniz, a young and famous actress known for her feminist and libertarian ideas. Leila openly supported liberal attitudes towards sex and women’s rights, giving voice to a free and critical thinking that represented exactly what the military regime was trying to repress. In the interview, in which she criticized the AI-5, the actress said 71 dirty words, that were not published (Ferreira dos Santos, 2014). Instead, the editors replaced the cursing by asterisks, an irreverent way of provoking the censors. The historical interview was attacked both  by the supporters of the dictatorship and by leftist activists, who downplayed the discussion about the sexual revolution in the midst of widespread political repression, and also by feminists, to whom the actress’s supposed vulgarity was not helpful for the movement (Ferreira dos Santos, 2014). Leila lost her job as a soap opera actress and had to hide to avoid being arrested. Two months after the interview, the authoritarian regime approved the system of prior censorship for all media content in Brazil. The example illustrates the impact of the alternative press in a key historical moment for Brazil, when non-dominant forms of journalism fulfilled a political role that established media organisations could not attain. The confrontation with the official repression apparatus was unavoidable. However, the alternative press managed to develop different forms of resistance to the hegemonic control, fuelled in part by the dissatisfaction of journalists who were forbidden to tell the truth about the dictatorship in traditional media. The weekly newspaper O Movimento, launched in 1975 and known as “the newspaper of the journalists”, is another relevant example. It was entirely produced and managed by journalists (Kucinski, 1991). Financially, O Movimento was never a success, partly due to the despotic practices of censorship (Miani, 2009). Funded by donations, its content was severely censored. The editorial line, in support of the country’s democratisation, was aimed at reaching popular sectors of the Brazilian society, more specifically the working class. The newspaper adopted a less intellectualised tone than other representatives of the alternative press of the time (Kucinski, 1991; Miani, 2009). O Movimento employed cartoons to construct a counter-hegemonic discourse exploring humour to attack the authoritarian regime and social injustices (Miani, 2009). Illustrations and texts vetoed by the military government were published with a black stripe, making it clear to the readers

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that the content was censored. One interesting aspect of the project was a radical aesthetics to contrast with the image of a “happy Brazil” disseminated by the government (Aguiar, 2008). It systematically published grotesque illustrations in an attempt to portray a much more suffered Brazil than the censored news could reveal. These accounts confirm the notion of alternative media as a challenge to the concentration of media resources. Accordingly, Downing observes that the counter-information model of alternative media under repressive regimes is an attempt “to disrupt the silence, to counter the lies, to provide the truth” (2001:15). It is also interesting to note how oppositional publications such as O Pasquim and O Movimento adopted professionalised or semi-professionalised modes of production, but never tried to embrace a corporate traditional model. They acted as agents for political change, but also subverted the bureaucratic organisation of corporate media, an aspect that guides contemporary alternative outlets, as discussed in this book. This does not mean, however, that there was a complete lack of hierarchy within the structures of alternative media. Karina Woitowicz avoids the trap of over celebrating alternative media by pointing out that feminist groups, for instance, were considered too self-centred by leftist sectors (2009). Although small publications opened the path for discussions related to the second wave of feminism that spread throughout the Western world in the 1960s and 1970s, in general leftist groups considered some of movement’s goals as “petty bourgeois issues” (Woitowicz, 2009:45). To address matters related to specific minorities, more niche-­ oriented alternative publications had to be created. Two examples: Beijo (1977) and Lampião da Esquina (1978), periodicals that reported on issues relevant to the LGBT community. Such attempts to represent minorities took place when the military government started a slow process of democratisation. However, the main representatives of alternative media could not survive the gradual transition to a liberal democracy. First of all, the range of voices that represented the opposition paid a high price for its counter-hegemonic discourse. Journalists were arrested, alternative newsrooms were bombed and newsstands that used to sell alternative publications were attacked by the apparatus of the Armed Forces. Nonetheless, Kucinski (1991) argues that it was not only the brutality of the dictatorial regime that prevented the survival of this type of alternative press.

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With the political opening and the strengthening of popular and union movements in the late 1970s, another type of alternative media began to emerge defending specific interests of the entities that sponsored these newspapers, such as unions or left-wing political parties. Kucinski explains: With the emergence of new tactical and strategic possibilities in the political field (...) the journalistic fronts were broken amid deep divergences among its participants. The formal mechanisms of internal democracy in alternative newspapers have not resisted ideological sectarianism and the ethics of party interests. As space for party re-articulations opened up, the enforced aggregation of journalistic fronts was meaningless. (Kucinski, 1991:98)

The gradual decline of the regime amid the economic crisis of the late 1970s strengthened the critical role of traditional media in Brazil. Some values and ideals that were defended only by the alternative press during the dictatorship were also taken over by journalists working for mainstream publications. With the politics of liberalisation adopted by the Armed Forces and the consequent return of democracy in the 1980s, a new phase of the Brazilian press began, thus closing this unprecedented period of self-managed journalism in the country. Pereira (1986) observes that the alternative press not only contested the repressive policies of the military, but also offered a resistance to the regime’s economic development based on massive international investments and loans that favoured the elite sectors and multinational corporations while alienating the working class. Thus, he prefers the term “democratic-popular press” rather than “alternative” to define this type of underground publications that were so relevant in the dissemination of pro-democracy content.

Journalism Post-Dictatorship The transition from a military dictatorship to a liberal democracy led to a profound transformation of the status of the Brazilian media. Free from the constraints of censorship and oppression, news organisations embraced the watchdog role, appropriating the American rhetoric of the “Fourth Branch” (Albuquerque, 2005). It was a gradual change. Weakened by economic problems and internal divisions, the military government relaxed censorship and slowly allowed a political opening. From 1979 to

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1985, emergency measures were revoked, political amnesty was granted and parliamentary activities were resumed. On January 15, 1985, the Congress elected the first civilian president of Brazil in two decades. Chosen through an indirect voting system, Tancredo Neves was an opponent of the military regime, but his name was accepted by the Armed Forces, with widespread support from media corporations, including Globo Television Network (Miguel, 2001; Albuquerque, 2005). Neves was hospitalised hours before the inauguration day in March, and died in April. His vice-president, José Sarney, who had been a member of the party linked to the military, formally became the first civilian ruler in 21 years. Over the process of democracy’s re-establishment, most leading newsrooms adopted the Fourth Power discourse, claiming a mediating role between the three constitutional branches (Executive, Legislative and Judiciary) and between the government and the citizens (Albuquerque, 2005). “The echoes of Watergate were alive in the mind of every young Brazilian journalist” (Nassif, 2003:23). As an example of this shift, investigative journalism helped to bring down the presidency of Fernando Collor de Mello in September 1992. Mainstream weekly news magazines helped to expose the corruption scandal known as Collorgate that led to the first elected president’s resignation. In his analysis of Veja and Istoé, two Brazilian news weeklies that covered the case, Silvio Waisbord (1997) argues that the publications opted to frame the president’s corrupted activities as a personal deviance and with a “telenovela format”, but missed the opportunity to examine corruption from a broader perspective as a public problem. In his book about the Brazilian press in the 1990s, journalist Luis Nassif writes that after the coverage that led to Collor’s impeachment, Brazilian journalism became “addicted to scandals” (2003:64). News stories were commonly narrated in a sensational style, while broadcast media kept entertainment as a priority. Nonetheless, the Collorgate allowed news organisations to join forces in a belligerent watchdog coverage that strengthened the independence of journalists from the state, giving them the status of a new adversarial political force (Hercovitz, 2004). Thus, for a number of historical reasons, Brazilian media does not easily fit into classic categories developed to study Western media systems. Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini (2004) developed three models to describe the relationship between media and political systems: (1) The Democratic Corporatist model, as it can be found in Germany, is marked by state intervention to defend the plurality of media, a public

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broadcasting service and a solid mass press with strong professional associations. (2) The Polarised Pluralist model, found in countries such as Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, is dominated by the instrumentalisation of the media system by political and economic interests, with a low circulation press targeting a small elite and an undeveloped professional journalistic culture. And (3) The Liberal Model, which prevails in the Anglophone countries, is characterised by an information-oriented journalism and a market-driven media system with high circulation and strong professional culture. However, many of the features of the Brazilian media cannot be explained by these models, which is why Albuquerque (2012) argues that they represent an overly Western perspective. Firstly, contemporary Brazilian news organisations can take explicit political positions, but their agendas are not dependent on the ideology of political parties. Secondly, professionalism is important for Brazilian journalism as pointed out earlier, although this professionalism is not a faithful copy of the Western model. And thirdly, private and not state-owned telecommunication networks are a crucial aspect of the Brazilian market, although official subsidies were key for the development of large media conglomerates. Summing this up before examining in depth the effects of the technological connectedness of twenty-first century, we can now say the following: The democratisation of Brazil led to the expansion of the mediated public sphere, a freer press and a growing professionalisation of journalism as part of a mass media industry development. Journalism evolves according to the transformation of society and culture (Dahlgren, 2009). However, as it occurred in other countries of Latin America, the consolidation of liberal democracy coincided with growing concentration of media ownership, thus the return of democracy did not guarantee open access to media production. For small outlets it became more difficult to survive “in an environment ruled by media behemoths” (Waisbord, 1999:51).

Grassroots and Community Media If during the struggle against authoritarianism alternative journalism was associated with anti-government stances, after the democratisation alternative media continued to promote different forms of counter-hegemonic spheres that do not fit into the market logic. Various scholars (Couldry, 2000; Downing, 2001; Atton, 2002; Dahlgren, 2009; Harcup, 2011;

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McQuail, 2013) have defined alternative media for its concern with a wider participation of ordinary citizens in media production. As Couldry (2000) puts it, alternative media allows a de-naturalisation of dominant media practices. These theories resonate with the ideals of grassroots media that have expanded in Brazil since the end of the 1990s. Cecilia Peruzzo (2008) defines them as community media or community communication, that is: (…) built in the praxis of popular movements, community associations, trade unions, progressive church sectors, grassroots NGOs and other third sector organizations. Even if it is not possible to identify them as specific communities, these actors seek to transform the conditions of oppression and suffering of segments of the Brazilian population aiming the implementation of a world in which everyone can have dignity and respected citizenship rights. They have something in common, from which one could glimpse the constitution of a “community of ideas”. (Peruzzo, 2008:5)

Such emphasis on community is also highlighted by Bailey et al. (2007) on their analysis of the communication strategies of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra, MST) in Brazil, one of the most important grassroots organisations in Latin America. The peasant movement has emerged in 1984 to contest power structures through land occupations. In their struggle for land and agrarian reform, peasants managed to attract the attention of mainstream media with a series of actions that included a wave of occupations and mass demonstrations during the first mandate of liberal President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995–1998). Cardoso’s second mandate (1999–2002) was marked by the settlement of thousands of landless rural workers on expropriated land, but MST remained a relevant oppositional force against the government and its neoliberal policies. Media played a crucial role in the construction of the movement’s identity. The organisation produced a newspaper, a magazine, radio programmes and a website to disseminate the reality of landless people in the context of neoliberalism (Bailey et al., 2007). Although the peasants’ movement has lost importance in the political agenda, MST’s media network remains a significant example of how, in the aftermath of the totalitarian regime, alternative media provided a vital space for contestation in a country where journalists are often fully employed by large private organisations. While news corporations follow a

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certain set of rules, procedures and norms to decide what is news (McQuail, 2013), what is outside dominant media seeks to oppose these conventions in different ways. In that sense, Raimundo Pereira (1986) argues that the direct heirs of the alternative press of the dictatorial years were the publications of left-wing parties and labour unions, which were strengthened in Brazil with the gradual resumption of democracy. Ultimately, there was a dispersion of the once strong alternative press, so the concept of alternative journalism became less evident (Levy, 2018). However, this chapter could not stop here. The evolution of digital media expanded the possibilities for non-mainstream producers “to exercise symbolic power in new ways” (Meikle, 2009: 194). It is precisely the emergence of new technologies that encourages us to ask what the role of alternative media is in twenty-first-century Brazil.

Midialivrismo The radical democratic principles of the Independent Media Centers (IMC), or Indymedia, were discussed at the start of this book. In Brazil, the regional Indymedia, or Centro de Mídia Independente Brasil (in Portuguese), was created in 2000. It started in São Paulo and later expanded to other states. As the country is marked by strong economic and social differences, each regional centre had its own identity to include ordinary citizens in the dissemination of information through interactive grassroots news websites. The regional centres, though, followed the precepts of the anti-globalisation movements that spread in the start of the century to demand social justice and media democracy. The national IMC generated content that went beyond the website, such as community radios and small newspapers in order to reach audiences who did not have access to the internet (Targino, 2009). Downing (2018) argues that among the major differences between past forms of alternative media and current digital forms are the growing access to making media, transnational distribution, portability and rapid mobilisation. These features combined with the “Be the media” message of Indymedia explain the emergence of a movement called midialivrismo in Brazil, which can be translated as “activists of free media”. Practitioners of midialivrismo were representatives of different social movements seeking “to feed new tastes, new informative agendas and new publics” in opposition to the discourses from large media conglomerates (Malini & Antoun, 2013:22). Born in Brazil in the 1980s as a part of the

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hacker culture, this movement was driven by the critique to the commodification of mass media and found on cyber-activism an avenue to contest dominant narratives. The growth of activists’ practices facilitated by Web 2.0 coincided with the increasing challenges faced by traditional media corporations to adapt to the digital age, as well as the weakening of neoliberal ideals in the country (Almeida & Evangelista, 2013). Midialivristas can be defined as “hackers of narratives” (Malini & Antoun, 2013:12). Both Indymedia and the media activist group Mídia Ninja fit into the movement of midialivrismo, which is not limited to news production. Rather, midialivrismo involves different forms of alternative art and resistance strategies. Fábio Malini and Henrique Antoun (2013) point out two types of midialivrismo: the first one is related to organised social movements that produce different forms of community media as an alternative to traditional corporations and the second is more specifically linked to a participatory use of digital media as a platform for political action. In such context, Mídia Ninja was born within the collective Fora do Eixo (in English, Off-axis), an organisation that benefited from the cultural policies of the left-wing party that ruled Brazil between 2002 and 2016. In his book about Fora do Eixo, Rodrigo Savazoni (2014) concedes that it is not easy to understand this “collective of collectives” composed of networks that share almost everything, including subsidised residences, to produce mainly cultural content based on an efficient and participatory use of digital media. Participants alternate responsibilities and functions both in the networks and in the houses. It is a very complex horizontal structure that by 2013 connected 18 houses and 91 collectives scattered around Brazil (ibid.).

The “Ninjas” Mídia Ninja emerged as part of this multiple organisation. It aimed at enabling audiences to be “the new narrators of their chosen causes” (Stalcup, 2016:151), privileging a decentralised mode of content production that combines professional journalists and amateurs to promote social change. The group practices a type of participatory journalism with no commercial concerns and whose goal is “to strengthen narratives that have no visibility in conventional channels of communication”, according to its website. The collective advocates “partiality as a principle”, explicitly rejecting the ideal of objectivity pursued by traditional media.

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At the height of the 2013 massive protests, when Brazilians took the streets of several cities to demand better public services and less corruption, there were 1500 “ninjas” registered to perform different functions within the collective in a completely different arrangement from the traditional mode of content production (Torturra, 2013). Technology is key to understanding the ninjas as “agents of change in the networked society” (Castells, 2012: 234). As the protests escalated and spread across Brazil’s major urban centres, more activists joined the effort to broadcast live from the frontlines of the demonstrations, often equipped only with their mobile phones to publish videos on live streaming applications. Poor quality and non-edited content were part of their political aesthetic (Stalcup, 2016). Their documentation of police violence ended up influencing the mainstream coverage of the historical events and helped to hold authorities to account, in a clear mix of activism, journalism and cyberculture. Their online TV channel (POSTV) reached an audience of 120,000 people during the demonstrations (Rezende, 2015). The group’s Facebook page doubled its viewers in mid-­July 2013 and by December 2018 had 2 million followers (Canavarro, 2019). Thus, ninjas could be defined both as product of the network society as well as descendants of the anti-globalisation movements (Rodrigues & Baroni, 2018). The collaborative experience of the ninjas made them a symbol of a radical route adopted by activists who seek to create new forms of communication rather than focusing on reforming mainstream media (Coyer et al., 2007). Scholars celebrated the emergence of Mídia Ninja as a paradigm shift for breaking up with the monopoly of the mainstream narrative on a historic moment. Ivana Bentes (2009) highlights the educational dimension of their radical narratives, which ended up influencing the coverage of the traditional press. Indeed, as police brutality against the protesters increased, as shown by Mídia Ninja on YouTube, mainstream media changed the tone and adopted a much less critical stance towards the protesters. Furthermore, the network used social media to produce a state of commotion and mobilisation (Bentes, 2013). Elizabeth Lorenzotti (2013) defined the group as media of the future. Although social media alone cannot explain the causes and consequences of the 2013 popular movement in Brazil (Porto & Brant, 2015), the prominence of non-mainstream journalism in a critical moment opened up a debate on the values of alternative news channels. For Savazoni (2014), ninjas were the architects of this bottom up

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transformation. International publications attested the relevance of Mídia Ninja, such as “The Guardian” that highlighted the “no-cut”, no censorship approach” of ninja reporters (Watts, 2013). Central to this book is reflecting on the type of journalism proposed by the collective. In their empirical analysis on Mídia Ninja’s journalistic ethos, Cláudia Rodrigues and Alice Baroni (2018) conclude that Mídia Ninja is mainly engaged in an effort to dispute discourses by the mainstream media. According to them, the selection of news by the collective is determined by its political agenda, thus its counter-hegemonic ethos, based on sources from the left-wing social movements, has more emphasis than the news production itself. After the 2013 protests, their coverage became more explicitly aligned with left-wing government of President Dilma Rousseff who was controversially removed from office on charges of manipulating the federal budget (Levy, 2018). The example of Mídia Ninja shows how social media have created new opportunities to transform the news making process with a greater engagement of ordinary citizens. The internet alone does not solve all the limitations of journalism practiced outside major media corporations, but it has allowed a renewal of the ethos of resistance of alternative media in Brazil.

Conclusion This chapter provided a brief historic overview of the development of the media industry in Brazil to discuss its main characteristics and transformations over time. Without any claim to completeness, this examination suggests a constantly evolving media landscape, developed within an intertwinement of authoritarianism, political oligarchy, market forces and foreign influence (Bailey & Marques, 2012). News content has been shaped by government interventions, political instability and the imperatives of the market. However, there were always distinctive forms of doing of journalism to allow alternative modes of expression. This chapter pointed out efforts of a non-dominant approach, from anti-colonial periodicals to spaces of resistance to dictatorship and grassroots media. Thus, the notion of “alternative media” has also changed over the course of Brazil’s history. For mainstream journalism, external influences, such as European liberal ideals and elements of the American journalism, played a role in the construction of journalists’ identity. In the case of alternative groups, counter-hegemonic channels challenged the status-quo in different

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historical moments to confront the commercial structures and the political discourse of established media. Although there are many gaps in the historical accounts of alternative journalism in Brazil, it is possible to identify a series of restraints to maintain non-mainstream publications. Experiences related here were invariably short-lived. The precarious aspects of this type of media resonate with today’s alternative producers’ concerns, as we will see in the next chapters. Underfunded and, in some cases, unorganised collective lines have always presented a challenge to the survival of independent and alternative media amid the consolidation of neoliberalism and within an economy of concentrated media ownership. Despite the fact that the development of the media industry in Brazil has always attracted more academic interest, alternative publications managed to create relevant spheres of contestation in the struggle to challenge dominant discourses and representations, even though they were ephemeral and fragmented. Old satirical newspapers from the first half of the nineteenth century, for instance, may be considered pioneers of alternative media practices. In the first half of the twentieth century, marginalised social groups, such as immigrants, found a way to raise their voices through independent publications. During the military government (1964–1985), alternative press reached its peak and constituted an emblematic example of resistance as well as journalistic innovation. Alternative titles such as O Pasquim (1969–1991) filled a gap left by mainstream media, which was unable to confront the government either due to censorship and repression or to private interests. They differed from mainstream media not only in regard to their content, but also in terms of organisational structures, characterised by principles of collectivism and horizontality. Nevertheless, although to this day it is frequently pointed out as one of the greatest symbols of the alternative press in Brazil before the digital age, O Pasquim was produced by intellectuals and professional journalists from Rio de Janeiro. It offered a creative social counterpoint to conservative ideologies, but it did not necessarily seek the participation of ordinary citizens. This example suggests, thus, that the historical trajectory of alternative journalism in Brazil should not be focused exclusively on an emphasis on community media produced by non-professional journalists. At any rate, alternative publications never had the necessary financial resources to be considered a real option to the traditional press. The alternative press of that time earned recognition, triggered new narratives and

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shed light to social movements, but did not survive the transition to democracy. A lack of solid financial structures and internal ideological sectarianism contributed to the disappearance of this type of publication, while mainstream news organisations adopted a stronger watchdog role and reinforced its journalistic identity. With the return of democracy (1985), Brazilian journalism appropriated the discourse of the Fourth Estate and got closer to the watchdog role of the idealised Anglo-American journalistic model. At the same time, alternative forms of journalism were maintained through the strengthening of community and grassroots media. Their goal was to promote an active citizenship while civil rights and press freedom were gradually restored. Leaving aside the political stability and threats to democracy in Brazil, the market-driven approach and the consolidation of media concentration create an environment that favours a homogeneous discourse. In a time of unparalleled access to information, alternative journalism, facilitated by digital technologies, can pursue a plurality that objects to traditional business models and journalistic norms. Mídia Ninja is the example of new media highlighted in this chapter. The collective of citizen journalists did not replace the coverage of traditional media outlets during the historic protests that swept Brazil in 2013, but drew attention by reporting from within the demonstrations, without the concern of disseminating an impartial narrative. Free from the constraints and demands of corporate media, they had an impact, as well as other alternative media practices have also had throughout Brazil’s troubled history.

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CHAPTER 4

The Role of Alternative Journalists in Brazil

Introduction This chapter examines the goals and viewpoints of alternative news producers in Brazil. The main focus is on how alternative producers, both professional and non-professional journalists, perceive themselves as new entrants to the regional media landscape. By analysing key elements of their identity this chapter looks into distinctive possibilities for these social actors to exert their dissatisfaction with dominant news content. As this book is concerned in examining critiques to traditional ways of doing journalism, the chapter is anchored in the motivations and influences behind alternative media practices. The self-perception of alternative producers is the starting point of the discussion. As Susan Forde (2011) notes, the way alternative journalists describe their aim sheds light on the type of newsgathering they attempt to achieve and, ultimately, their social role. How do they define the main purpose of their outlet? What are they interested in covering and how? Putting it simply, and following Forde’s approach, why do they do what they do? Interviewees with different backgrounds discursively negotiate their identity and also reflect on their occupation in relation to values that inform journalism practices according to professional standardised norms. Do they consider themselves as alternative journalists or simply as journalists, rejecting a distinction? What about the term “activists”? Do they see © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Sarmento, Alternative News Reporting in Brazil, Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26999-8_4

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what they do as activism? Do they adopt any other form of self-­ identification? The responses enable a critical discussion based on alternative producers’ self-perceptions, deconstructing the simplistic binary opposition between mainstream and alternative media, as other scholars have done before (Downing, 2001; Atton, 2002; Harcup, 2005; Kenix, 2011). For instance, Forde (2011) recounts that people working in alternative media outlets in Australia feel comfortable to define themselves as journalists, even though some have never received formal training to practice journalism. But as she argues, this self-definition is becoming more complex. If before the digital age, Australian alternative journalists would not add any occupation other than “journalist”, more recently they became more likely to define themselves such as “journalist and activist” or “journalist and educator” (Forde, 2011). This debate is relevant to conceptualise this chapter. As Forde points out, “the way alternative journalists view themselves is inherently connected to how they consider their role in society” (ibid.:59). In a similar approach, Janet Fulton (2015) asked media producers in the digital space, including bloggers, whether they define what they do as journalism. According to her findings, also drawn from interviews in Australia, those who have worked for mainstream media clearly considered themselves journalists, while other respondents were more cautious about using this occupational term. She concludes: While it can be shown that some of the common understandings of who is a journalist can be applied to both set of groups, that is, commentary as journalism, the soft news/hard news dichotomy, the objectivity norm and an application of ethical codes, there is still a particular frame around journalism and journalist. In a nutshell, in a similar way to traditional journalism, there is on going debate and discussion about who is a journalist in the online space. (Fulton, 2015: 373)

In an era when online technologies make each of us, at least theoretically, a potential mass communicator, professional labels are no longer dependent on the existing institutional structures, though we cannot disregard the constraints that can affect autonomous journalistic efforts. According to Matt Carlson (2015), we are witnessing a “symbolic struggle” over journalism’s boundaries in which different actors dispute the right to disseminate the news:

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Gains in symbolic resources translate into material rewards. Being deemed a “legitimate” journalist accords prestige and credibility, but also access to news sources, audiences, funding, legal rights and other institutionalized perquisites. Also, struggle over what is appropriate journalism bare on the actual news products as some practices are held to be worthy while others are rejected. Objectivity norms, pack journalism, and citizen witnessing are all part of that picture. (Carlson, 2015:2)

Organisations disseminating news are not only navigating on a constantly shifting digital environment, but also adapting to a networked society (Holton & Lewis, 2011). Understanding the demarcation of journalism norms and open-advocacy is also part of such complex picture. At the heart of this examination on denotations, interests and values is an effort to answer how and why alternative journalism can play a relevant role in Brazil, despite remaining vulnerable to market pressures and fragile business models in the digital economy. This enquiry is related to some of the main questions that drive this book: What does it mean to practice “alternative” journalism? To what extent non-mainstream practices subvert the taxonomy of news values? Here we can see what difference those alternative actors aim to make in a media landscape mostly dominated by the homogeneity of the hard news commercial cycle. The next sections were built around the main themes that emerged from interviews with Brazilian alternative media producers. After the enquiry on self-definitions, which also problematise the term “alternative”, the chapter transitions to the discussion on how alternative outlets challenge the mainstream media representation of certain communities, for instance, residents of the favelas and indigenous populations, or issues, such as gender stereotyping. Underrepresented themes are directly linked to the essential nature of alternative journalism and emerged as a recurrent topic on the analysis. Additionally, the chapter examines to what extent independent producers are challenging journalism’s traditional norms, such as the principle of objectivity. This controversial topic refers to the conceptualisation of alternative journalism, but also to the blurring boundaries of journalism’s practices in general. The process of newsgathering no longer takes place exclusively in the newsrooms of established media. Consequently, while approaches to journalistic routines may vary, alternative media producers are oriented around an attempt to differentiate themselves on the one hand from corporate media and, on the other, from propagandists whose only aim is to

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disseminate narratives to corroborate their political agenda with no commitment to fact-checking, as this chapter will discuss. Even accepting that “the objectivity regime is in crisis, if not defunct” (Hacket & Gurleyen, 2015: 61), the chapter concludes that alternative journalists question but do not entirely dismiss the much-contested notion of journalistic objectivity, linking it to the discipline of verification. Producers’ views reinforce the argument that the concept of objectivity should be refreshed in the digital era, though the need of informational validity is more required than ever (McNair, 2017).

Note on the Methodology Before turning to how alternative journalists in Brazil define what they do, it is important to offer a brief explanation situating the research methodology to guide the reader throughout the next chapters (see Introduction for a more thorough note on the methods). Assuming that without a degree of legitimacy emerging news sources will not survive in the long term (Couldry, 2010), this book sought to understand producers’ descriptions of their dynamics, motivations, challenges and values through in-­ depth interviews, a useful approach to construct knowledge through interaction between the interviewer and the participants. Steinar Kvale (2007) defines interviews as a structured conversation to obtain knowledge by employing a careful questioning. In exploring diverse types of alternative news outlets, the semi-structured interviews allowed some flexibility with a developed focus to attempt a precision in the interpretation of data (Gillham, 2005). Semi-structured interviews are not the same as an open everyday conversation, but at the same time do not result in a rigid questionnaire. Hence, interviews were built upon a pre-­ established set of questions to all respondents, though the order of the questions varied, and follow-up questions to clarify points were naturally made. This flexibility was necessary primarily because the study involved different types of alternative groups, as well as interviewees with distinct backgrounds and also different functions, such as reporters, editors and writers. Therefore, some questions elicited more extensive responses from some, while others simply did not engage in certain discussions and preferred to focus on different subjects. In this case, a closed questionnaire would have been a limited tool since the research aimed at obtaining descriptions of a broad range of alternative media practices. As explained

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in the Introduction, only the producers who gave written consent to be named are directly identified in this book. Much research attention has been given to how citizen journalists explore digital technologies to construct the news, especially in the coverage of crisis events (Gillmor, 2008; Allan, 2013, Allan & Thorsen, 2014). Contributions of citizens in the news-making process when an event unfolds, in the words of Stuart Allan “Iphone-wielding amateurs” (2015:357), are not the main focus of this chapter. A frame proposed by Atton (2002) was followed to achieve a list of online ventures to be analysed. Although it does not mean that each of them possesses all of these alternative attributes, the following frame helps to understand the scope of this research: . Content that is politically, socially or culturally radical 1 2. Innovative aesthetic form 3. Reliance on new technologies 4. Alternative forms of distribution 5. De-professionalised forms of organisation 6. Horizontal form of communication Tony Harcup identifies another essential aspect of alternative journalism that serves to emphasise what can be considered as “subversion”: “the fundamentally ethical practice of empathic, active listening” (2015: 313). Departing from these frames, also addressed in the Introduction, potential participants were approached by email or social networking sites. Although face-to-face interviews were the preferred method, time, financial constraints (travel costs) and logistic matters were taken into account to adopt online methods as a viable option to reach the ideal research sample, a procedure that has become commonplace in social science research (Deakin & Wakefield, 2014). During the research process, I have constantly visited the websites of the contacted organisations to gain a better knowledge of their content and diverse interests, including their editorial policies whenever they were available in the “about us” section. One may question what are the convergent points between an outlet of investigative journalism, for instance, and citizen journalists covering the daily life of a favela (slum) without professional training. Without dismissing the differences among their approaches, this research, as already emphasised throughout this book, is more concerned with the plurality of voices that are independent of

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corporate media. Once more, I turn to Atton and Hamilton to justify this complex, and perhaps for some, contradictory selection, to find a point in common between many different kinds of non-corporate journalism projects. As they put it, practitioners “seek to redress what they consider an imbalance of media power in mainstream media, which results in the marginalisation (at worst, the demonisation) of certain social and cultural groups and movements” (2008:2). To achieve a good level of methodological quality (Malterud, 2012,), the analysis of the interviews followed five steps in an effort to make results comprehensible to others and replicable (Krippendorff, 2004). After transcribing and reading the texts (1), I selected “meaning units” (2) or text fragments related to the research questions (Malterud, 2012). The units were, then, identified by themes (3). The fourth step was the interrogation and interpretation of the meaning units and, finally, the fifth step consisted of summarising the essential content of each interview in a descriptive statement. Coding was applied as a “combination of very fine analysis of some parts of the text and a rough classification and summary of other parts” (Flick, 2009:330). This approach is in parallel with my understanding of qualitative interpretation of data and led me to nine main categories to guide the interviews’ coding, which are related to the research and subresearch questions: (1) Goal of the alternative outlet; (2) Identification with the term “alternative media”; (3) Type of journalism practiced by the outlet; (4) Relation to traditional values of journalism; (5) Relationship with mainstream media; (6) Funding; (7) Professionalisation; (8) Audiences’ participation; (9) Organisational forms. Each of these themes allowed me to make connections with previous studies on alternative media, as well as comparisons between the groups. Some of these topics will be addressed in this chapter and others on Chaps. 5 and 6.

Self-Definitions The first theme that has emerged from the interviews with alternative media producers is the growing hybridisation of journalism’s practices as they adopt digital technologies to disseminate online content. People covering and distributing news outside mainstream media in Brazil come from very different backgrounds. Their goals, routines and outlet’s composition are very diverse. For instance, there are professional journalists who left large media corporations, either out of dissatisfaction with

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organisational constraints or because they have been made redundant in the endless cycle of massive layoffs that is part of the era of digitisation. There are also journalists who maintain their jobs in traditional media but contribute simultaneously to alternative projects; and ordinary citizens who felt misrepresented by mass media and launched their own media group without any formal training or claim to be labelled as “journalist”. Several scholars have already engaged in the complex definition of journalism and, even more, what constitutes journalism after the impact of new technologies. For the purpose of this chapter, it is worth recalling Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel’s social definition of journalism from their widely cited The Elements of Journalism: “The primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing” (2014:17). Would it be then fair to say that given this broad concept the label “alternative” is not that relevant? Indeed, when asked to provide a self-definition, the largest proportion of participants identified themselves as journalists. Especially those who have a formal degree on journalism emphasised the desire to be acknowledged simply as journalist as opposed to alternative journalist. Here we can identify a sort of rejection to the term alternative, which was highly problematised by some respondents. Some perceive it as a label of a somewhat “marginal” type of journalism and, consequently, less valuable or less legitimate, as if journalism practiced within large media organisations would be the “normal”, while independence for corporate media would place producers in a comparatively inferior sphere. For others, alternative is associated in the collective memory with the small print publications that challenged the military dictatorship, but did not last long (see Chap. 3). Figure  4.1 shows the different types of self-identity that emerged from the interviews. Whilst the very own definition of who qualifies as a journalist in the digital age is more blurred than it used to be when the means of media production was concentrated in the hands of a few, the analysis of alternative practices underscores a field in which actors are not concerned in establishing one dominant definition of journalism. The distinctions echo the perception that alternative journalism “is not an unchanging, universal type of journalism” (Atton & Hamilton, 2008:9). In a report that analyses digital native organisations that are driven to produce independent news in Latin America, Sembra Media refers to these producers as “digital media entrepreneurs” (2017). Notwithstanding the majority of media producers have self-identified as journalists, there is not a consensus on how to label the type of journalism being practiced by

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Self-identity Writer 5% Activist 5% Communicator 5% Publisher 5% Community Journalist 10%

Journalist 70%

Fig. 4.1  Self-definitions provided by the interviewees

independent digital native outlets in Brazil. For example, the term independent was also problematised by respondents who raised questions about what could be considered a complete independence, since traditional media also claims to be independent. As a reporter noted, journalism is always born with this mission of looking at the world from an independent perspective, therefore editorial independence is the basis of any form of good journalism and this essential element is not exclusive to digital native organisations that are emerging outside the corporate system. The term independent is widely used by major Brazilian news organisations. In explaining their role as an essential part of democracy, they emphasise their right to monitor power structures and institutions, denouncing irregularities and demanding responses to inform society. That is, independent of any kind of interests. For example, at the top of the list of its principles and values, “Folha de São Paulo”, one of the most influential newspapers in Brazil, places the topic “economic and editorial independence” (Folha, n.d.).1 Similarly, media conglomerate Grupo 1  Available at https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/institucional/o_grupo.shtml. Accessed 30 August 2021.

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Globo, by far the largest in the country, ensures in its editorial principles to be independent of government and economic groups (Grupo Globo, n.d.).2 Journalist Agostinho Vieira, founder of Projeto #Colabora, a non-profit outlet that aims to bring attention to the violation of human rights and to issues related to sustainable economy to reduce inequality, reiterated the same point to explain why he also believes that the term “independent” could be problematised when discussing different forms of doing journalism: No outlet is totally independent. Independent of what? Of a large media corporation? Of a political party? Of financial pressures? If you look closely, no one is absolutely free of interests. When you rate one part of the media as “independent”, you are assuming that the other part is consequently “dependent”. Since people tend to simplify things, they assume that independent is good and dependent is bad, but the reality is more complex than that. In spite of many problems, there is a lot of good content being disseminated by traditional media as well as poor quality work being done by the so-called independent new media, and vice versa. Power is in the hands of the readers, not the producer. It is up to us to decide what we want to read and in what to believe.

On the other hand, while highlighting that they perceive themselves as practitioners of a critical anti-corporate journalism, others expressed concern with the term alternative, which reminded them of the role played by alternative publications during the military dictatorship. The purpose of the underground publications that arose at the time of the dictatorship was to contest the official discourse of traditional media. Alternative media privileged information that was not disclosed by the mainstream media because of widespread censorship (see Chap. 3). The current Brazilian political context is different and tags should not assume exclusion. Comments from respondents indicate that they were not concerned with seeing their work defined along a narrow divide between mainstream and alternative. Rather, they framed their activity as emergent forms of organisations that are trying to practice a good journalism drawing on management models and purposes that differ from the mainstream media. Fausto Salvadori, co-founder and editor of Ponte Jornalismo, an online outlet that consistently covers news on abuses carried out by agents of state against citizens from marginalised communities, also makes an 2  Available at http://g1.globo.com/principios-editoriais-do-grupo-globo.html. Accessed 14 August 2021.

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attempt to avoid categorisation:

a

limited

self-definition

or

a

buttoned-up

We are journalists covering the justice system from the perspective of the majority of the Brazilian population who are victims of social inequality. Those are the stories that we want to report. I am not sure there is just a single word that can define the type of online independent journalism that we seek to practice.

These insights imply a critique to corporate media conglomerations, though respondents were concerned in rejecting the dichotomy of “we” (alternative journalists) against “them” (mainstream). Respondents mentioned so far have a background on mainstream media. Therefore, they understand the journalistic processes that drive a large media company and point out as one of the main aspects of their model the fact that they are not commanded by commercialised structures. They fell free to produce and share content that is relevant to their specific audience, and reject to frame citizens who follow their production as consumers. They are critical of the operation of mainstream organisations and in general of how the press functions and can shape public perceptions, but do not reject formal codes of journalism practices. News value and journalistic ethic will be looked later on, but here I wish to stress a difference between the approach of professional and non-­ trained journalists within alternative media practices. Practitioners who did not self-identify as professional journalists were more likely to highlight a critical discussion over how standard norms of journalism affect the anti-establishment nature of their work. Perhaps this is not surprising considering that their background does not include formal journalism training, and given their community-oriented objectives. In dismissing the tag of “journalist”, they show deeper dissatisfaction with the way mainstream media work, as seen in the following comments from Dudu de Morro Agudo, a rapper and writer who launched an institute (Instituto Enraizados) to promote the hip-hop culture in a poor neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro. The organisation publishes an online magazine to disseminate information about peripheral artists. The underlying message is that the artistic movements from the outskirts can encourage leadership and create a sense of community that leads to social change. The producer does not consider his approach to subcultures strictly as a contraposition to what traditional media covers in the arts sector, and neither has the aim to compete with daily media. But even acknowledging that he did not

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have any experience on mainstream newsrooms, he adds: “We don’t want to do what they do”. He explains his view: I have never introduced myself as a journalist. I like to communicate what I see to the world. I try to narrate in some way everything we do here, but if I think of myself as a formal journalist I would have to attend other types of demands. I report, I write, but I don’t present conclusions. I don’t even know how a traditional newsroom operates in that sense. But if I were to follow the mainstream media script, I would immobilise our website with a sort of a “plaster”. Moreover, I would have to train people to follow traditional journalistic codes and methods and we don’t want to do that at all.

Thainã de Medeiros, from the collective Papo Reto, a group of citizen journalists from Complexo do Alemão, one of the largest favelas in Rio de Janeiro, agrees that alternative journalism should not be concerned with a specific label. At the time of the interview, Papo Reto had eight permanent members and only one was about to graduate as a journalist, but without the aim of imposing the “professionalization” of the group: We officially define ourselves as an independent collective, but we often question the extent to which we are really independent. For a long time we have funded the collective out of our own pocket. We have nothing, but we benefit from the favela’s network. We don’t seek official funding, but we do depend on friendly (internal) relations. That is how the favela survives. If the state does not reach out to supply basic services to the community, we do that on our own way. It’s “us for us”. So, if on the one hand, mainstream media does not give us a voice, or only cover the favela to report on criminality, we make sure that there is going to be someone who knows how to use his cell phone to report on our reality from a different perspective, and who will say something nice about us, residents, legitimately. So, in terms of self-definition, it might be more accurate to speak of a favela self-made digital media, rather than independent media.

The expression “us for us” (translated from Portuguese) marks a position of resistance to the mainstream media stereotype of favela’s dwellers, often depicted as criminals or paternalistically described as poor people abandoned by the state (Custódio, 2016; Levy, 2018). Here I take note, once again, that the emphasis set on relation to a professional status varies according to the background of the producers: while experienced journalists working for alternative outlets seek to be legitimised as practitioners of journalism, producers who had never held professional journalistic

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credentials placed less emphasis on the premises of professionalism. Instead, they expressed a desire to be acknowledged as authoritative voices in the media landscape to inform society or, if we consider community media, as credible and legitimate storytellers of their reality in their own terms. Overall, we can interpret the discourses seen so far as a challenge to the boundaries of journalistic practices. Trained journalists challenge the strict dichotomy between mainstream and alternative, whilst amateurs contest the assumption that only traditional gatekeepers can be acknowledged as society’s storytellers. In addition, this lack of consensus in relation to the identity of alternative news producers reflects the expansion of the media environment in Brazil, where there is a growing interaction of different media players and relevant quality content being created outside legacy media organisations. As previously stated, this book is not concerned in finding a unique terminology that may encompass all forms of alternative media, and much less alternative journalism. Rather, what matters here is to understand the purpose of alternative producers and to what extent they are breaking free from norms that result in a homogeneous flow of news.

The Representation Gap Harcup notes that it has become a cliché to justify the existence of alternative journalism as a media to give “voice to the voiceless” (2015:313). In declaring their intention, and in an attempt to explain how the ethos of the “voice to the voiceless” would be translated into actual practices, alternative producers showed a concern in providing accounts that oppose a stigmatised representation of peripheral communities. Drawing on the concept of periphery both as a geographical notion and a social construction (Levy, 2018), peripheral is mostly related to disadvantaged communities that reflect Brazil’s pervasive inequalities. Roseli Figaro argues that peripheral is “an ideological state of those who claim to value the community” (2018:225). In conversations with alternative producers focused on what happens in the outskirts of the largest Brazilian cities, it is common to hear criticisms of the stereotypical or discriminatory tone of the traditional media with regard to the reality of low-income areas. Favelas, for instance, are invariably portrayed in mainstream media as a space of barbaric scenes (Custódio, 2016). Thainã Medeiros, from Papo Reto, reiterates this point exemplifying the coverage of a police raid in the favela. In the name of fighting drug gangs, invasions

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of police forces are a common practice in Brazil, making the local population a frequent target for abuse or stray bullets: We cannot avoid talking about violence, but the difference is how we are going to report it. If there is a man lying on the ground, caught in the crossfire, we will not describe this person as a “suspect”. He has a name, maybe we know where he works; he is someone’s son, maybe he played football with us, even if he was involved with something wrong. This is how we are going to frame the story.

Bruno Garcez, a veteran journalist who launched a multimedia blog produced by residents of São Paulo’s poor neighbourhoods, echoes the criticism of mainstream media accounts that tend to focus on stigmatisations of peripheral communities. In partnership with the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, he developed a website to disseminate stories produced by citizen journalists from the periphery (Projeto Mural): There is a gap in the news coverage. Traditional media doesn’t cover São Paulo’s outskirts on a daily basis. When there is coverage, it is always stigmatised. The mainstream reporter will be sent to a particular peripheral area just for a brief period of time to report on a violent incident, such as a shooting or a murder, for example. In turn, we aimed to offer something different. We may write about young entrepreneurs or a poetry event in the periphery, for instance. Participants of this project act as community correspondents. In that sense, they may even speak of violence and social deprivation, but they will always provide their own accounts of the stories from the perspective of someone who experiences this reality, and not an outside view from top to bottom. This is a rejection of the typical middle-class journalist who is parachuted into an underprivileged community to report on something that he/she had never experienced, and, afterwards, will never go back to this place.

The journalist adds that if an outlet wants to privilege stories from the perspective of those who live in the outskirts of a large urban centre such as São Paulo, which is affected by widespread social inequalities, it is crucial to avoid a top-down or patronising approach. Even acting as a mentor and guide for citizen journalists, he encouraged participants to always explore in their stories their own cultural references and to challenge his own preconceptions and biased viewpoints—as someone trained on mainstream media—about the reality of low-income environments. The perception that marginalised neighbourhoods can only make headlines when there are violent incidents to report was also mentioned as one

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of the main reasons that led to the creation of a website to promote news about cultural events in the suburbs, mainly related to the hip-hop movement. This is how Dudu do Morro Agudo, from Enraizados, himself a rapper from Baixada Fluminense, a region in the state of Rio de Janeiro with a reputation for crime, poverty and low levels of public investments, defined his motivation to create a channel to confront the tendency to depict the peripheral population simply as criminals or victims of police abuse: In a conversation with a journalist from a major newspaper from Rio de Janeiro, he [the journalist] challenged me to find a headline about Baixada Fluminense that was not related to crime, death or robbery. He then admitted that the good things that happen here are not considered newsworthy. In our website, in turn, we will always publish positive stories. It is also our job to raise the self-esteem of those who live in peripheral areas.

Fausto Salvadori, from Ponte Jornalismo, reiterated a similar discontent with the agenda of mainstream media and how traditional news organisations often adopt an elitist and biased perspective when referring to marginalised communities. When he worked for a major newspaper covering the police beat, the journalist recounts that he saw a very clear set of news values: a crime committed in an upscale region would always receive more coverage than a massacre in a poor area of the city. Furthermore, the frequency of police brutality against the black population was not considered a relevant issue. The journalist was referring to the fact that homicide rates and police brutality impact ethnicities very differently. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called attention to the link between statistics of violent deaths and the vulnerability of groups exposed to structural discrimination. Afro-descendants and people living in poverty are disproportionately impacted by violent deaths. In 2018, three-­ quarters (75.4%) of homicide victims were persons of African descent (IACHR, 2021)3:  In the area of public safety, race and social class is what frames mainstream media coverage. Perhaps only in lifestyle journalism there is as much social prejudice as in the crime beat. We aim to take of the veil of invisibility that covers the discrimination of race and lower social classes in Brazil. (…) We would 3  Report is available at http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Brasil2021-en.pdf. Accessed 29th August, 2021.

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like to see a society that feels outrage, for instance, when policemen kill a young black man on the outskirts of a big city.

Previous studies have shown that afro-descendants are underrepresented by mass media, often being depicted in a way that reflects the socio-­ economic inequalities of the Brazilian society (Acevedo & Nohara, 2008). In his investigation of media activism and human rights journalism practices among young residents of favelas, Leonardo da Costa Custódio (2016) reminds us that the direct correlation between low-income areas and criminality is not just a common representation in newspaper headlines. Fictional narratives also contribute to this reductionist perception through products such as the popular telenovelas (soap operas). Even when producers consider that the plots are portraying positive aspects of these communities, television productions often demonstrate a lack of knowledge of this reality, which is generally denied or fantasised (ibid.). Such misrepresentations reinforce the role of alternative journalists as key pieces in an effort to shape counter-public spheres that can defy racial and social stereotypes. How can it be done? How to promote the rights and the stories of those underrepresented or discriminated through media? The editor from Ponte believes that channels outside the mainstream should focus on a constant practice of counter-representation to subvert the conventional news values. He explains: The violence that affects the poorest, especially the violence committed by agents of the state, is absurdly absent from newspapers’ pages. As a journalist, I have the feeling that there are many important news stories that people need to know about, but they are simply not told, as they should. That’s what we want to offer. Some of these stories are in the mainstream media, but often in a superficial way or without continuity. Mainstream media only provide a continuous coverage of crimes and issues that affect white middle or high-class people. But there is no such continuous attention to the victims in the low-income areas. This is what we want to do at Ponte.

Making Local News In addition to not feeling sufficiently or accurately represented on mass media, residents of the outskirts or those who are interested in the realities of marginalised groups expressed a will to shape public perception through news narratives produced from “within”. However, the economic and

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social profile of young favelas’ residents, for instance, and their motivations to use social media are very diverse (Souza & Zanetti, 2013). It is beyond the scope of this book to present an in-depth analysis of how this particular segment of society engages with media practices to fight discrimination and social injustice, a historical process that goes back to the 1960s as part of a growing movement for media democratisation in Brazil (Custódio, 2016). Rather, digging deeper into the examination of alternative journalists’ role, the aim is to understand how they define their news gathering process. Journalist Edu Carvalho, who started his career as a member of a collective of citizen journalists from Rocinha, one of the largest favelas in the south zone of Rio de Janeiro, goes further in the importance of disseminating accounts of lived experiences: Mainstream media cannot show only one side of things, the side of violence. People from the favelas want to be shown as they really are. This is what led me to be a communicator inside the favela, to disseminate narratives that are created here, from within. Our goal is to report what traditional media do not cover, narrating stories with our very own eyes, from the viewpoint of those who live the reality of the favela. A reporter from mainstream media who is sent by the newsroom to cover a shooting, for instance, stays at the entrance of the favela, and does not have any experience of what actually happens inside the community.

It is important to note that participants of alternative organisations that focus on local or hyperlocal news do not necessarily claim to speak as a community “spokesperson”. On the contrary, they demonstrate an understanding that it is not possible, for example, to report on the Amazon rain forest or the periphery of São Paulo as if those regions were homogeneous spaces, just to mention some of the geographical locations covered by the outlets studied here. Instead respondents showed concern to avoid the position of a “special envoy”, that is, a professional journalist who is sent by a large media group to report a breaking news story or a crisis event for a very short period of time. According to producers, however well-­ meaning and well-trained correspondents or “special envoys” can be, as outsiders they have a limited perception of the reality of distant communities and tend to rely on official sources. Hence the importance of also producing and disseminating reports with a local perspective, not necessarily to compete with the mainstream but to expand the range of news sources.

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The development of large media corporations in Brazil resulted in the concentration of content production in large urban centres, while remote regions arouse much less interest from mainstream media, both from a journalistic and commercial point of view (Peruzzo, 2005). There are regional private and commercial media in almost every state, such as newspapers and TV channels, but local political ties tend to compromise media independence (ibid.). In that context, a non-profit outlet that prioritises local news may provide an immersion into the everyday lives of specific communities that are neglected by mass media. For instance, most journalistic content published by traditional publications in regard to the Amazon region can be defined as “secondary interpretations”, that is, drawn from academic research, press releases or data from Brazilian government agencies (Corrêa, 2010:319). The intention to avoid narratives that demonstrate a distance from the subject is very noticeable in the case of community media as well as in regard to outlets covering specific regions far away from major urban centres. Once again, their aim is not to replace the coverage of mainstream media, but to expand the interpretation of realities from the margins of society. Similarly the collective Nós Mulheres da Periferia (We Women from the Periphery), founded to inform and support women from low-income neighbourhoods of São Paulo, informs in its “about us” page that all-­ female staff, mostly black women, aims “to offer another way of seeing events in Brazil and in the world and to contribute to the construction of a plural, anti-racist and non-patriarchal society”. Their production combines local stories, interviews and opinion pieces to tackle topics such as gender inequality, racism and identity. Such segmentation, historically avoided by mass media-driven business (Broersma & Peters, 2016; Harcup, 2015), could encourage audiences to classify the website as an activist media, though their self-definition explicitly frames the outlet as a “journalistic website dedicated to reflecting the opinion and history of black and peripheral women”.4 Members of collectives agree that their goal is to be seen as credible players in an increasingly fragmented media system, but not just as “sources” to be sought and quoted by traditional media, but also as communicators legitimately narrating news stories. 4  In the following link (Portuguese) the collective Nós Mulheres da Periferia states its editorial principles, mission and values: https://nosmulheresdaperiferia.com.br/quemsomos/ [Accessed 30th August 2021].

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Considering that the global decline of local news coverage is one of the main consequences of the transformations that journalism has undergone in the last decades (McChesney & Pickard, 2011; Jenkins & Nielsen, 2018), attention to what happens locally is another interesting feature of non-mainstream digital media in a vast country such as Brazil, where the development of the media industry has always prioritised national networks or those focused on large urban centres (Peruzzo, 2005). Kátia Brasil, co-founder of Amazônia Real, an investigative news agency based in Manaus (North of Brazil), says: We give voice to issues of the Amazon region that no one finds in the national newspapers or TV channels. And even if such topics happen to appear in those spaces, we will cover the same subject differently, through an in-depth report, always prioritising the narratives of the indigenous populations, the riverside populations and the quilombolas. 5

Among the groups analysed in this book, ten were devoted to local news or, as some put it, to local realities that producers consider invisible on mainstream media. However, as we are focusing here not only in the peripheries in terms of geographical communities but mainly on communities of interests, it is useful to revisit at this point Nancy Fraser’s notion of parallel discursive arenas to create subaltern counter-publics or “parallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counter-discourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests and needs” (1992:123).

Fighting the “Impossible Version” of Women The underrepresentation of women or women’s rights, for instance, is a topic frequently raised by members of alternative outlets. Sofia Soter, co-­ founder of an online magazine for young women (Revista Capitolina), confirmed that, although she did not have a formal degree on journalism, she decided to create a digital publication to challenge the stereotyped portrait of women in the media. Having grown up reading glossy women’s magazines, she explained how she was driven by dissatisfaction with 5  Quilombolas are communities made by descendants of Afro-Brazilian slaves who escaped from slavery and created close-knit sustainable communities. According to official data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in 2019 there were 5972 quilombola communities in Brazil.

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sexist ideologies and unrealistic standards of beauty targeted at female readers, especially younger audiences. She edited the online  magazine from 2014 to 2016: When I was a teenager, certain traditional magazines targeted at girls where the only source we had to read about what we were experiencing. But they used to publish very misogynist stories about relationships and ideal body stereotypes. I am white, slim, and blond. I studied at a private school. I had long heterosexual relationships. We could say that I am what these magazines consider the “normal” type of girl, and even so I didn’t relate at all to their approach to gender. Women’s magazines cast an impossible version of girls, a stereotyped ideal of beauty that is simply not realistic. No teenager in the world is like the adolescents featured in the pages of traditional magazines. Women like the ones they depict simply don’t exist.

Alternative digital magazines or sites produced by women have been gaining visibility with the increase of feminist media activism in Brazil, a country wherein indexes of violence against women remain extremely high.6 The aim of Capitolina is to offer a space in which adolescents and young women could express their viewpoints free from social cultural expectations about sexuality, gender identity or physical appearance. The digital magazine, created in 2013, is a crowdsourcing project. Its editors engage with their audience by choosing a monthly topic and asking for contributions from the audiences, including professional and non-­ professional journalists, through a prism of intersectional feminist ideas. Similarly, a digital project that focuses on women over 50 challenges myths, taboos and the “appropriate” role of older women. One of its founders, Angelina Nunes, a veteran investigative journalist with large experience in legacy newspapers, complained about the lack of representation of women after a certain age in Brazilian media in general, particularly in women’s magazines which have a tendency to promote the same kind of editorial content, such as beauty and lifestyle advices. Her non-profit website (Mulheres 50+), written by seven experienced female journalists, is committed to counterbalance the depiction of gender role identity and the 6  Every 2 min a woman is victim of aggression in Brazil, according to an annual report from the NGO Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública (Brazilian Public Security Forum). There is one rape at every 8 min, and in 2019, 1326 women were murdered by men because they were women (femicide). Report is available at https://forumseguranca.org.br/wpcontent/uploads/2021/02/anuario-2020-final-100221.pdf. [Accessed 30th August 2021].

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focus on consumerism by maintaining a critical voice in relation to a commodified content. They reflect on the wellbeing of ageing woman and their multiple social and economic concerns in opposition to covering topics such as “how to dress after 50”. She observes: Traditional media always speak about longevity more generally, not with a focus on women’s ageing. When women over 50 are mentioned, it is usually to reinforce the idea that a woman should always look younger, has to be beautiful, wonderful and sexy, regardless of her age. Commercial titles are mainly concerned with clothes or makeup for women over 50. We noticed that there was a unique formula in the mainstream media, as if every mature woman has to look like Jane Fonda. As a mature woman, and having worked for mainstream media my whole life, I definitely don’t feel represented in such publications.

The responses echo the intention to diversify the news agenda to ensure a greater plurality of news sources, but without thinking about news—and consequently journalism—strictly in commercial terms. Whereas the examples mentioned in this chapter are very distinct, they refer to aspects across the Brazilian society that are of very high value to misrepresented audiences, for instance, news from the hip-hop cultural scene, or from a particular favela in Rio de Janeiro or content produced by teenagers or women over 50. The focus on fragmented audiences is seen by producers not as target to be dismissed as irrelevant if compared to the broader reach of mass media. Rather, they stressed that their relevance lies exactly in the channels they are building to amplify those voices that often go unnoticed.

Setting Their Own Agenda Alternative media producers argue that they also diverge from the mainstream media practices because of their effort to promote non-dominant sources that are not frequently prioritised by commercial media. Therefore the counter-representation embedded in the ethos of the alternative realm also refers to the types of sources independent journalists are interested in reaching out for confirmation and analysis of news stories. For instance, one producer said that bringing non-hegemonic sources to centre of the narratives involves giving opportunity to female black women to speak as experts in certain topic, such as scholars and activists, when journalists call on for information and comments. Criticism of the underrepresentation of gender, race and class in traditional media was one of the dominant

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themes of the interviews, and the challenge to this “invisibility” is what drives independent producers. To illustrate the journalistic output that may result from this alternative sourcing, it is worth it to mention a seven-part series published as a partnership between three independent media outlets (#Colabora, Amazônia Real and Ponte Jornalismo). Entitled “Without rights: the face of social exclusion in Brazil”, the series examined the reality of two thirds of the Brazilian population that do not have access to rights guaranteed by the Constitution: housing, social protection, communication, education and sanitation. Drawing on official data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the reporters travelled through three regions of Brazil to tell the human stories behind the numbers. The investigation, published in 2019, was awarded the Vladimir Herzog Prize for Amnesty and Human Rights in the multimedia category, one of the most prestigious awards of Brazilian journalism.7 One may argue that similar examples of award-winning original investigative journalism could be found on traditional news media, which certainly do not refrain to hold authorities into account. Nonetheless, such type of coverage confirms the commitment to a social mission that gives priority to the “voiceless”, as well as demonstrating the potential of partnerships that look beyond the domain of mainstream media. Accordingly, respondents confirmed the rejection of news values and news routines that prioritise standard stories that most frequently shape mainstream media coverage. Instead they often turn to content that does not put emphasis on timeliness, and let alone sensational headlines. Elaíze Farias, another co-founder of Amazônia Real, points out the difference between what is considered newsworthy, or information of public interest, by the independent media and the mainstream media. She emphasises her rejection to the term “alternative”, which she considers to be “out of use”: The major difference between the journalism that we define as ‘conventional or from large corporate media’ is that we are not under the cycle of hard news pressure. We don’t have to publish a news story while events are unfolding, without having enough time to reflect and to do an in-depth checking. We don’t feel pushed to break a scoop. However, if we have an exclusive story, we won’t take the risk of holding it back for too long. But when we decide to publish it, we will 7  The special series can be read at the following link (Portuguese): https://projetocolabora.com.br/especial/sem-direitos-o-rosto-da-exclusao-social-no-brasil/.

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provide accurate information and context. We will hear to all sides involved. In our routine, there is no such a thing as a scoop just for scoop’s sake, just to break the news in front of other media.

Capitolina, the digital magazine for teenagers and young women, completely avoids the hard news cycle. The topics of each edition would hardly have room in traditional women’s publications targeted at female audiences and guided by an ideal of heteronormative femininity (Duffy, 2013). Abstract themes, such as “Narratives” (June 2017), “Mystery” (April 2018 issue) and “Acceptance” (March 2018 issue), enable a highly subjective approach that invariably reflects the message of women’s empowerment against sexism, racism and homophobia through personal essays, feature stories, videos and unconventional graphic design. In this case, the team of producers is not interested in separating facts from opinion. Rather, subjectivity is the norm. By favouring sources and stories that are not frequently featured on mainstream media, alternative producers contribute to expose different social realities. Since they are not under pressure to be the first ones to publish a breaking news, and neither need to pursue the popularity of sensationalistic or entertaining features, news is what they decide is relevant to inform their audiences. We may fit this into what has been suggested as a de-industrialisation of information (Broersma & Peters, 2016). For instance, Marco Zero Conteúdo is a collective of investigative journalists based on the northeast of Brazil. Like the other outlets discussed in this book, it does not receive funding from governments or private companies, relying mainly on funding  from  international organisations. Carolina Monteiro, one of its editors, summarises the type of journalism that they practice: We don’t see what we do as an opposition to mainstream media. In fact, traditional journalism is closely linked to industrial journalism. We see an opportunity to practice a new type of journalism, post-industrial, which entails other conditions of content production, more horizontal, and which is based in other ways of thinking about the motivations of journalism. We don’t spend our time criticizing traditional media. Large media corporations can build a very negative image with their own hands. They don’t need opposition to point out what is wrong in the way they function.

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When asked to reflect further on their independence, interviewees rejected the possibility of serving as a propaganda channel for political parties. Different participants addressed the fact that progressive alternative media are usually associated with left-wing parties, as opposed to the rise of the right-wing populism. Some gave me a frank assessment of their ideological identification with the left spectrum, though their main concern was to entirely reject a purely partisan-oriented journalism, reinforcing the goal to have an impact regardless of the ideological political polarisation that increased in Brazil since the 2014 presidential elections (Ferreira do Vale, 2015). To illustrate this discussion with more clarity, this is how Ponte Jornalismo communicates its nonpartisan mission: “Ponte has a side, but it has no party. We don’t support any political group and our coverage treats everyone with the same criteria.”8 While not deepening in the debate of how rising polarisation affects journalists and outlets that become target of misinformation, what stood out from the interviews is a concern in not being perceived as militants working for a particular political party. Producers reject the label of partisan media and fundings from politicians. They made it clear that it is important to be transparent, and to explicitly state who and how their media is been financed. Bruno Garcez added his views on what should be an independent project: Our agenda is to promote the periphery with its positive and negative aspects, but without slipping to partisanship or to militancy, which ends up weakening our journalistic effort. If you do that, you will end up preaching to the converted.

The expression “preaching to the converted” suggests that alternative outlets have the goal to be heard by people who are not familiar with the realities they are trying to portray, thus breaking up with the “alternative ghetto” pointed out by Comedia (1984). While the testimonials above do not guarantee that alternative journalists put aside their political viewpoints to disseminate their stories, their discourse points towards a quest to set them apart from media that exists only as a political propaganda tool.

8  Ponte Jornalismo “about us” page is available at (Portuguese): https://ponte.org/ sobre/principios/.

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Contesting the Myth of Neutrality Considering that not all producers are trained professionals who have previously worked in traditional newsrooms, questions about journalistic codes have received nuanced answers in terms of what really matters in a news account. The interpretation of what constitutes an impartial reporting is never a straightforward debate, especially in an era in which the expression of personal opinion online is posing growing challenges to news organisations. Nonetheless, participants expressed a clear concern to avoid the spread of misinformation. Their aim is to contribute to the dissemination of reliable accounts in the multimedia landscape. In this direction, fact-checking organisations with limited staff have been making a gradual move to the spotlight in Brazil (Lelo, 2022). The very nature of this specific genre requires an emphasis on facts or verification of information accuracy. As some operate independently, that is, they are not part of media conglomerates, they fit into this study. Aos Fatos, for instance, is a small news organisation launched in 2015. It verifies statements from elected representatives, among other influential figures. This is how the organisation explains its work: “It adopts methods that value the transparency of journalistic work: it references sources, corrects errors and reports on its funding”.9 Edu Carvalho, who integrated Rocinha.com, explained that, having to deal very frequently with unverified information especially in breaking news event, such as deadly police invasions or confrontations between policemen and gangs, his collective had to adopt fact-centred techniques to avoid accelerating the spread of rumours among local residents through social media. He emphasises the pursuit of accuracy in this type of news reporting: There are 200,000 people living in our community. There are rumours and fake news circulating all the time. Our main job is to determine what is credible and what is not. In a moment of threat to our safety, you can’t ignore any information, but our mission is to verify the facts before publication.

Likewise, Thainã Medeiros, from Papo Reto, stressed the need to double-­check information before publishing any content on social media, even though his collective is not run by trained journalists: 9   Aos Fatos methodology is explained at (Portuguese): https://www.aosfatos.org/ nosso-método/.

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We have a filter. We rarely publish something that comes directly from the residents without double-checking the information. It would be pretentious to claim that we are inventing a new form of journalism without considering some of its traditional methods.

Taking responsibility for checking online content helps to establish alternative creators as authoritative voices on the issues they are covering. The widespread dissemination of fake news, a buzzword currently used to define false stories spreading on social media (Tandoc et al., 2018), was not directly addressed in the interviews. Nonetheless, interviewees demonstrated a strong commitment to stand out from voices that simply add noise or mislead audiences. This claim to a “special kind of authority and status” through the process of verification is strictly related to the classic function of journalism (Hermida, 2012:320). Most interviewees explicitly manifested commitment to the dissemination of reliable and accurate content, regardless of being open about their motivations, such as feminism ideals, human rights advocacy or counterculture movements. It should be stressed, however, that accepting traditional journalistic values is not the same as assuming that journalism is neutral and impartial. It is clear that most of the outlets are concerned with social change and are driven by their commitment to geographically or interested-based communities. Furthermore, they are very critical to the rhetorical claim adopted by mass media to present journalism as neutral and non-biased. In that sense, it can be noted that alternative producers are not interested in drawing a false moral equivalence, or false balance, in terms of quoting “both sides” of a story. This becomes evident when interviewees claim to give a fair hearing to opposing sides, while acknowledging prioritising “the point of view of the weakest, the unprivileged, and the minorities”, as stated by the editor from Ponte. The element of accuracy can at times also lead to question the understanding of what “balanced stories” mean. If mainstream media leaves a gap in the reporting of certain topics, “filling the gap” can become an issue of fairness in the sense of attempting to disseminate contrasting viewpoints, as different respondents pointed out. Kátia Brasil, the veteran journalist who lives in the Amazon region and is one of the co-founders of Amazônia Real, an outlet that systematically covers the reality of the region’s populations who are “made invisible”, adds:

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If you do investigative journalism, you cannot listen to only one side of a story. You have to hear all sides. But why are we interested in covering indigenous populations? Because they don’t have a voice in traditional media. As journalists living in this part of Brazil, we have always thought this way. But if you are part of a large newsroom, as I have been before, there are many limitations to report on these issues. Our outlet’s priority, on the other hand, is to listen to those news sources that are not represented on traditional media.

Respondents criticised what is usually mentioned as the “objectivity norm” that supposedly ensures the neutrality of traditional media, a “kind of industrial discipline” or a doctrine emphasised mainly from the first half of the twentieth century to guide an industry increasingly professionalised, commercialised and distant from the partisanship press that prevailed in the previous century (Schudson, 2011). Different studies have already deconstructed the ideal of objectivity in journalism, which can be defined as the separation between fact and opinion (Curran, 2002; Dahlgren & Sparks, 2005; McQuail, 2013; Maras, 2013; Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2014) or, more specifically, “reporting something called news without commenting on it, slanting it, or shaping its formulation in any way” (Schudson, 2001:150). According to  respondents, the objectivity regime is completely questionable if biased accounts tend to favour the most powerful. One may argue that an outlet that challenges repeated sourcing formulas and offers different perspectives might actually represent a counterbalance and valuable account. Moreover, objectivity is a shifting concept especially in times of technological changes and widespread social media sharing (Calcutt & Hammond, 2011; Hermida, 2012; Hackett & Gurleyen, 2015). As a value, nonetheless, alternative producers do not categorically dismiss it, even recognising that they are not pursuing a detached, neutral reporting. Simply assuming that balanced reporting is not the goal of alternative journalists is not enough to conceptualise their existence and their practices, however subjective the terms “balanced” and “fairness” are. Kovach and Rosenstiel’s (2014) framing of transparency as a journalistic value is useful to clarify this point. They advocate that no one should expect journalists to be objective, since “everyone is biased” (2014:10), but their methods could be to result “in a process of reporting that is defensible, rigorous and transparent” (ibid.).

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Conclusion: Rebalancing Media Power This chapter examined the motivations, ethics and identity of alternative news producers to understand their role in contemporary Brazil. Interviews were conducted among a diversified group to question how emergent alternative outlets perceive what they do. Among the respondents, there were professional journalists who have left large media organisations, journalists who keep their full-time job at commercial media but collaborate with alternative media, as well as citizens who felt misrepresented and disempowered by mass media and decided to produce their own media without any formal training or the claim to be identified as a journalist. Their professional identity matters because it affects their self-perception and their media practices. Their emergence in the country’s media landscape and their heterogeneous approach to newsgathering illustrate the changing boundaries of journalism. As Carlson puts it: “Journalism is not a solid, stable thing to point to, but a constantly shifting denotation applied differently depending on context” (2015:2). Overall, the emergence of new actors in the news ecosystem is a social phenomenon that does not happen in a vacuum, and this book avoids a technological centred approach to analyse their societal relevance. Although the interviewees defined their orientations and motivations in distinctive ways, it is possible to identify commonalities within various working practices. The main points that emerged are: • When asked how they would describe the role of their outlets, interviewees pointed out a complex set of goals that go beyond the generic aim of “filling the gaps” left by standard press coverage. The equation is more complex than that, and this explains why the term “alternative” is contested. A recurrent theme is the challenge to mainstream media portrayals of underprivileged citizens and overlooked themes, that is, opposition to stereotypes, stigmas and underrepresentation to break up with the “invisibility” of certain communities and issues in Brazil. In that context, alternative projects are interrelated. They tend to see journalism as a means to change society, but not as an end in itself. Their ethos fits Forde’s conclusion that alternative journalism “must be anchored to something of a political and democratic purpose, as moderate as that might sometimes be” (2011:174).

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• Even though there are different intentions and forms of organisation among alternative producers, this chapter confirmed a common concern with the “voices of the excluded, the oppressed, the dominated, the enslaved, the estranged, the dominated” (Fuchs, 2010:179). Neglected voices can be represented by the very own members of the communities portrayed, as in the case of community media, but also by reporters who participate in alternative outlets to tell stories often absent from mainstream media. Their aim and their active “listening” can be read as an attempt to challenge the consensus of what is newsworthy or what constitutes public interest. • One of the traits of alternative media content is an interest in local news or issues that are relevant to their target community. Some examples are as follows: (1) for a digital magazine made by young women, news is not linked to current events, but to what its self-­ managed media considers relevant to share, no matter how subjective the themes are; (2) for citizen journalists from the outskirts of São Paulo, a region that usually makes headlines when it is the scene of some tragic event, a festival of poetry could be newsworthy; (3) for Amazonian journalists, what happens in remote indigenous villages is always newsworthy, while media from the favelas aim to deconstruct the homogeneous narrative about these urban spaces often treated as “forbidden territories” (Felix, 2009). Accordingly, my understanding of alternative media is closely aligned with Chris Atton’s viewpoint: “Alternative media construct a reality that opposes the conventions and representations of mass media” (2008:216). The chapter also sheds light on the degree to which alternative practices disrupt established codes of journalism, a discussion that will be further explored in the next chapters. Professional journalists showed a greater concern in replicating some of the traditional values of journalism, especially in the practice of investigative journalism, an in-depth genre that requires balanced reporting and careful fact-checking to hold power to account through a set of established practices. This is a genre that has been filling gaps left by traditional media in Latin America through non-profit outlets (Requejo-Alemán & Lugo-Ocando, 2014). On the other hand, outlets that are managed by non-trained journalists, such as media from the favelas, expressed a more nuanced approach to formal attributes of a news story, since they are more concerned in sharing their own attached narratives from the perspective of those who experience that particular reality. Their criticism is not directed at the principles of journalism per se

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but rather at what they consider as a discriminatory narrative of the mainstream media that shapes the construction of public discourse. For them, these two trends may sound contradictory at times, but journalism should not be studied or practiced on the basis of a monolithic form (Atton and Hamilton, 2008; Forde, 2011; Kenix, 2011, Carlson & Lewis, 2015). Here I echo Hacket and Gurleyen: “Any attempted equation of dominant media with objectivity, and of alternative media with its rejection, is untenable” (2015: 61). In essence, alternative groups challenge the supposed objectivity of corporate media, but seek verified narratives that give them legitimacy, emphasising for example the need to disseminate reliable information that challenges dominant viewpoints and sources. For them, the transparency of their endorsement of marginalised sources represents a way of seeking facts as close as possible to the truth. Although this is not exactly synonymous with objectivity or neutrality, the answers suggest a concern with fairness and accuracy, also present in traditional journalism (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2014). Furthermore, the outlets examined throughout this study do not attempt to be perceived as a substitute for legacy media. What they pursue is different from the motivations that drive and rule the industrialised routines of large media corporations. Accordingly, there is a will to be regarded as authoritative players in the digital media ecosystem, but not as replacements of traditional journalism. These identity-related arguments signal a shift away from the notion of alternative media as “partisan”. While alternative outlets are clear about their attachments, they want to avoid being associated with political propaganda journalism. Alternative journalism is not detached and neither apolitical, but defining these media as purely partisan is a reductionist conclusion that does not contribute to the understanding of a constantly shifting media ecosystem. In terms of self-definition there is also a clear malleability. Alternative media? Or independent media? Journalist or citizen journalists? Whilst some groups are more explicitly political than others, it is discernible that their primary function is to expand the news agenda and to extend the breath of counter-public spheres that oppose dominant discourses, which constitutes a political act per se (Forde, 2011). Defining new social actors on the news scene as “ordinary individuals who temporarily adopt the role of journalists to participate in newsmaking” (Allan, 2013:9) does not reflect what is becoming a more intertwined, consistent and organised practice of online news production. In that sense, they could be described as “radical” since they are primarily concerned with social change, a term

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that refers to “transformations in norms, attitudes, socio-economic structures, policies, beliefs, information, power, and behaviors” (Waisbord, 2014:186). However, there are shifting boundaries in this radicalism, making it imperative to evaluate these initiatives beyond the assumption that they are tied to social movements and activism and therefore should be dismissed as relevant subjects of journalism studies. The core argument is that what matters is the combination of what these emerging groups provide to enable more active forms of citizenship, narratives that reflect the diverse realities of those who are not part of the existing power structures and an expanded news coverage in Brazil.

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Custódio, L. (2016). Favela media activism. Political trajectories of low-income Brazilian youth. Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis, 1665. http://urn. fi/URN:ISBN:978-­952-­03-­0118-­7 Dahlgren, P., & Sparks, C. (2005). Communication and citizenship: Journalism and the public sphere. Routledge. Deakin, H., & Wakefield, K. (2014). Skype interviewing: Reflections of two PhD researchers. Qualitative Research, 14(5), 603–616. Duffy, B.  E. (2013). Remake, remodel: Women’s magazines in the digital age. University of Illinois Press. Downing, J. D. H. (2001). Radical media - rebellious communication and social movements. Sage. Felix, C. B. (2009). Territórios Proibidos: Mídia e Representatividade na Favela Maré. Intercom _ Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (pp. 1–14). Ferreira do Vale, H. (2015). Territorial Polarization in Brazil’s 2014 Presidential Elections. Regional and Federal Studies, 25(3), 297–311. Figaro, R. (2018). As relações de comunicação e as condições de produção no trabalho de jornalistas em arranjos econômicos alternativos às corporações de mídia. ECA-USP. Flick, U. (2009). An Introduction to qualitative research. Sage Publications. Folha de S.Paulo (n.d.). O jornal mais influente do Brasil. Available at https:// www1.folha.uol.com.br/institucional/o_grupo.shtml Forde, S. (2011). Challenging the news: The journalism of alternative and community media. Palgrave Macmillan. Fraser, N. (1992). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. In C.  Calhoun (Ed.), Habermas and the public sphere (pp. 109–142). MIT Press. Fuchs, C. (2010). Alternative media as critical media. European Journal of Social Theory, 13(2), 173–192. Fulton, J. (2015). Are you a journalist? New media entrepreneurs and journalists in the digital space. Javnost/The Public, 22(4), 362–374. Gillham, B. (2005). Research interviewing: The range of techniques. Open University Press [Kindle]. Gillmor, D. (2008). We the media. O’Reilly Media. Grupo Globo, G1 (n.d.). Princípios editoriais do Grupo Globo. Available at: https://g1.globo.com/principios-editoriais-do-grupo-globo.html Hackett, R., & Gurleyen, P. (2015). Beyond the binaries? Alternative media and objective journalism. In C. Atton (Ed.), The Routledge companion to alternative media (pp. 54–65). Routledge. Harcup, T. (2005). I’m doing this to change the world. Journalism Studies, 6(3), 361–375. Harcup, T. (2015). Journalism principles and practice. Sage.

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Hermida, A. (2012). Social journalism: Exploring how social media is shaping journalism. In E. Siapera & A. Veglis (Eds.), The handbook of global online journalism (pp. 309–328). John Wiley & Sons. Holton, A. E., & Lewis, S. C. (2011). Social media in news discourse: Journalism, social media and the use of humor on twitter. The Electronic Journal of Communication, 21(1&2), 1–20. IACHR. (2021). http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Brasil2021-en.pdf Jenkins, J., & Nielsen, R. K. (2018). The digital transition of local news. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Available at: https://reutersinstitute. politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2018-­0 4/JenkinsNielsenDigital TransitionLocalNews.pdf Kenix, L. J. (2011). Alternative and mainstream media: The converging spectrum. Bloomsbury. Kovach, B., & Rosenstiel, T. (2014). The elements of journalism. Three Rivers Press. Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content analysis, an introduction to its methodology. Sage Publications. Kvale, S. (2007). Doing interviews. Sage [Kindle]. Lelo, T. (2022). The rise of the Brazilian fact-checking movement: Between economic sustainability and editorial Independence. Journalism Studies. https:// doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2022.2069588 Levy, H. (2018). The internet, politics and inequality in contemporary Brazil. Peripheral media. Lexington Books. Malterud, K. (2012). Systematic text condensation: A strategy for qualitative analysis. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 40, 795–805. Maras, S. (2013). Objectivity in journalism. Polity Press. McChesney, R. W., & Pickard, V. (2011). Will the last reporter please turn out the lights: The collapse of journalism and what can be done to fix it. The New Press. McQuail, D. (2013). Journalism and society. Sage Publishing. McNair, B. (2017). After objectivity? Schudson’s sociology of journalism in the era of post-factuality. Journalism Studies, 18(10), 1318–1333. Peruzzo, C.  M. K. (2005). Mídia Regional e Local: Aspectos Conceituais e Tendências. Comunicação & Sociedade, 26(43), 67–84. Requejo-Alemán, J. L., & Lugo-Ocando, J. (2014). Assessing the sustainability of Latin American investigative non-profit journalism. Journalism Studies., 15(5), 222–232. Schudson, M. (2001). The objectivity norm in American journalism. Journalism, 2(2), 149–170. Schudson, M. (2011). The sociology of news. W.W. Norton. Souza, P. L., & Zanetti, J. P. (2013). Comunicação e juventudes em movimento: Novas tecnologias, territórios e desigualdades. IBASE. Tandoc, E. E. J., Lim, Z. W., & Ling, R. (2018). Defining “Fake News”. Digital Journalism, 6(2), 137–153. Waisbord, S. (2014). Citizen journalism, development and social change: Hype and Hope. In S. Allan & E. Thorsen (Eds.), Citizen journalism: Global perspectives (pp. 185–197). Peter Lang.

CHAPTER 5

Framing the News from Peripheral Angles: An Expansion of News Agenda

Introduction This empirical chapter is focused on the online material produced by alternative journalists in Brazil. It addresses four case studies selected on the grounds of their consistent coverage of socially sensitive topics, in addition to representing the views of different underrepresented groups in society. Their news content goes beyond the coverage of crisis situations with occasional citizen involvement. They are an active part of a post-industrial ecosystem in which large news organisations are no longer the only ones in charge of newsgathering and distribution (Anderson et al., 2012). The four outlets selected for this analysis represent different types of independent journalism, which is consistent with the heterogeneous nature of alternative media discussed in this book. Even with that multiplicity recognised in Latin America (Salaverría et al., 2019), there is a common ground. They represent a departure from what traditional news corporations consider newsworthy or of public interest, and all of them are non-profit organisations. They make an effort to “privilege the powerless and the marginal” (Harcup, 2013:77), but they are “not a simple expression of social movements” (Hamilton & Atton, 2001:125). These aspects correspond to the literature on alternative media that provided the framework for this research, as discussed in Chap. 2.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Sarmento, Alternative News Reporting in Brazil, Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26999-8_5

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This chapter draws on the content analysis of the following four resonant groups in Brazil: 1. Agência Pública (apublica.org): Non-profit agency that distributes investigative reporting with a focus on human rights (In English: Public Agency). A team of women reporters, mirrored at the experience of The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), founded the agency in 2011. It has since won 52 national and international awards, according to its website. Editors are based in São Paulo, but the agency maintained a house in Rio de Janeiro that served as a cultural centre for independent journalism. In-depth investigations are distributed in Portuguese, Spanish and English. The agency promotes a mentoring programme that includes microscholarships for reporting, providing resources and guidance for independent journalists. Funded by donations from private foundations, both national and international; sponsorship of projects and events; grants; crowdfunding and readers’ contributions.1 2. Amazônia Real (amazoniareal.com.br): Investigative non-profit outlet which aims to give visibility to the populations and issues from the Amazon region (In English: Real Amazonia). Founded in 2013 by two women journalists, it is produced by a network of journalists and contributors, and based in Manaus (Northern Brazil). The goal is to portray the reality of a very complex and strategic region that usually makes into the mainstream, nationally and internationally, only when there is a major crisis or environmental disaster, such as the fires in the Amazon rainforest. Underrepresented and stigmatised social groups gain voice in Amazônia Real, for instance, indigenous, immigrants, rural workers, quilombolas and riverside populations. The news agency advocates that local populations should be “protagonists of their own narratives”. It produces workshops with a focus on identity and belonging in the Amazon region. The financial support of the agency occurs as follows: donations from readers and partnerships with philanthropic institutions.2

1  Information retrieved from the outlet’s webpage. Available at https://apublica.org/ about-us/. 2  Information retrieved from the outlet’s webpage. Available at https://amazoniareal. com.br/quemsomos/.

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3. Nós, Mulheres da Periferia (nosmulheresdaperiferia.com.br): Collective of women from the outskirts of São Paulo (In English: We, Women of the Periphery). Dissatisfaction with the mainstream coverage of the peripheries and their female population led to the creation of the network with the mission to “produce journalism to raise awareness on the history, memory and opinion of black and peripheral women”. Founded in 2014, the group is led by a small team of mostly black women who live in often neglected neighbourhoods. They discuss issues on gender, race and class from a personal and intersectional perspective. They maintain a news website, produced a documentary and promote workshops on independent media production. Funded by donations and grants. 4. Coletivo Papo Reto (Facebook.com/ColetivoPapoReto): Community-­run media from Complexo do Alemão favela, a group of 16 different favelas in the North zone of Rio de Janeiro (In English: Straight Talk). The collective started working in 2013 and is formed by non-professional journalists who were driven by the desire to counterbalance the coverage of favelas by the mainstream media. They report abuses committed by security forces, but their aim is to build a narrative that is not only focused on violence. Activists rose to prominence in 2015 when they documented the death of a 10-year-old boy fatally shot by a policeman. Participants work as volunteers and are not trained journalists. No form of stable funding. In examining  the output of alternative groups and how they offer a diverse approach to alternative journalism, the analysis illustrates their value in a changing media environment. The content is presented in a way that lay out the varying degrees of diversion from traditional journalistic patterns. While this book considers multiple discourses from a broad range of alternative producers on identity, motivations and sustainability, this chapter in particular narrows down the sample for the qualitative content analysis based on the assumption that these cases are equally concerned in contesting media power (Couldry & Curran, 2003). The interviews conducted for this research considered questions related to traditional norms of journalism and its professional ideology, such as the core concept of objectivity, as well as discussions about what is newsworthy and the sources that often feed the news cycle. It’s explicit in the producers’ views a criticism of the supposed neutrality of traditional media,

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as explored throughout this book. But if on the one hand they assume their agenda for social change, on the other they show a concern to be seen as disseminators of credible and verified information, regardless of being open about their motivations, such as feminist ideals or human rights advocacy (see Chap. 4). Thus, the purpose of the chapter is to better understand to what extent alternative news outlets expand the news landscape, offering diversity to the Brazilian media ecosystem, and how they defy journalistic conventions. Thereby, it is necessary to start with the complex view on the meaning of news values.

News Values Stuart Hall was right when he wrote that news values have a very opaque meaning. “All true journalists are supposed to possess it: few can or are willing to identify and define it” (Hall, 2021: 68). In their interrogation of what news is, Tony Harcup and Deirdre O’Neill (2017) argue that the use of new technologies, which expanded audiences’ participation in the process of producing and disseminating news, did not change the factors that determine what counts the most significant events. Editors of media corporations often select stories that satisfy one established criteria of values, that is, news that will get the attention of the audience according to what journalists consider more relevant or newsworthy among an incalculable number of events happening all the time. According to Harcup and O’Neill, a list of what is usually selected to be published includes stories that are exclusive, have either very negative or very positive overtones, have an element of surprise, entertain or shock, and involve celebrities or power elites. They also point out the aspect of “shareability” as a relevant news values in the digital environment, that is, content that is considered “likely to generate sharings and comments via Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media” (2017:1482). Denis McQuail suggests another obvious feature of news: “attempt to be timely and of the moment” (2013:15). With the expansion of online channels, how can journalists possibly keep up with the here and now? To Magaly Prado, “speed and fragmentation are the watchwords” (2011a, 2011b:4). Anastasia Denisova differentiates “clickbaits” from “viral journalism”, defining the latter as the strategy to “promote quality media stories on the internet in order to gain maximum exposure and sharing” (2022:1). Her investigation among UK quality media highlights some viral tactics to

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ensure content’s visibility, such as strong visual impact, emotional appeal, a “surprise” spin and originality. Hall sums up the three basic elements of news selection: “action, temporal recency and newsworthiness” (2021:68). This so-called ideology of news (Hall, 2021) does not mean that journalists working in large newsrooms spend a lot of time poring over a manual and having exhaustive debates about what is newsworthy, that is, what is going to be published and what would be discharged as irrelevant. Decisions need to be made quickly, though the accelerated news cycle does not imply a thoughtless process either (Lievrouw, 2015; Harcup, 2015). News usually conform to a recognised style and are shaped by the priorities of each media organisation (Meikle & Redden, 2011; McQuail, 2013). Besides that, large newsrooms are used to organising their reporters according to “beats”, turning them into experts of particular issues. This also contributes to the homogeneity of news delivered by mainstream media, since the locations where information is gathered and the sources that are heard tend to coincide (Croteau et al., 2012). Frequently, in spite of the upscaling of online news production, the content of mainstream media can be very similar, providing the same news angle, same quotes and images disseminated by news wires or press releases (Phillips, 2010; Redden & Witschge, 2010). As previously discussed, it is also expected that the mainstream model of the press should follow the ideal of journalism as impartial and reliable as opposed to partisan press (McQuail, 2013). In opposition to this set of values that informs the content and the format of the mainstream mediated world, the published output of the alternative media reflects a multiplication of perspectives that arguably challenges traditional news frames (Harcup, 2015). Free from the daily news cycle that dominates the routine of traditional newsrooms, as well as from the pressures to monetise content, alternative production is not dictated by requirements such as breaking news, timeliness, visual appealing, drama or entertainment. Though alternative media don’t need to experiment with “clickbaits” as legacy organisations, the scarcity of audiences’ attention, typical from the digital age, affects every type of users. Therefore, what is a story of public interest for alternative groups and how is it presented? Here again we resume the discussion about adherence to conventional codes of journalism. Previous studies have analysed the importance of long-established journalistic values and routines for non-mainstream players, concluding that citizen journalists, for instance, aim to incorporate

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traditional norms such as objectivity, balance and gatekeeping practices to be perceived as credible sources in an increasingly chaotic digital landscape (Johnson & St. John, 2017). The groups that are examined in this research do not necessarily fit the description of citizen journalism or participatory journalism as not all of them include amateur reporting. Nevertheless, interviews with Brazilian alternative producers confirmed this suggestion that there is not a complete erosion of traditional journalistic codes among the emerging voices in the digital media landscape. Therefore, if they seek to invert the hierarchy of news (Atton & Hamilton, 2008), what exactly sets them apart from the mainstream on the one hand and from propagandists on the other? Considering the broad range of non-corporate projects addressed through the interviews, I opted to apply qualitative content analysis to case studies as a purposive sampling strategy (Bryman, 2012) in an attempt to answer these questions.

Case Studies and Qualitative Content Analysis The use of mixed methods, or a multi-method approach, to reach a more accurate analysis of a social phenomenon is a widely accepted strategy in social science (Kohlbacher, 2006). The content analysis aimed to corroborate and probe the responses from the interviews. The selection of four cases, thus, came from insights gained from the analysis of the interviews. Rather than considering this fact as a lack of rigid structure that may pose problems, it is worth noting that the qualitative design is deliberately flexible and decisions regarding data collection can be made as the actual process of the research development (Taylor et al., 2015). The analysis of the transcripts of the verbal interactions with alternative media producers combined with a systematic analysis of the content they produce intended to reach efficient and empirical grounding (Krippendorff, 2004) to discuss current practices of alternative journalism in Brazil. As the interviews included very heterogeneous groups, a deeper understanding of specific cases was the chosen method to build an in-depth picture of what is in the core of this investigation, that is, to generate evidence of how alternative journalists are acting in this specific regional context. The replicable aspect of content analysis (Krippendorff, 2004) has been broadly used by researchers focused on online journalism. Jane B. Singer (2005) applied the method to investigate journalism norms and practices of 20 blogs dealing with politics or civic affairs to conclude that journalists who became bloggers tend to keep the traditional role of gatekeepers of

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information. Joanna Redden and Tamara Witschge (2010) analysed how different online spaces, traditional and alternative, covered five types of news stories. Their findings confirm a lack of diversity within mainstream news site, while the alternative ones (Current TV; Indymedia and OpenDemocracy) did provide unique content. Andrew M. Lindner et al. (2015) also conducted a content analysis of citizen journalism websites in the United States to call into question their independence from mainstream media. Helton Levy (2018), in turn, combined framing analysis with interviews to address how digital media producers are fighting for social justice in Brazil. These studies, among others, served as an inspiration for applying content analysis to make sense of what alternative journalists produce in Brazil and how they disseminate their content. The alternative outlets were purposively chosen for encompassing various types of departures from what traditional news corporations do, an essential criterion of this study. In addition, they had proven to have an impact beyond their main targeted audiences. Firstly, they are digital native and independent, which means the outlets do not belong to large media corporations. Secondly, they have at their heart a critical content that proceeds from dissatisfaction with “conventions of news sources and representations” (Atton & Hamilton, 2008:1). Thirdly, they challenge the normalised process of gathering and distribution of news. Finally, they did not disappear after gaining prominence and have been publishing content in a systematic way for years. Methodologically, qualitative content analysis was applied to 120 pieces (30 per case) retrieved from their websites (with the exception of Coletivo Papo Reto, which mainly publishes stories on its Facebook page) from August to September 2018. It is important to note that a few stories from the homepages were not necessarily “new”. Analysis was restricted to their homepage and the date of the production of the story was not considered relevant. As long as it was highlighted on the homepage, for instance through a hyperlink to another page of the website, the material was considered appropriate for the purpose of the study. Moreover, since Coletivo Papo Reto does not make daily publications, to reach the sample of 30 stories it was necessary to extend the analysis until the first days of October just for this particular case. Homepages were analysed daily and data gathering took place over a period that was deliberately chosen as relevant for the aim of this study. Brazil was preparing to hold presidential elections in October 2018. It was a time of extreme political polarisation in the country. As mainstream media tend to cover the same stories during a particular

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news cycle (Boczkowski & Santos, 2007; Redden & Witschge, 2010), the examination of non-corporate sites could bring light to the nature of nonmainstream content when a particular event had an unmistakable impact on news coverage. Coding was based on the themes that have previously emerged from the interviews: (1) news topics; (2) sources; (3) format; (4) audience’s participation; (5) objectivity; (6) information on funding. Following what Margrit Schreier (2012) suggests as essential steps to make sense of data in a qualitative content analysis (QCA), I identified subcategories to each of the main dimensions (Table 5.1). That said, looking closely at the content disseminated by alternative outlets is a way to determine what is news for alternative journalists and how different their production is from mainstream sites. I have assessed the reliability of the coding frames, both for the interviews and the case studies, in terms of “comparisons across points in time” (Schreier, 2012:167). Instead of employing a second coder to review a sample of the interviews and stories, which would have required a Portuguese-speaking researcher, I have double-checked the same units of coding in two different moments of this research to confirm the findings. Between the first and second analyses there was a time period of at least three months, employing “stability” as the underlying concept of reliability (ibid.).

Table 5.1  Coding frame of case studies Categories

Examples of questions to identify subcategories

Topic

Hard or soft news? About public policy? Violence? Economy? Education? Environment? Human rights? Women’s right? Politics? Disaster? Government official? NGO? Ordinary citizens? Politician? Expert? Mainstream media? Inverted pyramid? Long-form reporting? Image-based story? List? Interview? User-generated content? Tools to encourage discussion and involvement (e.g. polls; invitations to send contributions)? Opinion piece? Fact-based story? Propaganda? Call for mobilisation? First-person essay? Reference to any source of funding or particular campaigns that fit into the agenda of the organisation (e.g. events, workshops, donation request, references to sponsorship)?

Source Form Audience Subjectivity Funding or campaign

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Investigative Journalism Based in São Paulo, Agência Pública (AP) is Brazil’s first journalism investigative news agency, founded in 2011. Among the outlets analysed in this research, it is the most awarded for the quality of its reporting. In 2018 alone, it received four national and international awards, including the Human Rights Journalism Award. Its values, according to its website’s “about us” page, are (1) editorial independence; (2) the promotion of human rights; (3) the right to information and the checking of democratic debate; (4) investigative and innovative journalism, with independent and balanced reporting based on primary sources; (5) gender equality; (6) a cooperative environment that cultivates ethical, skilled journalists. Funding comes from different sources, such as donations from private foundations, sponsorship of projects and crowdfunding. The main donors are the Ford Foundation (US) and the Oak Foundation (Switzerland). According to the analysis, AP presented a diverse range of reported topics (Table 5.2), with a stronger focus on politics (23%). The content analysis took place in the two months prior to the first round of the presidential elections of October 2018; thereby, the interest for national themes is not a surprise. Although the political coverage was the dominant topic, AP did not show concern in reporting the routine of the presidential campaign, nor short-format breaking news. Political articles had an in-depth critical approach and were based on original data. For example, an interview with Table 5.2  Description of Agência Pública’s content Main story topics Public policy

Examples

Discussion on abortion; criminalisation of drugs; fire in the National Museum International Julian Assange’s case Culture Book launch; tackling racism through art; exhibition censored Violence Police abuse; violence against indigenous people Environment Widespread use of pesticides; environmental disaster Socioeconomics Crisis in traditional media corporations; poor working conditions in rural area; hunger Politics Checking assertions of politicians; interviews about the political crisis Self-referential Call for microscholarship

Number 5 1 4 4 4 4 7 1

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the former head of the Federal Police during the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva presented a critical view of the investigation dubbed “Operation Car Wash”. The investigation started in 2014 into allegations that directors of the state oil company Petrobras were involved in a corruption scandal and ended up affecting all the major political parties in Brazil. In the interview, the former police chief, who strengthened the Federal Police in the first years of the Workers’ Party government, attacked the investigation for considering it a political conspiracy to condemn former president Lula. He echoed the arguments against the operation, which had received broad support from traditional media. The headline is a reference to a possible revenge against Lula: “With blood in the mouth”.3 The article did not adhere to the inverted pyramid format, a very frequent hallmark of traditional journalism and hard news. Rather, before addressing “Operation Car Wash”, the long narrative approach allowed the author to recount the history of the modernisation of the Federal Police in Brazil, the fight against corruption and the troubled passage of the former police chief by the government. The overall content demonstrates a concern with critical, truthful and contextualised journalism. For instance, to hold presidential candidates accountable for what they said during the campaign, the agency employed fact-checking methods to its political stories. Political fact-checking is a practice on the rise, both among large news corporations and independent websites, to reinforce the truth-seeking tradition in journalism. Public figures’ claims were verified and classified according to seven different labels: true, false, exaggerate, no context, debatable, underestimated, impossible to prove. The commitment to objectivity that is implied in this journalistic genre was combined with a critical approach to address social issues. For example, AP investigated a claim put forward by a left-wing presidential candidate on violence against the LGBT community. The politician cited Brazil as the “world’s record holder of murders of LGBT people”.4 The outlet checked the statement and concluded that it was “impossible to confirm” the claim. The verification opened up the opportunity for a long-form analytical report on the lack of global monitoring of violence against the LGBT community, thus expanding the notion of a story built around a politician’s quote.  Available at https://apublica.org/2018/08/com-sangue-na-boca/.  Available at https://apublica.org/checagem/2018/08/truco-dados-sobre-assassinato-delgbts-sao-incompletos/. 3 4

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In general, most AP news articles were devoted to news stories related to social issues. A general underlying aspect prioritised the impact of abuse and inequality on unprivileged populations. Thereby, articles coded as “socioeconomics” included investigative reporting on the poverty line in low-income neighbourhoods of São Paulo, as well as on violations of worker’s rights in a remote area of the Northeast of Brazil. In turn, stories coded as “environment” reported on how small communities are affected by a contaminated river in the state of Pará (North of Brazil) and irregularities committed by the foundation that should protect the rights of families affected by a dam disaster occurred on 2015 in Mariana (southeast state of Minas Gerais), for example. Content from AP was overall presented in long-form reporting, sometimes with multimedia elements. In addition to lengthy investigative reports and fact-checking, the content included interview articles with the classic Q&A structure, videos, book excerpts and personal narratives. A concern with the visual quality of the content could also be noticed, either through videos in the form of mini-documentaries or images with an artistic aesthetic. In the article “Still Slavery”, a photographer reported, through black and white pictures and a personal testimony, on the working conditions of the sugar cane plantations in the interior of the state of Bahia, known as Recôncavo Baiano (Northeast of Brazil).5 Classified as an “essay”, the compelling story narrated the precarious situation of the workers. The example combined a personal view with a quality photojournalism documentation to expose the reality of “forgotten” workers. Content produced by AP does not break with traditional notions of reporting. News articles invariably blended the testimony of ordinary people with that of experts, such as researchers or representatives of social movements and NGOs. One illustrative example was found in a news series on women’s reproductive rights and health, which included the story of a single mother who was subjected to forced sterilisation in a rural area of São Paulo after her eighth pregnancy. By judicial decision, she underwent tubal ligation surgery and her baby was given up for adoption against her will. The headline was “I do not want this to happen to any other woman”.6 The narrative included hyperlinks to other publications that narrated the  Available at https://apublica.org/ensaio/2015/03/ainda-a-escravidao/.  Available at https://apublica.org/2018/08/nao-quero-que-isso-aconteca-com-maisnenhuma-mulher/. 5 6

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same story. Hence, it was not exclusive news. Nevertheless, AP expanded on the case by employing a long-form narrative. The author inserted herself in the story to narrate the process of the reporting, recounting the difficulty to find the woman and to convince her to give another interview. Different human rights experts and legal specialists were quoted condemning the prosecutor and the judge’s actions against a vulnerable woman. Under the subheading “Violated rights”, the piece explained that the federal law prohibits forced sterilisations and included hyperlinks to the jurisdiction. The misconduct of the judiciary system was checked by a careful investigation. Hence, the concept of balance was present in the piece, as in other articles of AP. The reporter informed that both the judge and the prosecutor were contacted but refused to speak. Illustrated with drawings, instead of pictures, the story stressed the vulnerability of female bodies. Another relevant example to illustrate AP’s practices came from an investigative series on police brutality in the state of Amapá (North of Brazil). The reporting was based on unpublished official data showing that the local Military Police was responsible for the highest number of deaths in the last three years across the country. Under the headline “Exclusive: Amapá’s Military Police killed the most in the last three years”, the story began with the case of a security officer killed by policemen for being mistaken for a robber.7 Different sources were heard to confirm the crime that remained unpunished. The reporter’s personal impressions were not expressed in the text, which included quotes from experts on human rights as well as policemen. The content, a scoop, was focused on a Brazilian state rarely represented in the national mainstream media. The notion of open publishing is not an inspiration for AP, since its focus is on investigative reporting. Nonetheless, the organisation is open to journalists that are not part of its staff. Through a “Microscholarship for Reporting Competition”, independent journalists are invited to suggest news stories on broad themes. The selected ones receive funding and mentorship to cover the topic for two months. Each theme is sponsored by one NGO. The content analysis identified two themes that generated pieces produced by the winners of the competition: Police Violence and Military Intervention (partnership with the NGO Conectas Human Rights) and Hunger (partnership with Oxfam). The process of the 7  Available at https://apublica.org/2018/08/exclusivo-pm-do-amapa-e-a-que-mais-matouno-pais-nos-ultimos-tres-anos/.

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microscholarships was explained in a story published in the website’s homepage. Names of other donors do not appear in any other stories analysed in this research.

Socio-environmental Journalism Two women journalists who have a great deal of experience in well-known Brazilian media outlets launched Amazônia Real (AR) in 2013 in Manaus (state of Amazonas). According to its “about us” page, the mission of the news agency is to make “an ethical and investigative journalism, focused on the issues of the Amazon region and its people, and in support of the democratization of information, freedom of expression and human rights”. In 2019, the news agency was awarded with the King of Spain journalism prize in recognition of its coverage of indigenous populations and environmental issues. All stories published by AR were, as expected, associated with the geographical area that composes the Amazon region, with the greatest emphasis given not to urban areas, but to distant communities. Although it would not be accurate to talk about hyperlocal journalism in such a vast area that encompasses 59% of Brazil’s territory, the focus on issues that affect marginalised communities makes it clear the purpose of the organisation. The analysis of AR website found a significant predominance of news topics related to environmental issues (26%) and violence (26%), although the coverage included a broad range of issues. Stories were not breaking news; rather they referred to a series of ongoing problems that touch the daily lives of different communities occupying the world’s largest rainforest. Among the most frequently reported topics were socioeconomic problems faced by indigenous people, riverside populations and isolated communities due to environmental problems, economic abuse or violence. Stories about violence against unprivileged communities included cases of racism, discrimination, abuse of economic power and environmental destruction (Table 5.3). The selected content retrieved from the news agency website was original, with no aggregation of stories from other publications. Long-form investigative pieces, not geared by the element of timeliness, predominated. AR gave space to follow-up stories related to problems that have occurred for some time but remained unresolved for the affected communities. For instance, the piece “Waiting for dry land” (17/07/2018)

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Table 5.3  Description of Amazônia Real’s content Main story topics

Examples

International Culture

Crisis on the Venezuelan border New book excerpt; documentary about an indigenous transvestite Killing of environmental leader; land dispute; killing of a journalist who was investigating the actions of organised crime in the region; racism against indigenous students Environmental disaster; impact of natural disaster on local communities; conference on climate change; solar energy project Impact of privatisation on local communities; black women’s socioeconomic vulnerability Vote in the national congress against law to protect the Amazon region Events to commemorate the 5th anniversary of Amazônia Real

Violence and discrimination Environment

Socioeconomics Politics Self-referential

Number of articles 3 3 8

8

3 3 2

referred to a natural disaster that occurred four years ago.8 The story reported the struggle of the small community living far away from the state’s capital. Other examples of headlines of extensive journalistic reports about ongoing issues were (bold markups are mine): “Indigenous girls from São Gabriel da Cachoeira still under death threat” (20/09/2018); “Deaths of rural workers over agrarian conflict remain unpunished in Canutama” (14/08/2018); “Quilombola leader killed three months ago asked for protection (…)” (14/07/2018). Follow-up stories are routine for journalists, though the selection highlighted here confirms an investment in news stories that usually pass unreported in traditional media and involve victims in the margin of society. They included quotes from a range of sources, but with a clear “people-led” approach, rather than focusing on official statements. In turn, pieces concerning the national government and national politics represented only 10% of the sample. Even so, political coverage was also related to the local reality of the Amazon region, such as in “Temer’s government minimizes incident with Hydro and says pollution is ‘accute’  Available at https://amazoniareal.com.br/espera-da-terra-firme/.

8

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in Barcarena” (19/07/2018).9 This piece referred to an environmental disaster in the refinery Hydro Alunorte, a Norwegian company in the northern state of Pará. It reported the stance of then-President Michel Temer’s government on the leaking of toxic waste, but it was not limited to official statements. The story included the testimony of experts criticising the government’s report and showed the effects of the pollution to the local population in a long-form colourful piece. A reporter went to the affected community and described the community’s struggle: Gysele Brito from Espírito Santo, 28, a mother of five, says that before Hydro’s red mud, her family already lived with the pollution of the Bom Futuro community dump. She said that because of the garbage, her children take medicines for skin’s inflammation and constant allergies. “The doctor gave me these pills at the health centre. They get better, but it [the symptoms] always comes back”, she says. Gysele’s five and three-year-old children have several marks on their bodies and scratch themselves constantly. (Amazônia Real, 19/07/2018)

The excerpt illustrates the narration of the facts with an objective language, that is, the opinion of the reporter is not explicitly expressed. News stories were based on verifiable facts. Most of the narratives (64%) began with a character, confirming the intention to cover the region from the perspective of ordinary citizens. The formula of the inverted pyramid that places the most important information in the beginning of the reports was not strictly followed, but the stories contained the conventional elements of a journalistic text, with context and supporting data. Different sources were mentioned to show that facts have been checked. The story “Baku and the female role in the indigenous movement” (30/07/2018) chronicled the mourning of a female leader in an indigenous community.10 The fact was the death of a pioneer leader who introduced unusual approaches to socioeconomic problems faced by this small community in the North of Brazil. The reporter talked to members of the community but also to researchers, such as anthropologists, to provide a complete picture of an uncommon indigenous tribe. In another example, a story about the construction of a federal highway in an area inhabited by a particular indigenous ethnic group was framed 9  Available at https://amazoniareal.com.br/governo-temer-minimiza-incidente-com-a-hydro-ediz-que-poluicao-e-de-carater-agudo-em-barcarena/. 10  Available at https://amazoniareal.com.br/baku-e-seu-protagonismo-feminino-nomovimento-indigena/.

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from the viewpoint of the community (the Apurinã people), who was concerned with the environmental impact of the paving work in the South of the Amazonas state (“Paving of the BR-317 worries Apurinã leaders of the Purus River”/ 10/08/2018).11 The traditional rule of presenting opposite sides of a story was respected in all the investigative pieces of AR. Corroboration of information by different sources was clear, avoiding a purely advocacy journalism. In spite of the balanced approach, what stood out in the reports was the social injustice faced by marginalised communities. While the preference for a negative coverage was evident, AR also reported on topics such as arts, however maintaining the focus on “invisible” communities. In the cultural section, indigenous art and feminist events were prioritised. Besides the team of reporters and editors, AR has a group of columnists who produces articles for the website in which they express their opinion about themes related to the region. According to the website’s “who are we” page, “the columnists are free to choose the themes of their articles, which do not necessarily coincide with Amazônia Real’s opinion”. Articles based on the opinion of columnists had the authors’ profile identified at the bottom of the texts, thus offering a clear differentiation between hard news and opinionated pieces. AR works with a team of trained journalists and columnists, making use of professional organisation processes as it was confirmed by its founders in an interview for this research. Columnists are all identified as journalists or researchers from the region, with the exception of one columnist, who was described as a writer, educator and leader of a women’s association. They were all, thereby, experts in the rainforest and its socioeconomic issues. According to the founders, texts sent by collaborators are only published after going through the editors. Consequently, the practice of open publishing that is highlighted in alternative media studies (Platon & Deuze, 2003; Sandoval & Fuchs, 2010) is not present in AR. Still, the public is invited to participate on events promoted by the organisation. To celebrate its fifth anniversary (September 2018) it promoted, and announced on its website, free events, which included a debate on socioenvironmental impacts of mega-projects in the Amazon region; the launch of a book about small TV networks covering the region; and a photo exhibition focusing on threats to the biodiversity of the Rainforest and its local 11  Available at https://amazoniareal.com.br/pavimentacao-da-br-317-preocupa-liderancasapurina-do-rio-purus/.

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populations. The website highlighted that AR “assumed the exercise of journalism as a guarantee of access to quality and democratic information, with social justice”. The main donor of the initiative was identified (Ford Foundation) as well as partnerships with the following institutions: United States Embassy, Cultural Institute Brazil-United States and School of Arts and Tourism (ESAT) of the State University of Amazonas (UEA).

Women at the Centre of the News Agenda Nós, Mulheres da Periferia (NMP) was created in 2014 to cover the social reality of women from the outskirts of São Paulo, the largest city in Latin America, with an estimated population of 12.3 million people, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). When this research was conducted, six women (five journalists and one web designer) integrated the collective in a voluntary basis. According to the collective’s “about us” page, their goal is to disseminate content produced by and for women, “with the aim of contributing to the construction of more human and contextualized journalistic narratives within the tripod of class, race and territory”. Their exclusion is social and geographical, but the collective fight the stereotype of women of the periphery as a homogeneous monolith. In 2015 and 2016 the collective received funding from the municipal government of São Paulo to develop cultural projects to discuss the views and ideas of women from peripheral areas. In 2018, NMP received financial support from a group of international foundations to investigate the public health system for women. The collective also promotes workshops and lectures related to the surrounding areas of the largest Brazilian cities, a programme aimed at women who want to study, in addition to working and raising their families. The output of NMP covered diverse topics, such as racism, cultural events, education, violence, gender issues and public services, always related to women from peripheral areas. What stood out from the content analysis was a timeless agenda that gives visibility to the social reality of women who feel discriminated and underrepresented for being residents of areas classified as “too far” (Table 5.4): The topics showed on the above table were, in fact, intertwined. Stories about cultural events (36%) did not fit into the traditional entertainment or cultural section of legacy media. The concern was not to recommend “what to do” or “what to watch” in the cultural scene. The emphasis was on activities related to women’s rights and empowerment. Thus, for

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Table 5.4  Description of Nós, Mulheres da Periferia’s content Topics

Examples of stories

Courses

Free workshop for writers; finance course for “black and poor women” Book fair; documentary produced by black women; interview with artist from the periphery Abortion; racism; religion

 4

Public health system; public transportation Documentary produced by the collective Domestic workers’ rights Gay woman killed by policemen

 5  2  2  2

Culture National themes Public policy Self-referential Socioeconomic Violence

Number

11  5

example, the website recommended books written by black women writers “to inspire, learn and empower”, as well as songs by female rap and R&B singers for women who are in a relationship or “who are alone and understand the importance and power of being divine to themselves”. The list-article format, very popular in commercial news websites, was used in those cases. NMP also informed about cultural events related to women or residents of the periphery, such as an alternative free literature event in São Paulo to show the independent work of authors from low-income neighbourhoods. In another example, the collective advertised a documentary on environmental crimes in the North of Brazil, and published an interview (Q&A format) with the female director of the film, who emphasised that this type of crime affects mainly women and children. There was also an article to promote a photo exhibition that addressed racism and violence against women, under the headline “Why don’t you flat iron your hair? They wrote in their bodies sentences that they are used to hear”. The exhibition was created to promote body positivity against beauty stereotypes as explained in the article: The photographic exhibition CATARSE, by Lethicia Galo, 29, is composed of portraits of women who have suffered gender violence, and black women and men who are victims of racial violence. They wrote in their body sentences that were told to them by others, that is, male or female aggressors, protagonists of pain, discrimination, sexism, and racism. (Nós, Mulheres da Periferia, 28/03/2018)

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As seen, NMP engages in stories that have direct relevance to minorities, more specifically women of colour. For example, a journalist from the collective interviewed the American actor Danny Glover, who was in São Paulo to promote a movie (08/06/2018). The collective’s member joined a round table with the actor, but her questions to him were related to his activities and viewpoints as political activist and humanitarian. The example shows that the collective may have access to events promoted by the entertainment industry, but chose to frame the story on the grounds of the actor’s involvement with the civil rights movements, instead of covering the release of the new movie per se. Accordingly, other news that made it into mainstream media as well as pieces on public policy were disseminated on the website from the perspective of women’s interest. NMP gave space to articles on decriminalisation of abortion, lack of laws to protect women on public transportation, measures that affect freedom of African religions and a case of racism that receive wide media coverage. The collective did not engage with investigative journalism. These stories were framed to illustrate the lived experiences of women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. As an example, days before the Brazilian Supreme Court decided if abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy should be decriminalised, NMP published a piece on the debate based on the viewpoint of three feminist campaigners for the legalisation of abortion (03/08/2018). They were residents and activists of peripheral areas of São Paulo. The interview was recorded on video in which the women explained why they considered abortion as “a class and racial issue” in Brazil, acknowledging that the subject is a taboo in low-­ income regions. The piece mentioned official data on abortion with a link to the document gathered by a fact-checking news outlet: 49% of women who died of illegal abortions in the country were black, while white women accounted for 19% of deaths and unreported races represented 30%. The data, thus, was not exclusive, just as the debate on the right to abortion was widely covered in the mainstream media. The focus of the NMP was to give context to a long-running story to make it more significant for women from the periphery. The talk was published in an unedited video. The quality of the image was amateur, and the conversation happened in an environment of informality. Other examples of headlines that help to understand the content that shapes the collective’s general coverage:

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Free workshop on narrative writing will analyse black women writers. (24/07/2018) It is never too late for a man to be (less) chauvinistic. (05/08/2018) Public hospital: I feel I am simply a number. (23/04/2018) Being able to sit on the train is a daily dream for those on the periphery. (02/03/2018)

None of those stories were published as long-format articles. The dominant format was concise reporting that was more concerned in presenting a story through the eyes of women than to adhere to the standard inverted pyramid storytelling structure. In that sense, NMP showed a frequent effort to publicise content, mainly courses, that could lead to women’s empowerment, such as courses to help women from low-income parts of the city to deal with their personal finances or a course that provide childcare for young students with kids. The focus was clearly to promote opportunities of education for those deeply affected by inequality. Thereby, the sample represents a journalistic coverage with an explicit agenda to advocate women’s rights. This intention is also clear in the choice of sources, who were predominantly women, be experts in some specific subject or journalists of the collective writing first-person accounts. The overall result was a journalistic mix that included both fact-based stories and overtly opinionated pieces. These different types of formats were connected by the emphasis on gender, race and social class issues, allowing a dialogue within the periphery, a term that means both a location and a social construction (Levy, 2018). The following excerpt referred to a story on religious intolerance. The focus was a debate on a bill aimed to declare illegal the slaughter of animals in African-Brazilian religious rituals (17/8/2018). The issue made headlines in the mainstream media. Here NMP covered a protest against the bill: On the 8th of August, we were present on a march and talked to some women to understand the importance of the religions of African origins for the construction and continuity of the history and ancestry of the black people in Brazil. According to Bianca Santana, a university professor, African-born religions should be considered as the cultural patrimony of humanity, since the cult brings up the way black people share orixás and celebrations. ‘This is an ­argument that needs to be made not only by people who practice the religion of African origins, but by all people, because it is our human right to exist. (Mulheres da Periferia, 17/08/2018)

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The purpose of the piece was to give voice to the ones who are in favour of African-Brazilian religious rituals. The reporter covered the protest and interviewed practitioners who accused the state of racism for trying to prevent African rituals. The context was explained and the author’s opinion was not expressed. The collective’s goal to tackle the lack of representation of women is clear in pieces based on personal accounts. Under the headline “Machismo travels by train” (21/12/2015), a member of the collective reported on how she tried to avoid harassment in the public transport and ended up being attacked by passengers. This is how they want us to be portrayed: crazy, hysterical, and inconvenient. After all, they are already so accustomed to take all the spaces for themselves that when we show the least of discomfort we are seen as foolish, aggressive. Even more if you are a black dyke from the periphery. If my image offends them, just imagine my discourse! But I did not shut up at all; I kept my head up and said loudly to all the girls in the carriage that we should not shut up in the face of aggression and/or harassment. (Mulheres da Periferia, 21/12/2015)

The use of slang (dyke) is relevant. The term is avoided for its offensive connotation, but in the selected report it suggested an expression of gay pride by the author. The piece was part of a long series produced by the collective to discuss the problems on the urban mobility system. The issue, which affects the largest Brazilian cities, is also widely covered in the mainstream media. The approach of NMP, however, was on women’s safety in public transportation. The purpose of the pieces was to give a platform for women to describe the daily challenges of travelling long distances in an environment where incidents of violence and harassment are frequent. One could argue that this is an agenda that could be also found on mass media. The difference, though, is that members of NMP were actually recounting their own experiences as residents of remote locations, thus assuming the role of legitimate narrators of a routine of dangerous displacement unfamiliar to the upper class. The collective often explored stories that made headline in the mainstream media as an opportunity to echo a counter-hegemonic approach. In July 2018, the website looked at the case of a young black girl who was discriminated because of her afro-style hair. She had her hair straightened by her stepmother who did not approve of her curly hair. The case sparked a debate about the white standards of beauty in Brazil when the child’s

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mother published a post on Facebook saying that her daughter, who used to be proud of her afro-hair, was victim of racism. The story featured on mainstream media amid a rise of black  feminism in the country. NMP approached the case from the perspective of a black woman (a member of the collective) who struggled to embrace her own afro-hair. The piece included a quote from the girl’s mother taken from social media, a link to her Facebook page and pictures from the child’s Instagram account. Mainly, though, the article contextualised the case by referring to a personal experience of prejudice. The headline left little doubt that the article was written by a black woman: “The case of Bella’s hair straightening and how they want to whiten us”: At 7, I cut my hair, as I believed that a miracle could take place. It was such a sad quest. The more I tried to look like straight-haired girls, the less I looked like them. It was so distressing, leaving marks that still affect my self-esteem as a black woman. (Nós, Mulheres da Periferia, 04/07/2018)

NMP invites ordinary citizens to participate, although it only publishes content that is fully revised by the editors, as it was explained by one of the collective’s members. Thus, again, the open publishing model is not present. On the other hand, collective’s members authored most part of the selected articles, with fewer examples of personal accounts written by non-­ members. Hence, the breakdown of the barrier between audience and producers is evident, since the producers of the collective are at the same time the authors of first-person testimonies about a reality that they experience in their day to day. If on the one hand there is an editorial control of the narrative, on the other this control is exercised by voices that represent a different vision from that offered by the traditional headlines.

News from the Favela Coletivo Papo Reto (CPR) is an independent community-based media made by and for the residents of Complexo do Alemão e Penha, one of the biggest favelas in Rio de Janeiro. The group, according to the “about us” page of its website, “acts as a channel that shows the favela’s reality”. It is part of a movement defined as “guerrilla media” to confront the negative stereotype of the favela by corporate media, according to the collective’s own words. Members of CPR are not professional journalists. They

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expressly self-identify as activists who pledge to disseminate information from the “favelado to the favela itself”. To put into context, this investigation was conducted when Rio de Janeiro was under a military intervention, requested by former president Michel Temer to guarantee law and order in the state. Security operations have led to a surge in killing by agents of the state, as it was widely reported by mainstream media. According to opinion polls, a broad majority of Rio de Janeiro’s population supported the military intervention. Confrontations between drug gangs and security forces are part of the daily life of favelas, frequently framed as “abandoned” areas (Rosas-Moreno & Straubhaar, 2015). Not surprisingly, the content analysis showed an emphasis on stories that involve the oppression of marginalised populations, both in the favela and in other peripheral areas, although a variety of issues are covered (Table 5.5). As one of the producers stated in an interview for this research, the collective focuses on “disputing the narrative” of traditional media by highlighting issues that defy the conventional framings of favelas and their residents. This dispute involves a challenge to conventional journalistic codes, as the content analysis confirmed. For instance, facts are not separated from opinion. The following post (06/08/2018) informed about the murder of a woman by her partner, both residents of the community: This woman is called Simone, the mother of two children. That coward is Anderson, her killer. He suffocated Simone in cold blood. They are residents of Grota in Complexo do Alemão. Femicide in the favelas happens a lot. The

Table 5.5  Description of the content of Coletivo Papo Reto Topics

Examples

News about the community Violence

Campaign for donation; missing child; cultural events for residents Police abuse; shooting; people arrested without evidence; crime Killing of council woman; fire in the National Museum Meeting to discuss human rights; documentary about activism in Latin America

National news Citizenship

Number of posts 10 12  3  5

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worst, it ends up becoming routine when we shut up. Sisters, do not shut up in the face of domestic violence. (Papo Reto, 06/08/2018)

The example is symbolic of the form of communication that drives the collective. It is a message for the community. Essential facts of the story were not reported. When did the crime take place? What was the motive? Was the suspect arrested? Instead, the story was framed within the context of a campaign against domestic violence. The language employed had an overt emotional appeal, as this passage shows: Simone could not defend herself. Simone is not going to raise her daughters. Simone will not feature on a long TV coverage, neither on a whole newspaper’s page. But here she will have all the space she needs for justice to be done. (Papo Reto, 06/08/2018)

Call for mobilisation was highly visible in other posts that reflected the reality of the favelas through the own terms of the community. The critical approach is a hallmark of CPR’s coverage of social injustice and violence. On August 20, 2018, CPR reported on the destruction of a house in the favela by policemen and Army officials. The information was backed up by images and the sources were residents of the community, but there was no official confirmation by authorities, although mainstream media have also reported similar allegations about this practice of destroying homes of residents suspected of involvement in attacks on the military. Words were mixed with emojis: Another resident had the house destroyed by the police/army! Then you go out to work and there is a [police] operation in the community of Complexo da Penha … and my neighbours sent me messages through Whatsapp: ‘Serginho, they’re breaking your whole house’. Even my dog is already in the [police] car. They didn’t take the dog just because my neighbour didn’t let them. The rest I will need to buy back. What was my mistake? Is it because I am a worker? Is it because I live in a favela? This war is not our war. (Papo Reto, 20/08/2018)

Thereby, the language broke with journalistic conventions by emphasising the emotional outburst. In another similar example, a post reported on a shooting:

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We wake up again with that morning alarm that many do not know what it is (…) Whoever leaves home later, could not leave today and is sheltered at home in the safest places. This family is like this, together, the grandmother protecting their two granddaughters. Who could say that we are complacent with all this and that we deserve to suffer? (Coletivo Papo Reto, 11/10/2018)

In the text above there was not a concern with contextualisation: Where was the shooting taking place? Who was involved? What did the authorities say about the incident? Emotion shaped the narrative, rejecting the objective language of hard news stories. Symbols such as exclamation points, hashtags, emojis and upper case letters anchored the authors’ statements of opinion. The picture of the family under risk was also covered with an emoji expressing sadness. It was added to protect their identity, although it is not possible to say if that edition of the picture was made by the members of the collective or by the family who provided the image. Although the analysis confirmed the emphasis on the violence and stigmatisation suffered by residents and populations in the hands of the police, CPR gave space for the unity of the community and its people, seeking for support when it is needed. For example, when a nursery stopped receiving public funding, the collective urged the community to help: Jesus Bom Pastor nursery is in need of food donations to keep its operation, as they are not receiving funds from the City Hall! #help #share. (Coletivo Papo Reto, 14/08/2018)

Thus, by providing a forum for the dissemination of local news and information, alternative producers also frame the news in terms of “community service announcements”, similarly to what community radio does (Meadows, 2013). The choice of events and actions announced by the collective also showed a preference for dissemination of initiatives that encourage different forms of citizenship. CPR promotes information about events such as meetings of residents’ associations and human rights institutions to discuss “physical, psychological or material violence” during police operations; youth group meetings organised by Amnesty International; meetings with public defenders and politicians; and workshops in partnership with other media to disseminate new technologies. In sum, this type of content indicates that the site is in touch with institutions and organisations that work to benefit the community. Interestingly, although CPR engaged in

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donation campaigns for community projects, there were no posts asking for funds to support the collective’s activities. To highlight cases of social injustice, CPR shared news reports from other media, unlike Amazônia Real and Agência Pública, which only publish original content. The collective showed an interest in stories that did not happen in the favela and, thus, reproduced content from other outlets whose coverage is broader. The distrust of the authorities in a country that has been constantly denounced by human rights organisations for the violence of its state’s agents is very explicit in the collective’s production. The collective shared original stories from traditional media whenever the mainstream socio-political agenda coincides with the collective’s aim. However, they diverted from the professional standard by adding opinionated headlines to the outbound link. For instance, they shared a story from the newspaper “Extra”, part of Grupo Globo, on the acquittal of a 22-year-old man unjustly arrested by policemen who forged evidence to accuse him of drug possession and assault. His parents investigated the case independently and brought to justice the evidence that led to the release of the young man. The hyperlink to the mainstream story was accompanied by the headline (in capital letters): POLICE TESTIMONY INDISPUTABLE TRUTH

CANNOT

BE

SEEN

AS

AN

The repost clearly stressed an issue that matters to the agenda of CPR: the repressive apparatus of the Military Police in Brazil. Similarly, the collective remembered a massacre of 21 people in the neighbourhood of Vigário Geral, a low-income area in the North of Rio, in 1993. The crime became a symbol of the brutality of the Rio’s police. By deploying an effort to publicise the 25th anniversary of the slaughter, CPR reproduced a quote from a survivor interviewed by Radio Globo, one of the country’s most popular mainstream broadcasters, to narrate how he saw his family being killed by policemen. These examples indicate that there is not a concern with exclusive content, but rather with content that offers the opportunity to reflect on episodes of injustice and discrimination.

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Analysis and Conclusion The overall analysis of the four cases of news providers confirms the role of alternative journalism as a space to disseminate socially concerned news that challenges conventions of sources and representation (Rauch, 2016; Atton & Hamilton, 2008). Although they display a large variation across covered themes, formats and, mainly, adherence to conventional journalistic norms, news about minorities or underprivileged communities are the dominant topic, be it indigenous people, black women, rural workers or residents from the favelas. The variations in the practices of these groups should not be seen as surprising, since this research has emphasised the heterogeneous character of alternative journalism. However, in the search for common points between outlets that do not belong to large media corporations, it is possible to conclude that they all provide, albeit in different levels, what Harcup (2013) defines as “oppositional reporting”. What they offer is more complex than the idea of a media that fill the gaps left by mainstream media. It is reporting that “contains within it an ideological critique of dominant ideas within society” (ibid.:164). The level of the critique varies from one case to the other. Nonetheless, taken together, the content is linked to the democratic purpose of combating different forms of oppression through the dissemination of news that are “often about the unrepresented” (Forde, 2011:75). Examples of news pieces mentioned above suggest an emphasis on what has a social impact to specific communities that are not typically considered as newsworthy by traditional news outlets. As a consequence, they help to expand our view of Brazil and its different forms of inequality. The diversity that they represent, with their very specific identity, requires us to move beyond the debate of who is a journalist and who is not. The term “community” here is more concerned with common interests than with a geographical aspect. For example, Coletivo Papo Reto is made up of citizens from a set of favelas in Rio de Janeiro, but the content they share does not refer exclusively to what happens within those communities. Similarly, the concept of the “periphery” adopted by Nós, Mulheres da Periferia is not limited to the neighbourhoods in the outskirts of São Paulo, but to audiences who feel excluded in a broader sense, either by their social condition, race or sexual orientation. Here it is worth going back to Levy’s (2018) concept of “peripheral media”. While mainstream media are able to reach a much wider audience, alternative media are more capable in politicising issues from and about the periphery. Both these

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collectives are composed of “reporters of their own realities” (Atton, 2015:2). In the case of Agência Pública and Amazônia Real, the former is committed to covering human rights issues in general, while the latter is devoted to telling stories about a vast region that naturally encompasses many different communities. Both awarded digital publications have professional staffs undertaking investigative journalism. Their content can be shared under a Creative Commons License, meaning that their insights are potentially accessible to broader audiences. Although their role is not the one of community media, they also seek to raise public awareness of the realities of excluded communities. Their stories defy the concept of what would be deemed as newsworthy by traditional newsrooms, albeit they are presented upon the core ideas of traditional reporting. This is not to say that mainstream media in Brazil ignores human rights issues, the struggles of minorities or what happens in remote regions of the country. However, economic interests, the homogeneous way news is usually gathered and organisational processes shape certain standard criteria for content production that is routinised (Curran, 2002; Croteau et al., 2012). Consequently, news sources tend to be homogeneous and often relate to the elite, a trait that was kept in the internet age (Redden & Witschge, 2010). In turn, the sample analysed here suggests that alternative news sources online help to multiply these perspectives, moving away from the hard news cycle. Taking into account the different approaches to newsgathering and publishing displayed by the four cases, it is possible to discern two types of non-corporate journalism. Firstly, in the case of Agência Pública and Amazônia Real, both of them produced by trained journalists, it seems reasonable to argue that their professionalised routines are not entirely different from what may be produced by journalists working for corporate media. These two outlets adopt traditional journalistic practices and have a more regular form of funding. Information is carefully ascertained and presented in long, contextualised reporting. Different sources are heard, including authorities and experts. The main focus of their news repertoire is the reality of peripheral communities, whether indigenous peoples, rural workers or women living at the margins of society, but the way these stories are told follows the conventional format of balanced investigative journalistic practices. Their professionalisation is, however, attached to oppositional practices (Harcup, 2013).

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In the case of Agência Pública, this criticism is clear in the choice of themes. Its investigations addressed topics that are also of interest to the mainstream media, such as urban violence, corruption and presidential elections. Nonetheless the content is not driven by real-time news, neither catchy headlines. Rather, stories are united by an interrogation of an exclusionary socioeconomic system. Overall, the content also showed a rejection of condensed short-format news narratives (Neveu, 2014). AP invests in a narrative journalism, which I interpreted as a structural opposition to viral techniques (Denisova, 2022). A combination of factuality with personal impressions does not fit into the notion of journalistic neutrality, but on the other hand AP’s content is far from the idea of alternative journalists acting both as reporters and as activists (Atton & Hamilton, 2008). In turn, Amazônia Real privileges a news repertoire that departs from a national perspective, providing a focus on a region that is isolated from the country’s major urban centres. Most journalistic reports from the Amazon region are drawn from academic research or press releases from NGOs or federal agencies (Corrêa, 2010). AR’s content provides an original perspective that goes beyond opinion and the mere reproduction of press releases. The samples from this outlet are also more issue-driven than fact-driven (Couldry, 2010), as we could see, for example, in the first-­ hand accounts of the struggles of remote communities such as indigenous tribes. Nevertheless, the online content from these two outlets does not replace objectivity by overt advocacy, as is generally expected within alternative media studies (Atton, 2003; Atton & Hamilton, 2008). The style of reporting clearly draws from the practices of legacy newsrooms with the dominance of well-written stories that maintain a quality standard and are informed by multiple sources. There is no overreliance on official or elite sources, but they are present in the news narratives. The use of official sources to corroborate information shows a concern with the credibility of the journalistic process, manifested in the interviews (Chap. 4). Official sources do help to “establish authenticity” and demonstrate a commitment to the credibility of the journalistic process (Johnson & John, 2017:353). Whilst reproducing professional practices of the mainstream media, both AP and AR represent a challenge to what Redden and Witschge define as the “one-dimensional picture of online news homogeneity” (2010:184). Their form of financial support, based mainly on donations from international foundations, enables the focus on content

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that does not follow the same rules of the content usually available on the marketplace. The advertising and subscription model is rejected. The other two cases constitute a different type of alternative journalism, less focused on traditional formats and more driven by a resistance character. The concept of news for Coletivo Papo Reto embodies the elements of citizens’ media, wherein producers “express the will and agency of a human community confronting historical marginalizing and isolating forces” (Rodriguez, 2001:63). Using digital media for mobilisation and inclusion, producers show a civic engagement, seeking to discard the framing of favela as a lawless space exclusively dominated by criminality (Felix, 2009). While the mainstream media used to frame favelas mainly as centres of violence and drug trafficking (Henriques et al., 2012), the repertoire of CPR emphasises the injustice and brutality by agents of the state. Producers, thus, “do not agonise over the problematic notion of objectivity” (Meadows, 2013:53). While the topic of urban violence in Brazil can be treated with sensationalism (Porto, 2008), CPR frames this coverage from the perspective of the impact on the favela’s population. By sharing personal accounts and the views of favela-based authors, CPR is not a space for in-depth journalistic analysis of the problems surrounding these low-income neighbourhoods. Rather it restores the residents’ agency to tell their own stories and to challenge misconceptions and stereotypes. The routine of violence is highlighted, but the narrative emphasises the discourse of resistance in the face of oppression. Overall, producers challenge a narrow perspective of favela as a homogenous space. In that context, they share their own stories through words and images as part of a “culture of resistance” (Croteau et al., 2012:200), but also through an interpretation of what comes from other forms of media, including mainstream, thus, producing meaning from within their cultural domains (Deuze, 2006). As Andrea Medrado argues, community media can exist in an “anarchic and rhizomatic reality” (2007:133). Similarly, the collective Nós, Mulheres da Periferia stresses the perspective of a particular community: women from peripheral areas. Although producers employ journalistic techniques to gather news, their role of reporters cannot be separated from their identity. They are women from the periphery. Thus, their critique to media misrepresentation and to the subaltern role of women in society is explicit in their agenda. NMP blends traditional reporting with personal accounts to highlight interconnected

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forms of oppression. Women’s personal accounts are among the main tools of the growing feminist movement in Brazil, which explores the internet as a space of articulation for the discussion of gender issues (Costa, 2018). The content disseminated by the collective suggests new directions for the study of journalism from the perspective of gender theories. It can be argued that members of CPR and NMP act as facilitators of community-level conversations, one key aspect of participatory media cultures. Stories shared by the collectives showed that their “sense making” (Meadows, 2013:51) did not come necessarily from the delivery of exclusive news. Rather the focus is on their role as narrators and interpreters of the news, regardless of their different working practices and objective goals as communicators. The kind of content they provide does not intend to compete with mainstream coverage, but to share information from a perspective that is guided by their own experiences. Their production is more modest than long-form journalism in terms of breath of the news investigations, and there is not a concern with an impactful visual content. This is also a reflection of the lack of funding that affects alternative media in general. However, I argue that the value of these two collectives lies in the fact that their content is disseminated by actors who live that particular reality. Their coverage seeks to encourage active citizenship reducing the stigma of exclusion and helping to shape the interpretation of news events. In sum, this analysis showed distinct ways of doing alternative journalism. One adopts conventional journalistic methods, while the other reinforces the role of audiences as primary sources of realities often misrepresented by mainstream media. The issues they address also concern commercial journalism, whether it be urban violence, environmental destruction or social inequalities. However, their perspective is non-­ hegemonic. These organisations essentially challenge the discourse of the economic and political powers by multiplying the news sources and expanding the news agenda beyond homogeneous headlines. As Guilherme Carvalho and Marcelo Bronosky (2017) point out, the more traditional journalism loses its capacity to represent the public interest, the more strength alternative journalism gains. This chapter is in agreement with Forde’s (2011) view of alternative journalism as a political act. The political basis, however, is very different from partisan bias to favour political parties, candidates or ideologies. This type of bias was common in the alternative press that emerged during the dictatorship and in the early years of the democratisation (Pereira, 1986; Kucinski, 1991). Journalism at the service of particular political parties or

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labour unions with a Marxist orientation had an important role in Brazil, as seen in Chap. 3. Nonetheless, this chapter suggests the emergence of a socially concerned journalism that is independent of political party disputes and not driven by commercial interests, bringing new possibilities for a decentralised practice of digital journalism, as well as for journalism studies.

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Meikle, G., & Redden, G. (2011). News online: Transformations & continuities. Palgrave Macmillan. Neveu, E. (2014). Revisiting narrative journalism as one of the futures of journalism. Journalism Studies, 15(5), 533–542. Pereira, R. R. (1986). Vive a Imprensa Alternativa. Viva a Imprensa Alternativa! In R. Festa & C. E. Lins da Silva (Eds.), Comunicação Popular e Alternativa no Brasil (pp. 53–76). São Paulo. Phillips, A. (2010). Transparency and the new ethics of journalism. Journalism Practice, 4(3), 373–382. Platon, S., & Deuze, M. (2003). Indymedia journalism: A radical way of making, selecting and sharing news? Journalism, 4(3), 336–355. Porto, S. M. G. (2008). Mídia, Segurança Pública e Representações Sociais. Tempo Social, 21(2), 211–233. Prado, M. (2011a). Webjornalismo. Genio. Prado, M. (2011b). Webjournalism. Genio. Rauch, J. (2016). Are there still alternatives? Relationships between alternative media and mainstream media in a converged environment. Sociology Compass, 10(9), 756–767. Redden, J., & Witschge, T. (2010). A new news order? Online news content examined. In N. Fenton (Ed.), New media, old news: Journalism & democracy in the digital age (pp. 171–186). Sage. Rodriguez, C. (2001). Fissures in the mediascape: An international study of citizens’ media. Hampton Press. Rosas-Moreno T. C., & Straubaar J. D. (2015). When the marginalized entered the national spotlight: The framing of Brazilian favelas and favelados. Global Media and Communication, 11(1), 61–80. Salaverría, R., et  al. (2019). A brave new digital journalism in Latin America. Communication: Innovation & Quality, 1–19. Sandoval, M., & Fuchs, C. (2010). Towards a critical theory of alternative media. Telematics and Informatics, 27(2), 141–150. Schreier, M. (2012). Qualitative content analysis in practice. Sage. Singer, J. (2005). The political j-blogger: ‘Normalizing’ a new media form to fit old norms and practices. Journalism, 6(2), 173–198. Taylor, S.  J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resources. John Willey & Sons.

CHAPTER 6

Sustainability of Alternative Journalism: A Negotiated Entrepreneurship

Introduction Academic scholarship has given a great deal of attention to the challenges and transformations faced by legacy media in an era of fragmented audiences and economic disruption brought by the digital era (just to mention a few: McChesney & Pickard, 2011; Anderson et  al. 2012; Lievrouw, 2015; Deuze & Witschge, 2018). The hybridisation of the media landscape has deeply impacted traditional business models as well as newsrooms’ working practices in such a dramatic process of rupture that it is difficult to doubt Mark Deuze’s statement: “Journalism as it is, is coming to end” (2008:4). The financial and existential crisis of the news media system has been causing for years an endless spiral of layoffs and budget cuts within large corporations that have crossed the twentieth century as high margin monopolies. The news industry in Brazil follows the same trend (Prado, 2011; Figaro, 2018; Christofoletti, 2019). However, less consideration is given to the adversities encountered by alternative media to find a viable business model, to stand out from the crowd and to avoid a short-term existence. Coming to terms with the imperatives of a capitalist market-place is a problematisation within the alternative media studies that has been posed by the British research group Comedia in times as distant as 1984. At the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century there are no definitive © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Sarmento, Alternative News Reporting in Brazil, Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26999-8_6

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answers to the question of how alternative media can overcome the fate of being an “alternative ghetto” (Comedia, 1984:95). Many factors of the mass media economy are still central aspects of the digital era, such as monopolisation, commodification and accumulation (Curran et al., 2016). Rapidly changing consumer habits and audiences’ expectations complicate the picture further. This chapter addresses how alternative media projects are seeking to circumvent the lack of resources and funds, which has so far been a defining aspect of non-mainstream journalism. It looks at the tension between sustainability and the dissemination of critical narratives, examining the solutions sought by alternative media practitioners in Brazil. Combined with the previous chapters, the discussion on economic security enables a better understanding of the nature of alternative media. As Christofoletti (2019) argues, large companies are able to tolerate the “storm” for a longer period of time, but are slow when it comes to approve drastic changes to adapt to an emergent environment. What about small non-profit organisations? Are they always ready to adapt and to understand what it takes to remain viable? First of all, David Skinners’ (2012) definition of sustainable media resonates with the inquiry that informs this chapter: Sustainability is defined as facilitating media organisations’ ongoing operation, improving their abilities to report on events and circumstances salient to public life and engage in public discussion and debate. More specifically, sustainability is about having the resources to acquire staff, technologies of production, and avenues of distribution, and to develop audiences. (Skinner, 2012:26)

In the digital era, media consumption is increasing while niche content continues to grow (Kueng, 2011), but the fact that online technologies facilitate distribution of information does not mean that alternative and mainstream products will be equally consumed. The dilemma that alternative journalists face is that they need to find ways to survive financially and to strategically plan growth in a society that works according to models that they generally criticise. Marisol Sandoval and Christian Fuchs (2010) analyse this contradiction with great clarity: Alternative media confront contradictions between critical voices and autonomy on the one hand and resource scarcity and lack of visibility on the other. As a consequence, the history of alternative media is a history of

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v­ oluntary self-exploited labour, the consequence of a political economy that limits the possibilities for civil society because hearing alternative voices is a matter of money and political resources that afford visibility. (Sandoval & Fuchs, 2010:173)

For Comedia (1984), the solution to overcome the absence of financial efficiency and to achieve visibility would be the adoption of economic and organisational practices of the commercial media. The problem with this argument, developed before the digital age though still very much quoted, is the belief that alternative media must compete with the mainstream. But even emphasising that digital native initiatives with a non-profit approach do not aim to be the “new” mainstream, or their existence would be conflicted to say the least, the challenge of developing sustainable media organisations and to lay foundations for consistent growth in a highly unstable market applies to everyone. Sandoval and Fuchs (2010) argue that it is difficult but not impossible for alternative media to ensure independence from economic interests. A historical example of blend between commercialism and critique can be found in alternative publications from the US, such as The San Francisco Bay Guardian, which combined advertisement with a very critical content with links to social movements (Benson, 2003). However, in the digital economy, the advertising-editorial division is even more complex (Carlson & Lewis, 2015), not to mention that the whole advertising business was deeply disrupted. Cited as an iconic example of publication that was born in the underground scene and ended up having an impact on left-leaning American urban consumers (Benson, 2003), The Village Voice was an alternative weekly paper that depended heavily on advertising and had to end its operation on August 2018, after 63 years, due to plummeting print circulation. Understanding alternative journalism as part of a pervasive commercial media system that is constantly shifting is important if we want to examine the extent to which non-profit-oriented initiatives can operate in a truly independent and lasting manner. Linda Kenix (2011) argues that as the commercialisation of media is intensified, there is a growing convergence of economic arrangements between mainstream and alternative: Alternative media have responded to this structural shift largely by promoting mainstream conventions, thereby limiting open-access participation and embracing commercial models of communication. There is a certain level of

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irony in this circuitous equation. As alternative media adopt more corporate organisation models, this requires more professionalized modes of production, which implicitly locks out voices that were part of what made alternative media ‘alternative’. (Kenix, 2011:164)

As the projects discussed here include different forms of alternative media, Kenix’s statement is certainly appropriate for understanding outlets that adopt more professionalised organisational models. At any rate, the history of alternative media suggests a tale of limited life cycles that can appear and disappear without a trace. For instance, this is one of the main points highlighted by Bernardo Kucinski (1991) in his investigation of alternative publications that emerged in Brazil during the military dictatorship (see Chap. 3). As Skinner (2012) explains, literature on alternative media has three different approaches to sustainability: (1) such media are viewed as marginal and doomed to be ephemeral; (2) alternative media are so engrained in particular political circumstances or movements that they are always going to follow the development of these issues; (3) creative responses of alternative media depend on the development of social infrastructure to maintain independent media projects, such as policy measures or public educational programmes. Further complicating the difficulties to sustain digital media operations, online journalism is increasingly linked to sensationalised headlines, or “clickbaits” (Frampton, 2015). This is not the purpose of alternative journalism, but how is it possible to clearly hear alternative voices through so much (digital) noise and without enough resources? In his analysis of the attention economy, Simon Tanner reminds us that “the mantra of if we build it, it will come does not work” (2019:63). His research is focused on how memory institutions are adapting to the digital culture, though the question Tanner raises can be easily replicated to assess the difficulties faced by digital news outlets that seek the engagement of the audiences: “How much attention do we have from our communities, and what does that mean to them?” (2019:60). Looking for insights into the practices of alternative producers, I asked the interviewees about their attempts to defeat the “fate” of ephemerality and to engage with the audiences in times of attention scarcity (see Introduction and Chap. 4 for more details about the methodology). Furthermore, how to maintain a continued existence that does not rely solely on voluntary non-paid work? A comprehensive study coordinated and published in Portuguese by Roseli Figaro (2018) to investigate the

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communication relationships and economic arrangements of alternative journalism groups concentrated in São Paulo concluded that their working conditions are precarious. Some journalists hold steady jobs or work as freelancers in order to support their alternative work. The use of technology is inventive, but it also results in strenuous work practices in a 24/7 journey. An important aspect pointed out by this study, though, is the fact that working relationships are more horizontal, breaking up with the hierarchical pattern of large corporations. This resonates with the conclusions of this chapter: The only perspective they have is to maintain and deepen the horizontal collaboration between their members and between arrangements. This is the biggest novelty. This is what is innovative in the way of working and sharing. These more horizontal relationships are necessary to perform journalistic activity and for solidarity between professionals, because the work is strenuous and cooperation saves physical and intellectual strength, time and resources. (Figaro, 2018: 229)

The chapter also investigates how the alternative outlets reflect this supposed horizontality and to what extent is it possible to reconcile financial survival with the socially driven motivations of alternative journalism without following the same trends that drive large corporations. Once again it is necessary to emphasise that the studied organisations could not fit into one single category. They are all not-for-profit, but their operational features are different. Consequently, their structures, financial needs and funding strategies vary, as it is the norm among emergent digital native media all over Latin America (Salaverría et al., 2019). Interviewees were asked about their (1) concerns with economic security; (2) reflections on how to be “viable” without replicating the same approach of commercial media; (3) specific types of funding that they are looking for; (4) convergence with mainstream media and (5) organisational structures. As most of this research was developed after the end of the Workers’ Party government (2016), the phenomenon known as midialivrismo which was relevant to explain the emergence of Mídia Ninja (see Chap. 3) was not directly addressed by alternative producers, although it is clear that, overall, they avoid public funding, either from federal or municipal levels. Additionally, in Brazil the amount and the budget of non-profit newsrooms cannot be compared with markets such as the US (the most

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well-known American non-profit news organisation is ProPublica1), and national charitable foundations are not interested in investing a large amount of resources in news production. There are a growing number of emerging digital outlets that do not belong to large media corporations but are in the for-profit business category, and therefore were not included in this study. Overall, long-term survival is undeniably one of the main concerns of the emergent outlets and collectives, according to the qualitative analysis of the interviews. As Comedia put it, “deciding on political strategies is only the beginning of the story—the problem is how to avoid dependence on external finance which will prevent the development of autonomy” (1984:96). This is a statement that comes from the analogue era, but it still makes very much sense on hour digital times.

Seeking Longevity Digital technologies deeply transformed the way news is consumed and, consequently, the strategies of large media corporations to reach their audiences and to sustain profitable businesses. Alternative digital native media live a very different reality, since they involve small and often underfunded operations, in some cases entirely run by volunteers. Thus, sudden harsh budgetary measures that affected mainly legacy titles in Brazil were not a pattern among non-market-driven projects simply because they have always operated in a small-scale underfunded environment. Even the term “newsroom” itself was only explicitly employed by a few more structured groups analysed in this research. Usually, investigative journalism outlets, for instance, are staffed by trained reporters and editors. Despite their small size, a regular stream of grants from international charitable foundations allowed them to set up offices where professionalised dynamics and routines can occur. However, none of the interviewees defined their projects as a direct competitor of mainstream media. Neither have they expressed the desire to rely solely on advertising revenue, demonstrating understanding that single-handedly this is a model that does not work in the digital environment, but also due to the ethical concern to maintain editorial integrity and to avoid conflicts of interest. Therefore, the 1  ProPublica is an award-winning non-profit American newsroom founded in 2007 and based in New York. It receives funding from different philanthropic organisations, mainly the Sandler Foundation.

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hyper-commercial logic of incessant search for audiences’ engagement on digital platforms to meet the new consumer habits, in an attempt to attract advertisement and subscribers, is clearly not what drives the independent groups that concern this book. On the other hand, respondents expressed an explicit interest in achieving long-term viability to provoke a real impact in the public sphere. In order to expand the reach of their content and to establish a relation of trust with their audiences, they pursue different funding sources and strategies. If on the one hand they are focused on communities and populations in the margins, on the other the idea of remaining “marginal” is not at all celebrated, though replicating the commercial mechanisms of large media corporations is not an option. A minority of the groups declared to have a stable source of resources, which came mainly from international private foundations. That type of charitable support allows them to avoid unpaid work, a common trait of alternative media (Atton & Hamilton, 2008; Harcup, 2013; Figaro, 2018). Of the interviewees, 11 out of 20 said they have been working as volunteers for alternative projects. Grants from international philanthropic foundations are the most sought form of funding for not-for-profit media. Amongst those that receive this type of support the most cited name was Ford Foundation, which funds a variety of initiatives with different criteria for grant seekers. On its website, the foundation explains that its strategy is to support media practices that “uncover stories we haven’t heard before, and elevate voices that have been marginalized, distorted, ignored, or silenced” (Ford Foundation, no date). Brazil does not have a developed philanthropic culture such as what is seen in the US. Accordingly, no national foundations were mentioned. The second most cited foundation was Open Society (US) and the third was Oak Foundation (Switzerland). Only a collective of citizen journalists that received training and equipment mentioned the organisation Witness (US). Philanthropic foundations most mentioned in the interviews and its characteristics are shown below (Table 6.1). Predominantly, what stood out from the interviews is that only groups that already have a more professionally oriented operation, with some managerial knowledge of how to maintain sustainable structures, have a better chance to successfully apply to philanthropically funded media projects. Recipients of international media grants reported that it was necessary to have a minimally efficient multitask organisational structure to perform the quality work expected from international donors. As different producers observed, a multitasking force with at least basic skills of

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Table 6.1  Examples of philanthropic support for non-profit media in Brazil Foundation

Mission (according to website)

Ford Foundation Fordfoundation.org

“Reduce poverty and injustice, strengthen democratic values, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement” “We implement initiatives to advance justice, education, public health, and independent media”

Open Society Opensocietyfoundations. org Oak Foundation Oakfnd.org

“Commits its resources to address issues of global, social and environmental concern, particularly those that have a major impact on the lives of the disadvantages”

management accounting and entrepreneurial skills was essential to articulate the capturing of financial resources distributed by large charitable foundations, for instance, the Ford Foundation. The following quote from journalist Maria Paula Fernandes, founder of the NGO Uma Gota no Oceano, which counts on financial support from international foundations, illustrate this entrepreneurial approach: International institutions that distribute grants demand to understand where I want to go with my project, how I intend to get there, how I want to achieve my goal, and what are my biggest challenges. I have to submit a detailed planning of all my goals and costs. This was a new challenge for me. I came from the creative industry, so I didn’t have any background in management. How could I possibly learn how to run a business? That’s why the Ford Foundation, our first donor, was instrumental because its accountability demands served as a model of finance advice to be followed by our organisation. It was hard to learn about finance and management, but it was also very useful, as if I had gone to a business school. After having learned how to go through this pitching process, I felt grateful.

Uma Gota no Oceano is a not-for-profit organisation with a clear mission: it works with communication strategies to raise awareness about Brazil’s social-environmental causes. Achieving a clear concept of an outlet’s mission, vision and values, as well as of an efficient organisational structure, is not a simple task for journalists who worked for legacy media and were not used to having to deal with the business side of a news organisation. In his conceptualisation of journalism as an ideology, Deuze (2005) talks about the dominant perception of journalists as professionals

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who were exempt from the concerns that move commercial departments. This idealised vision is more nuanced in the age of multimedia newsrooms, where reaching and engaging fragmented audiences is essential to thrive (Küng, 2011). Similarly, a veteran journalist who worked in traditional media before launching a non-profit newsroom highlighted how she realised the need to learn fundamental notions of organisational management to cope with the high costs and challenges of producing quality journalism focused on one particular region of Brazil: Amazônia. To be better prepared for the demands of the fund-raising processes that could ensure the viability of an independent outlet, Kátia Brasil, co-founder of Amazônia Real, invested in a course in basic management skills: Among the three founders of our outlet, none had any prior management experience. I decided to take a course to learn how to run a business. Without that knowledge, we would not have been able to make it in the beginning. I was the only journalist in the classroom. There were people planning to open an ice cream parlour, a gym centre, or a sewing shop. In turn, I wanted to launch a news agency to cover the Amazon region virtually and on a non-profit basis. The teacher always talked to me at the end of the class to understand what I wanted to do, because the companies she helped to open were physical. This was 2013, the time when journalists who were fired from newsrooms reinvented themselves.

Many producers with whom I spoke explained that one of their main challenges was to discern how an alternative outlet with a very strong public service discourse could adopt a successful business model without jeopardising its editorial independence. Those who had no prior project management knowledge, but had the opportunity to learn new skills from organisations such as SembraMedia2 understood the need of an organisational cultural change, shifting their own perception from a “communication project” to a funded organisation with a long-term prospect, a model that demands innovation and diversified revenue streams. If until the 1990s journalists had to think about producing content in a single format and only rarely interacting with the public, the transition to online journalism completely changed the required journalistic tasks to 2  SembraMedia is a non-profit organisation that provides business and technical training to journalists and digital media entrepreneurs to increase diversity of voices and quality content. Available at https://www.sembramedia.org/who-we-are/ [accessed 28 Feb 2019].

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disseminate news in different platforms (Singer, 2011). Furthermore, roles can be combined within each organisation. This awareness of the need to be flexible, or to wear multiple hats, was emphasised by different interviewees. To be part of an alternative media project, a reporter, for instance, would not be just reporting the news. Rather, producers would be inevitably involved in managing assets strategically. Grasping how to build a funding strategy for their online initiatives and learning how to deal with accounting issues were among the skills mentioned as needed by respondents dedicated to seeking economic sustainability. Hence, although just a minority of the digital native media projects could count on stable forms of funding from international foundations to ensure at least a temporary fixed income as this chapter will discuss later on, one trait in common among alternative producers was an open reflection on the demand to develop elemental managerial skills and creativity-­ relevant skills. Even among groups that have a minimal cost structure, there was a clear awareness that the ability to seek and make efficient use of financial resources is crucial to avoid a short-term existence in a rapidly changing market. I also interpret the testimonials as an understanding that the fact that the online environment facilitates the dissemination of information is not the same thing as believing that organisations, whether big or small, can ignore the complex economic demands of digital operations. The participants’ insights suggest consciousness that simply adopting an organisational culture that is much more flexible than the one that is predominant in large media corporations is not enough to navigate the constant shifts of the digital market. So putting it simply, how to work with limited resources? Since the goals, the target audience and the composition of each group were quite varied, funding models cannot be easily replicated. While some forms of alternative media can rely on professional journalists and other types of staff experts, such as accountants and digital marketing specialists, others are entirely dependent on collective arrangements with volunteers. Consequently, independent outlets that adopt an organisational form closer to the corporate model are more likely to develop strategies to ensure their sustainability, while others need to operate without regular salaries or any form of training. Nevertheless, there are common concerns and dilemmas across the initiatives, run by producers who aimed for long-­ term sustainability to cause a real impact, as the following sections will address.

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Not-for-Profit Entrepreneurship The analysis of the interviews showed that although the focus on the entrepreneurial part of independent journalism was framed in a positive way by a major part of the producers, the requirement to accommodate financial support within the socially oriented purpose of their projects could, at points, constitute a moral dilemma. The following quote from Fausto Salvadori, editor of Ponte Journalismo, illustrates this tension: We do not seek profit for the sake of it. I think that it would be immoral to seek profit because of the type of [socially concerned] news content that we are interested in disseminating. We would like that the news we gather and share could reach as many people as possible for free. We are looking for a sustainable journalism that doesn’t necessarily require charging for the news. Talking about entrepreneurship until a while ago was almost a dirty word, but now we understand the need to find sustainable new business models to maintain our organisation.

The journalist was referring to a negative view of the entrepreneur as exploitative (Stevenson, 1983), driven by profit gains for the sake of shareholders. However, the projects analysed in this book have been planned, since their inception, to achieve digital presence and development without replicating the commercial strategies of mainstream corporations. It does not mean that producers have found a definitive alternative to the advertising and subscription model that has shaped the development of legacy media. Rather, they described a progressive journey of understanding the digital market and its shifting demands and opportunities to adapt their working practices. In the interviews it became evident that producers were concerned, from the beginning, to go beyond an action designed only to fill gaps left by the traditional media at certain moments of crisis. On the other hand, to ensure a continuous existence and enable, for instance, full-time employment instead of depending on freelancers or unpaid citizen-­ generated content, they demonstrated a concern in efficiently managing resources to reinvest potential revenues back into their organisations. They understand that they need to develop an entrepreneurial spirit, as shown in the following quotes: A sense of entrepreneurship is necessary to survive. We could not keep working for free if we want a long-term project. (Fausto Salvadori, Ponte Journalismo)

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I have no doubt that an entrepreneurial side is needed to run an alternative media project. Usually managerial skills are missing among alternative producers. Some people believe that seeking financial solutions is the same as betraying the social aspect of alternative journalism, as if it were a contradiction of its original political motivation. But if you are not concerned with a sustainable presence, your project cannot go forward. It quickly begins to disband. (Bruno Garcez, Agência Mural) We need to think about the entrepreneurial side of independent journalism, and in that respect, I think we, as journalists, are not prepared. As a teacher I also blame the higher education because journalism students used to spend 4 years at university learning how to be an employee [of a large media group]. I have already been able to develop a module of entrepreneurial journalism so that undergraduate students can enter the market with this shifting mentality. (Carol Monteiro, Marco Zero)

Another editor regretted her lack of knowledge on how to monetise digital news content, which eventually led to the closure of her alternative outlet. Without being able to expand forms of revenue to sustain a news website focused on Rio de Janeiro’s socioeconomic problems (Vozerio), veteran journalist Anabela Paiva had to suspend the operation after three years. She recounts that it was never her plan to publish contributions from both professional and citizen journalists without an appropriate remuneration policy. Therefore, a stable form of funding was essential: We had a very small team: two reporters, one trainee and me. It was pretty spartan. We thought that potential interested players would come up to fund our initiative, but we could not move forward. I tried to think of several possibilities, for example, partnership with legacy newspapers to publish original content. I even had a strategy for paid advertising, but we did not have a professional focused on digital sales. As a journalist, I’m a content-focused person. The business mind set was not for me.

Among those producers working for organisations that employ permanent staff, some mentioned that it would be inappropriate to count on volunteer work to maintain their news operation, though acknowledged that wage expenses, calculated according to existing labour laws in Brazil, represent a heavy impact on the outlets’ costs. To launch some special multimedia projects, freelancers could be also hired. Indeed, a sound economic planning becomes even more crucial for organisations that employ paid staff rather than volunteers or short-term contributors. At the time of

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the interviews, most of the respondents said they did not receive regular wages that would allow them to work full time for alternative organisations. Most worked as volunteers or freelancers: that is, they had to alternate their work in alternative media with another form of paid work. Some were collaborating simultaneously for mainstream media and alternative media, in spite of their discontent with some aspects of the former, which can be interpreted as a pragmatic approach to finance new ventures. There is a growing body of research that investigates the relationship between new media organisations and financial experiments, such as crowdfunding, raising inevitable questions related to labour and ethical issues (Hunter & Di Bartolomeo, 2018). Respondents confirmed these concerns.

Financial Viability with Editorial Autonomy In this scenario of scarcity of funds, management difficulties and predominantly voluntary or temporary work, people involved with alternative media, either as full-time employees or as unpaid contributors, agreed that it is essential to seek diverse forms of revenues to maintain a consistent production and, at the same time, to develop sustainable business models. Once again it is important to note that the initiatives analysed in this book were not concerned in employing large staffs, nor replicating corporate strategies or cultures from news organisations that are recognised as successful, either among established media or innovators, such as BuzzFeed or Vice, just to mention two international digital-only organisations that have drawn attention for their investments in online journalism (Küng, 2011). Rather, responses from alternative journalists lay in direct contrast to an unreflective commitment to profitability and expansion. Their fundamental challenge is to find a balance between economic sustainability and a resistance to content homogenisation as it is illustrated in the following quote from Sofia Soter, co-founder of the digital magazine Capitolina,3 publication in which everyone, the editors and the collaborators, worked as volunteers when she was an editor, from 2014 to 2016: I have already dreamed of turning the magazine into a profitable business. Nowadays, I don’t think about it anymore because it would be very difficult to 3  In the Q&A page, the editors of Capitolina explicitly states: “We all work on the magazine out of pure love”. Available at http://www.revistacapitolina.com.br/faq/ [accessed 12 Sept 2021].

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keep the magazine as it is. I don’t think it would be feasible to reconcile a commercial approach and a feminist independent voice. We would lose a lot of positive aspects if we opt for a traditional business model. The fact that our magazine is not a commercial product gives us much more freedom to do what we want. If it were a for-profit type of business, it would result in a very different content. This lack of a profit driven strategy may one day determine the end of our magazine, but I do think that the way we have chosen to do things has a higher integrity value.

Similarly, journalist Edu Carvalho, from a favela-based collective (Rocinha.com), pointed out that finding a formula for a long-term sustainability is undeniably one of the most common concerns among participants of community media: We work as volunteers, so we need to have another job to afford our costs. Our greatest challenge is finding a viable funding model. It would be a dream come through if we could earn a monthly wage working exclusively as community journalists, because our project gives us a lot of joy. But the chances to afford that plan are very small. Whenever we get together with other community journalists, the debate that dominates the discussions is always the same: How to sustain our projects the way we want them to be? It is very hard to find a solution.

Journalist Regina Eleutério, from the Mulheres 50+, says that since its inception, the project has always emphasised flexible work arrangements (working full-time for the outlet was never the participants’ plan) combined with total editorial control over the issues to be covered. The group is open to the discussion of seeking fixed sponsorship for its projects, but would not accept resources from a company or institutions that were not aligned with their agenda. Likewise, investigative journalists reinforced the rejection of any resources coming from companies involved in irregularities such as environmental crimes, exploitation of slave labour or tax evasion. The analysis of the outlets’ mission statements, when available, showed a consistency with the view expressed by most non-profit news producers in terms of not accepting funds that may jeopardise their editorial integrity. These are the most common points of the funding policies stated on their websites:

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• No links with political parties or politicians; • No donations from public institutions or private companies that represent conflict of interest with their values and actions; • Funding sources and partners are not allowed to interfere in the content.

Hybridisation Is the Norm It should be clear by now that alternative media struggle to find a unified model of sustainability that could assure their longevity. For one thing, international funding is available, but it is yet limited. Moreover, it demands a level of professionalisation and structural organisation that is not achievable, or in some cases not even the desired model, for all types of independent projects. For another, resorting to the traditional subscriber/advertising model involves at least two types of dilemma. Firstly, alternative media are not interested in replicating the disrupted mainstream media business model. The commercialism present in the editorial decisions of large media companies is among the main criticisms of alternative journalism. Secondly, attracting paid audiences and advertisers is an increasingly complex goal in a landscape of media fragmentation and, more especially, of economic and social crisis, such as the one faced by Brazil throughout the course of this research. Many alternative producers with whom I spoke explained why they have been trying mixed forms of funding to avoid dependence on a single business model or social media platform. For them, the search for a combination of revenue streams and communication strategies is the only possible way to reach sustainability in a scenario of economic and social crisis combined with falling revenues among media organisations. There is an understanding that relying on one type of income, such as advertising, is not sustainable strategy in the age of online journalism. Interviewees described a struggle to attempt various sources of revenue to achieve a lasting existence. Hybrid models, combining, for instance, donations, grants and branded content, do not completely discard partnership with traditional media, though interviewees did not demonstrate high expectations of developing advertising or editorial relations with legacy media. At the time of this interview Projeto #Colabora, alternative news provider with a focus on sustainable development and social issues, was

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working with five different models of revenue streams, according to its founder, Agostinho Vieira, a veteran journalist who held executive positions in large media corporations. He says that he also realised very early on, when the website was launched in 2015, that simply relying on online advertising would not be enough to sustain the operation based on a mix of a small paid staff and a network of collaborators: We have a main sponsor and we work with crowdfunding to finance special projects. For example, to cover the costs of an in-depth story on the increasing numbers of tuberculosis in Brazil we asked for the public’s donations. We have also worked in partnership with international foundations. Besides that, we tried to sell advertising space, but that still did not work out very well. And finally we produce branded content, which is vital to finance our journalistic activities.

Content production for third parties has enabled #Colabora to expand the sales team and hire a professional responsible for metrics and audience engagement, though the possibility of expanding the newsroom to include people from other sectors other than news content production is not the norm among small alternative organisations. 4 Journalist Carolina Monteiro, from Marco Zero, an investigative journalism outlet based in Recife (capital of Pernambuco state, Northeaster Brazil), mentioned another form of funding that could be added to a diversified list of revenue flow: education. Promoting courses for students is also a potential form of funding, as well as helping to train new generations of journalists: In our view, the alternative model goes a long way with various forms of revenue. Our hybrid model includes running courses for undergraduate students. We see that as an ideological goal, because we want to influence the training of young journalists. We also provide media consultancy and we apply for international funding. You really need to have a financial template that is based on multiple revenue streams if you want to survive.

4  See more about Projeto #Colabora on the following piece from LatAm Journalism Review, digital magazine published by the Knight Center for Journalism: https://latamjournalismreview.org/articles/after-four-years-brazils-projeto-colaboracreates-network-of-260-journalists/

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Maria Julia Wotzik, who works for the NGO Meu Rio5 that shares news stories about Rio de Janeiro and aims to mobilise the population to put pressure on authorities for improvements, believes that the diversification of business models is actually in line with her view of the internet’s democratic potential: So far our main source of income comes from international foundations. Crowdfunding is a more recent attempt, and has been increasingly well accepted for raising funds to support specific projects. These attempts at financial diversification are in line with the internet’s potential for a wider popular participation to challenge dominant structures of power. When we depend entirely on powerful structures to do something, we constraint our potential and limit the speed of our actions.

The above statements demonstrate the variety of initiatives discussed by alternative organisations to avoid replicating the subscriber/advertising-­ based model that sustained the largest Brazilian media corporations until the first decade of the twenty-first century (Fig. 6.1). Overall, the alternative models are more subsidy-driven than market-driven (Kurpius et al., 2010), although the attempt to attract advertising was not totally ruled out by the outlets analysed here. This multiple approach does not mean, however, that all those possibilities of funding mentioned during the interviews have actually generated some revenue. Of the websites studied, just a few publish their financial statements. Based on what interviewees have told me and on data found on their websites, it is possible to conclude that, overall, funding sources are still very fragmented (Fig. 6.2). Although foundations and individual donations seem strong, only a small number of projects (22%) declared to have a strategic plan with a mid to long-term goal (maximum of five years) insofar as they receive international grants.

5  Meu Rio is an activist network, with the explicit objective of mobilising citizens around actions that benefit the city, but it was included in this study because it involves activities that are essentially linked to journalism, such as the dissemination of information on public policies and permanent reporting on work of municipal and state politicians.

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Grants from foundations

Advertising

Crowdfunding

Public grants

Events/courses

Sponsorship

Branded content

Fig. 6.1  References made by alternative producers to possible forms of funding

Moments of Convergence In the face of so many uncertainties, the discussion of whether to collaborate or not with mainstream media is another dilemma that concerns alternative media producers. If their very own existence is driven by a critique to the way large media corporations work, why and how could they engage with legacy media without diluting their mission and values? My interpretation is that although there is no consensus on the level of acceptable engagement between alternative and traditional media, alternative producers understand that occasional relationship can be beneficial to their projects. None of the respondents categorically refused to interact with corporate media as long as the agendas of both sides could be aligned. Especially among groups that practice investigative journalism, reproduction of their content by traditional media is a common practice, through the use of a Creative Commons License (CC).

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Sources of funding Partnership with NGO 6% Public grants 6%

Events, courses, workshops 19%

Sponsorship 6%

International Foundations 38%

Donations from individuals 25%

Fig. 6.2  Mains sources of funding according to interviewees

The rationale for possible forms of cooperation, that remain mostly sporadic, is the potential to reach wider audiences. For alternative outlets the aim of possible partnerships is to increase their readership and, consequently, to give more visibility to their narratives. During the interviews, different examples of occasional cooperation were mentioned. They were framed within a general understanding that access to new types of network communication alone such as social media does not guarantee “popularity”, a concept that can be easily manipulable in the online economy (Van Dijk, 2013). Drawing on what Atton (2002) defines as moments of “coming together”, I have highlighted how mainstream and alternative may explore each other’s resources (Table 6.2): The examples demonstrate that alternative producers did not consider engagement with mainstream counterparts with the purpose to drive advertising. Interviewees did not mention any significant economic benefits in these potential bridges between alternative and mainstream media. Rather, they were more concerned in causing an impact by amplifying

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Table 6.2  Examples of relationship between mainstream and alternative media Interaction Mainstream media distribute/incorporate content from alternative network

Illustrative example

Newspaper Folha de S. Paulo hosted blog mural, produced by citizen journalists from peripheral areas of São Paulo Mainstream media refer to Newspaper O Globo shared alternative groups as a audio of shooting in source in a particular Complexo do Alemão favela coverage or pick up a (Rio) produced by collective story from alternative Papo Reto (citizens from the media favela) Mainstream media invites Members of groups formed alternative producers as by favelas dwellers describe special “guests” to express their work on the talk show their opinions Programa do Bial from TV Globo Alternative media departs Collective from Rocinha from original content favela (Rio) shared content from mainstream to from BBC Brasil on yellow discuss ongoing news fever outbreak stories

Link https://mural.blogfolha.uol. com.br

https://oglobo.globo.com/ rio/ guerra-­no-­alemao-­20950916

https://globoplay.globo. com/v/6182053/

http://faveladarocinha.com/ que-­grupos-­nao-­devem-­tomar-­ vacina-­da-­febre-­amarela-­e-­ como-­se-­proteger/

their message beyond fragmented or niche communities. The following comment from Sofia Soter, from Capitolina, sheds light on their considerations: I want our feminist content to reach as many people as possible and in a non-­ opportunistic way because we do not want to become famous or rich. We want our narrative to be heard. When we were invited to participate in a talk show on the most important TV channel in the country, there was some disagreement between us. We discussed if we should accept the invitation. Personally I didn’t like this particular show, but so what? Should I have considered myself morally superior and refuse the invitation? Their target audience is mostly young people, like ours. So we decided to participate. This allowed an immense amount of young people, from different social classes, to hear important discussions about feminism. If I have the power to expand the reach of my message and to make an impact on much larger audiences than I could possibly achieve with my digital magazine, why not going for that?

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Maria Paula Fernandes, from Uma Gota no Oceano, agrees that it is important to discuss partnerships, when possible, to explore the reach of legacy media to elicit immediate responses from society. She stresses that this is not the same of being an arm of traditional corporations. Rather the journalist prefers to compare what she seeks with a “hummingbird” or a “bee” “that keeps flying between one thing and another to facilitate connections”. Among independent organisations working with investigative journalism, partnership with traditional newsrooms is seen as an important step towards broadening the reach of their content and, above all, to push discussions that are invariably focused on human rights on the mainstream news agenda. This partnership is allowed via Creative Commons License, but there are rules that need to be followed by traditional media partners to republish content. For instance, many of the outlets distribute content for free; however, warning that content could not be edited, taken out of context or sold. Thereby, in spite of welcoming commercial media as potential allies, these rules manifest an attempt to preserve the essence and the editorial purpose of their content. Reporter Edu Carvalho, from the collective Rocinha.com, celebrates the possibility of having a voice in a mainstream publication: It is a two-way path. Traditional media looks for our content when something happens in the favela and they can’t get inside these communities. On the other hand, we want them to understand that they should not report on what happens in our community only from the perspective that interests them. If they give me editorial space to tell what is really going on in the favela, promoting a story from the residents’ perspectives, this is amazing. We have even collaborated with many international media so far.

The statement above indicates that alternative producers do not consider cooperation with mainstream media to be inconsistent with their values, as long as they have a voice in potential partnerships. They are concerned with reaching wider audiences and seeing a validation of their work, under the right circumstances. In that sense, possible “colonisation” by mass media is resisted. In their study of how legacy media incorporated the first influential independent journalistic blogs in Brazil, Olga Bailey and Francisco Paulo Jamil Marques (2012) point out a symbiotic relationship between those bloggers and large media conglomerates. They argue that major media corporations in Brazil, similar to what we see in

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other countries, have developed a “steady process of colonisation of new media platforms” (2012: 408). However, groups analysed in this book rejected the notion of been totally “absorbed” or “swallowed up”, thus refusing to establish alliances that could affect their identity. Dudu de Morro Agudo, founder of Enraizados, from Baixada Fluminense, one of the most impoverished areas of Rio de Janeiro, turned down a proposal to produce local news for a national news cable channel: I have attended some meetings with a cable news channel to discuss a possible partnership to cover news from Baixada Fluminense, but I made it clear that I wouldn’t work for free. If I can work with citizen journalists, I prefer to publish their content on our own independent website. I only engage with projects that could benefit my own media. For example, we are planning to promote a local cultural festival and I would like to promote it. This festival is built to deconstruct stereotypes about the neighbourhoods of Baixada Fluminense and about the hip-hop culture. The more it is publicised on “big media”, the better. But I would not accept the concept of free labour for mainstream media.

Hence, to attract larger and more heterogeneous audiences, interactions between mainstream and alternative media are generally accepted as long as alternative producers can exercise editorial control over what they produce. Moreover, some emergent digital news organisations still draw upon content published by legacy media in certain aspects. Therefore, we can talk about different levels of intersection (Fig. 6.3). Public figures have their social networks and fairly robust PR departments that communicate directly with the public, but they also give interviews to traditional media. If we turn, for instance, to independent political fact-checking websites, they also rely on what is shared by mass media in order to build possible counter-narratives or to simply hold power into account. Having presented evidences that alternative media is interested in the mass outreach of the mainstream channels, this book does not assume that there are no relevant tensions within this notion of conditioned partnership. There are times when the clash of narratives is so evident that any cooperation seems impossible. Marcela Canavarro (2019) narrates a relevant example in her analysis of the popular protests that erupted in 2013 in Brazil. In one of the moments of greatest police repression against protesters, in July, the police arrested a group of activists accused of acts of vandalism. One of them, Bruno Ferreira Teles, who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail at the officers, posted a video publicly asking for help to

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What do mainstream media 'borrow' from alternative media?

169

What do alternative media get from mainstream media?

hyperlocal sources; nonhegemonic sources

broader audiences

original content

control of the narrative

partnership for particular coverages

sense of legitimacy

Fig. 6.3  Connections between mainstream and alternative media

prove his innocence. The police released images broadcasted by TV Globo to accuse the protester, but independent media collectives joined to gather and analyse videos that could dismiss the official version. They eventually secured the protester’s release, in a collaborative online effort that caught the attention of the blog The Lede, from the New York Times for showing the participation of an undercover officer acting as agent provocateur.6 With this evidence, the mainstream media changed its version of the facts. This is a typical example of narrative clash between what is reported by the mainstream and what the alternative media emphasises.

6  Available at https://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/video-of-clashes-inbrazil-­­appears-to-show-police-infiltrators-among-the-protesters/?searchResultPosition=1 [accessed 19 Sept 2021].

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Non-hierarchical Structures Therefore, although there are as Kenix defines “some shared cooperative moments” (2011:165), there remain many differences between alternative and mainstream media. It is important to notice that people involved with alternative production frequently emphasise how their practices distance them from the organisational structures of corporate media. While the notion of assimilation of some mainstream media practices is accepted as previously discussed, participants sustained that their routines remain above all anti-hierarchical, in opposition to the typical top-down structure of legacy media. Different respondents, both trained journalists and non-­ professional journalists, highlighted attempts to create a system in which the decision-making process is as horizontal as possible. Some mentioned voting systems when there is not an agreement among members to preserve a horizontal decision-making, though there is a growing effort to consider each one’s expertise, abilities and competence and to define certain roles, such as social media strategies. The interviewees indicate in their insights a concern to have teams aligned with the ideals they represent, regardless of the role they occupy in each group, whether collectives, news agencies or NGOs. There is no interest in following a “handbook” with strict rules about the functions of each one. Rather they value the understanding that the whole team believe in the same principles. Corroborating the creativity sought by the organisational and economic arrangements of different groups focused on the production of news, the study coordinated by Roseli Figaro (2018), from the Communication and Work Research Centre of University of São Paulo (USP), mentioned a feeling of acceptance and belonging among the producers. The following comments confirm and illustrate this feeling: We make editorial decisions collectively. No one has the final say. We have managed to gather journalists who were considered “rebels” within large newsrooms, so we have a natural tendency to reject authority. We don’t want to have a boss. I think we even cultivated the value of horizontality in an exaggerated way. For a long time it was a mess. So we had to learn to have horizontal structures without being disorganised. In other words, we have learned to be anarchists without being anarchic in the negative sense of the term. (Fausto Salvadori, Ponte Jornalismo) We fight. We argue a lot about everything. What has to be said will be said clearly, and this can create tensions. But at the same time, it brings a sense of comfort, because I know that I can always count on the opinion of all the

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­ embers of the collective. We do not have a hierarchy. Everyone’s voice has the m same power. (Thainã de Medeiros, Coletivo Papo Reto) We have a fairly horizontal organisation. We do need to better organise a structural chart to frame each one’s functions. But we want to do this with the aim to organise our production flows, not to have a highly hierarchical structure like a traditional newsroom. Maybe we need to choose someone to have a final word when working with less experienced reporters. But among us, the founders of the outlet, everything is decided in-group. (Carolina Monteiro, Marco Zero) There is no hierarchy. Decisions are made on a consensual basis. We have an editorial process for content publishing, but we discuss our ideas all the time. Our relationship is horizontal, different from the hierarchy system of a large newspaper, for instance. One particular opinion will not be imposed on all members. (Angelina Nunes, Mulheres 50+)

As seen in the selected quotes, the top-down management of large corporations is highly rejected. In general, the absence of a corporate ownership facilitates horizontal experiments. However, it would be too simplistic to assume that alternative media always adopt a radical participatory model in contrast with the hierarchical framework of mainstream media. The analysis showed no references to an idealisation of the philosophy of open publishing represented by Indymedia, just to mention a seminal example of participatory journalism in which citizens were able to publish instantaneously the news they wanted (see Chap. 3). As Sara Platon and Mark Deuze observe, for Indymedia hierarchy was “the root of all evil” (2003: 345). Rather, both the small-scale collectively run projects and the professionally trained ones expressed a goal to provide coherent and credible narratives in a controlled manner. Preparation, revision and editing are practices embedded in the alternative production, according to the interviewees, despite many differences in their publishing processes. Going back to the example of Capitolina, the online feminist magazine, its content comes from decentralised sources, that is, a network of participants who do not have necessarily the same views of the feminist discourse. Nonetheless, there is a careful editorial process to select the articles that would be published for each monthly edition, as Sofia Soter explains: The possibility of an article being rejected is very small because we have an editorial process that begins long before publication. We have clear editorial principles and we talk about them all the time with our network of contributors. Plurality is important. We have no problem in having controversy within the

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magazine, as long as all participants follow the basic guiding principle of rejecting sexism, racism and homophobia. We don’t have a room for such things.

Understanding that crowdsourced content also needs to go through an editorial process is an important point to be considered when discussing how alternative producers incorporate practices of mainstream news organisations. In some cases, open collaboration with ordinary citizens is sought to generate a deeper relationship with marginalised communities or unheard voices. Nonetheless, stories are filtered and checked in one way or another. In the case of emergent news organisations with a focus on investigative journalist, even if the production process occurs in a less centralised way than that of large newsrooms, and with greater concern for the diversity of sources, in the end editorial decisions are made according to their journalistic values. This process is illustrated in the following quote from Elaíze Farias, co-founder of Amazônia Real: We use the networks to talk to our sources, for example indigenous people who live in remote areas and with little access to technology, very far from any urban centre. I receive messages almost every day from these sources via different social media, such as Whatsapp and Facebook. In communities located far away from the urban centres, conventional telecommunication services don’t work, but there is internet connection at certain times of the day. They pass the information, we check it, and if we consider it relevant and useful both for that community and for the public interest, we start investigating the story. After the reporting and the editing, we have a final review, as it would happen in any traditional newsroom.

At Ponte Jornalismo, the involvement of the audiences does not rule out traditional journalistic routines to verify the content, as Fausto Salvadori explains: We publish videos sent by citizens to report cases of police violence. But the information is checked before we publish it. The area we cover requires specific knowledge and access to sources. It is not always easy to work with someone who is not a trained journalist. We help to train journalism students, but for a story to be published it requires a prior careful editing process.

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As seen, these explanations on production methods serve to reject the notion of non-corporate media as practicing a chaotic and decentralised newsgathering. Indeed, audiences are encouraged to be involved in the content production (not in all the cases, but at some) and rigid hierarchies are avoided. Nonetheless, when alternative producers talk about their everyday work, it is clear that their practices do not entirely disregard traditional editorial decisions. This conclusion may seem obvious, but its purpose is to stress that alternative journalism shouldn’t be confused with user-generated content that abound in the media landscape without a commitment to contextualisation and fact-checking.

Conclusion: No Single Recipe This chapter has discussed how alternative media outlets have been trying to sustain their operations in Brazil, bringing insights into the challenges not-for-profit organisations face to achieve economic security in an emergent economy. The term “non-profit” does not imply that digital media seeking alternative forms of news production are free from economic pressure to be viable (Requejo-Alemán & Lugo Ocando, 2014). However, as opposed to privately owned commercial media, not-for-profit media need to pursue revenue-generating activities to fund their projects and reinvest in improvements, without having to worry with the expected distribution of the return among shareholders (Shaver, 2010). This point establishes a boundary between alternative media and the ideology of commercialism that guides the political economy of mainstream journalism, though there are many layers of complexity within this discussion. Above all, it is undeniable that financial vulnerability remains a key problem faced by alternative projects. Although the analysis considered different genres of alternative media production, economic precariousness affects distinctive types of independent organisations, from the loosely structured ones to the more professionally oriented ventures. Respondents were overwhelmingly concerned with the difficulty in obtaining steady revenue streams to maintain a minimum structure for a continued existence. A significant level of voluntary participation or very low paid work is the norm. Analysis of the sample has shown three dimensions of what producers consider the main aspects of their quest for a sustainable model:

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• They are interested not only in economic security but also in increasing readership to become more visible online; • They rely on multiple revenue streams to avoid the traditional business model of mainstream media or an overreliance on a single form of support, such as philanthropic resources; • Their small-sized operations favour non-hierarchical structures, which is not the same as a total lack of editorial process.

Thus, while the attributes of the internet have reduced production and distribution costs, the critique raised by Comedia more almost 40 years ago is still relevant, that is, as media exist in a capitalist market-place, “beginning to understand how the market works, in order to survive it, is the crucial issue facing the alternative press” (1984: 96). This chapter has shown that alternative producers understand this dilemma. On the one hand they want to develop a sustainable model to break out of the “alternative ghetto” (Comedia, 1984), but on the other they maintain their critical stance towards mainstream journalism, and do not seek to simply replicate the consumerist ideology and the business model of corporate media based on advertising and subscription. A central point of the argument is that online alternative outlets are concerned with defying the ephemerality that has marked the history of alternative media in order to have a real impact, though not at any cost. Yet, access to funding opportunities is scarce. Arguably, some proponents of alternative forms of media ownership believe in the utopian vision that non-corporate organisations can produce journalism free from financial concerns (Levy & Picard, 2011). But what emerges from this research is a clear understanding of the considerable challenges that affect any kind of media organisation in the era of attention economy. In spite of their not-for-profit approach, alternative media projects are subjected to economic pressures and not all feel prepared to attract capital. Just as the hyperlocal media did not find a sustainable formula in more solid markets like the US (Shaver, 2010), in Brazil alternative journalism as a rule struggle to sustain viable financial arrangements. Seeking stable funding is seen as an essential activity to maintain enduring projects parallel to the dissemination of critical content. In that context, there are no evidences that the market is key to sustain alternative journalism in Brazil. Producers are actually pursuing diversification of funding models, as emergent outlets in other Latin American countries have been attempting to do (SembraMedia, 2017). Organisations

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with a more stable flow of revenue depend on grants from philanthropic foundations, which indeed can provide some protection to emergent news organisations worldwide (Levy & Picard, 2011). However, according to producers, this type of funding is not accessible to all, demanding a professionally oriented approach and some level of business training that only a small number of the groups analysed here were able to develop. Moreover, grants such as these are not permanent in times of economic adversity and are not exclusively focused on the preservation of journalism, leading to a feeling of economic insecurity among producers devoted to news projects. Multiple sources of revenue streams are seen, thus, as a possible antidote against financial dependence on one single business model. Needless to say that increasing economic pressures also affect traditional journalism, whose practices have gone to profound shifts to adapt to the era of fragmented and ubiquitous journalism, or what Alfred Hermida (2012) calls “ambient journalism”. Hence, once again this study rejects the binary approach to consider alternative and mainstream media. The digital transformations make more intricate the examination of differences and similarities between mainstream and alternative media. From the perspective of the legacy media, post-industrial journalism implies that news organisations are no longer in control of the gatekeeping process, having to adapt to a time in which citizens, governments and independent networks can be their own publishers (Bruns, 2011; Anderson et  al., 2012). Thus, established media need to incorporate, in certain circumstances, views from independent producers, especially in local news. On the other hand, alternative producers want to increase their readership, whereas they understand that the online environment does not guarantee an equal participation on the news making process and distribution. Although interviews have not pointed out discussions on how to find solutions to avoid dependency on platforms such as Facebook, reflections on how to remain viable and visible confirm that alternative journalists “do not want to be consistently on the margins” (Forde, 2011:138). Nonetheless, I argue that relevant ideological differences remain strong between mainstream and alternative news operations, in spite of what may look like as similar concerns related to market pressures. For example, previous research has shown that the separation between the editorial and business departments of traditional news organisations, which used to be a fundamental norm of journalism, has been renegotiated to adopt more integrated solutions in reaction to the new tensions that arose from the digital market (Cornia et al., 2018). While the changing relations between

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the editorial and commercial activities of large organisations are driven by the need to create a business-oriented newsroom, among alternative media producers the aim and the practices are distinct. Rather than talking about “integration”, a term more suited to describe large multimedia organisations, interviewees pointed out a multitask approach that is related to their small-size structure. Accordingly, Forde (2011) suggests that their superficial structures and multi-skilled teams should also define alternative media. Therefore, when producers mention the need of business training or entrepreneurship, their discourse is not necessarily centred on profit motives. Rather, they are more focused on the pursue of a long-term sustainable revenue flow to enhance their ability to produce and distribute a differentiated content. Findings also indicate that cooperation with mainstream media is accepted, and may happen occasionally in different levels. Resultantly, hybrid forms of media and overlaps are inevitable (Kenix, 2011; Rauch, 2016). Here, it is possible to refer to what Atton (2002) describes as “movable” media practices in terms of negotiated relations. Media practices “may articulate to bourgeois (mainstream) values in one instance, but become joined with radical values in another” (ibid.:493). In their study on emerging news non-profits in the US, Magda Konieczna and Sue Robinson (2014) pointed out that new relationships between mainstream and alternative media are a survival mechanism. For Kenix (2011), as alternative media are more and more concerned with economic sustainability, differences between the alternative and the mainstream spectrum are decreasing. This research confirms that there is a growing fluidity between alternative and mainstream content and practices. Nevertheless, Brazilian alternative producers did not manifest eagerness to be more commercial whereas profit is not their main goal. Instead, they suggest a realistic approach to the prospect of cooperation with mainstream media to overcome “ghettoization”. I interpreted the ambition to reach audiences outside “bubbles” of like-minded people as a commitment to a longer-term plan of sustainability. Although this aspiration is not synonymous of subordination to power structures, Konieczna and Robinson point out “the risk of replicating the dominant—and failing— structure rather than challenging it” (2014, p. 983). Regardless, the point here is that exchanges with corporate media do not automatically eliminate alternative media’s dissatisfaction with the consumer ideology that affects news criteria (McQuail, 2013).

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By looking for more visibility, alternative media producers are interested in spreading their counter-hegemonic narratives, not “clickbait”. Therefore, a differentiation between alternative journalism and entrepreneurial journalism is needed. Additionally, appropriateness of practices is not new. Atton (2002) describes how mainstream media can incorporate radical or native reporting, while Platon and Deuze (2003) point out some similarities between problems faced by editors from mainstream media and from the radical Indymedia in terms of news selection. This is not to say that core values are dissolved when occasional interactions take place. For instance, when a reporter from a favela collective agrees to share content with a traditional newspaper, the intention is to increase control over the narrative that will be published and to broaden the voice of a marginalised community. In the same way, investigative journalists working for independent media celebrate when mainstream media republish their articles because they consider that as an opportunity to shape the news agenda. These accommodations are far from naïve celebrations regarding the openness of mainstream media to non-hegemonic sources. Rather, alternative producers’ points of view indicate a perception that distribution is still a key challenge facing alternative media in spite of the widespread access to internet connection in Brazil. Finally, when answering about their organisational structures, it is clear that alternative producers favour a non-hierarchical approach. There is no interest in replicating the highly hierarchical structures of corporate media. For alternative producers, rigid production forms result in dynamics contrary to their counter-hegemonic aspects, which is not the same as saying that they all operate on purely horizontal forms. Even within initiatives that are based on networks of ordinary citizens, editorial control is exercised to avoid, for example, discriminatory opinions and unverified information. To close this chapter, it is necessary to emphasise once again that, even with more horizontal, economical and creative ways of working, the financial survival of small alternative organisations is always in question.

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CHAPTER 7

Conclusion: The Renewal of a Tradition of Resistance

Introduction The primary emphasis of this book has been on independent digital native outlets that express resistance to the dominant forms of making and distributing news in a regular basis. Instead of looking at groups that want to be digital producers “for one day” in times of insurrection or crisis, this qualitative study analysed alternative forms of online journalism that intend to provide coverage over longer time frames to understand to what extent they expand the news agenda in Brazil beyond the dominant discourses. The preceding chapters looked at independent small-scale not-­ for-­profit outlets that reject the traditional business model of large media corporations, as well as their news agenda, with the aim of advancing democratic ideals. While alternative media studies tend to place an emphasis on the amateur actors and on the citizens’ participatory potential in times of crisis, this investigation also includes trained journalists who felt motivated to practice non-commercial journalism with the aim of consistently covering underreported topics. Consequently, by exploring far-reaching concepts of independent media production, this study’s original contribution to the field sits at the intersection of alternative media studies and journalism studies. This last chapter ties together the main points raised throughout the book to situate this research within the alternative media field in the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 C. Sarmento, Alternative News Reporting in Brazil, Palgrave Studies in Journalism and the Global South, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26999-8_7

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Global South, and to answer the following question: What is alternative journalism for? Here the three central themes and their implications will be revised: the identity of alternative producers, what they actually produce and how they fund their media. Over the last decade, we have seen the increasing role of emerging digital media producers in supporting various initiatives that contest media power. The emergence of these alternative players happened while legacy news media organisations were going through an unprecedented wave of disruption that shrank their revenue streams, their targeted audiences and the size of their staff. Large media corporations in Brazil experience this same scenario of global crisis and are investing in digital platforms, however without achieving so far the same level of profits that they have obtained for decades. The result is a turbulent time for the industry, with massive layoffs and, in terms of content production, a “news bundling” or the reuse of content for different platforms (Ramos & Spinelli, 2015). Moving away from a technological deterministic approach, this study considered whether these emergent forms of digital native media present a new vision of journalism as a whole. Latin America is a key region to examine the impact of digital native news organisations that have been trying to establish sustainable businesses. According to SembraMedia (2017), they are “generators of change” in its determination to expose abuses of power in countries that are highly politically polarised. While the field of alternative media attracts increasing attention from media scholars, theories on alternative journalism and its many forms are more limited, especially if we address the context of developing nations, where economic and political turbulence poses additional obstacles to the endurance of alternative projects. This book does not propose a new definition for alternative media, a concept that can be studied from various perspectives. Informed mainly by Atton’s theoretical insights, starting with Alternative Media (2002), I adhered to the comparative and analytical term “alternative” because its flexibility allowed the inclusion of different forms of content production outside the corporate environment of large newsrooms, while acknowledging that the term is contested. As a mixed method project, this study blended semi-structured interviews and qualitative content analysis of four case studies, which were selected for representing different forms of counter-­ hegemonic news accounts. The interviews followed the same sequence of predetermined themes. Nonetheless, one of the main difficulties of the research was to summarise the common viewpoints of

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interviewees with very distinctive backgrounds, among professional and amateur journalists. A consistent monitoring of content produced by alternative sites contributed to enlarging the knowledge on fragmented interventions on media production throughout this research. The evidences display an emergent scenario of independent digital native sites geared towards social change, with different degrees of political activism and adherence to rules of traditional journalism. Firstly, the overall conclusion is that alternative journalists are helping to foster a more diverse news ecosystem in Brazil by expanding the news agenda. Their different perspectives enable the discussion of multiple frames of the country’s realities, adding pluralitybeyond mainstream headlines and the chaotic and polarised debates on social media. There is an innovation in their processes (e.g. collaborative reporting; horizontal structures; community engagement) and in the type of content they aim to disseminate. Secondly, there is not one-fits-all path to tackle financial vulnerability. Similarly to traditional media, alternative outlets did not find on the internet a single sustainable way to monetise their content. Nonetheless their experimentations with different revenue streams can contribute to the discussion on the future directions for news organisations. Thirdly, this book stresses that online alternative journalism is not exactly a “new journalism”. Groups and content analysed here do not represent a reinvention of journalism. As one content producer interviewed for this study puts it, “we are not trying to reinvent the wheel”. Although this book is focused on Brazilian alternative media, this exploratory investigation offers insights to study transnational contexts. As Schmitz Weiss et al. (2018) state, complexities inherent in the relationship between innovation and sustainability are an essential step to understand and overcome challenges emergent news organisations face to maintain their operations.

Media Power: Why Does Alternative Journalism Matter? Even though alternative journalists’ practices are very heterogeneous, common themes that emerged from their activities, motivations and self-­ perception tackle misrepresentation, stereotypes and discrimination, thus confirming the counter-hegemonic role of these digital native organisations. As segmented spaces of challenge to media power, their

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contribution fosters a more diverse news ecosystem in Brazil, defying news homogeneity and generating debate. Not run by a media corporation, news for them is not necessarily what drives reporters and editors from traditional newsrooms. Alternative media producers interviewed for this research stressed the democratic purpose of telling underreported stories. Such coverage of what is often “untold” can certainly derive from many different perspectives in a country immersed in historical social and economic inequalities. For instance, stories about the underrepresented may refer not only to geographical communities, but also to particular communities of interest, such as women who do not feel represented by mainstream media. This type of feminist production reflects important changes in society, broadening the arena of discussion on women’s rights and views and serving an increasingly relevant role in challenging culturally constructed gender issues. Some of the collectives were founded and are run by women, and the result is a coverage of women’s struggles that avoids intellectual elitism to reach the general public (Sturm, 2017). Alternative journalism may also refer to news accounts of issues that consistently affect peripheral areas. For instance, citizen journalists are systematically disseminating information on what happens in the favelas, low-income urban areas often portrayed as unlawful and dominated by criminality. As trained citizen journalists, their authority comes from the fact that they are the voices that have experienced that reality. In this case, media activism, as Leonardo Custódio reminds us, is part of “the tradition of struggle and resistance among favela residents” (2016:223). Their perspectives, not often heard by commercial mainstream media, amplify the debates on the country’s systemic inequalities, adding plurality and critical perspectives beyond mainstream headlines. Nonetheless, to illustrate the growing hybridisation of journalism in general, it is crucial to highlight the work of non-profit independent investigative outlets run by professional journalists. For instance, Agência Pública and Ponte Jornalismo are focused on investigative reporting and defence of human rights. Fact-checking initiatives, such as Aos Fatos, combat misinformation, while Amazônia Real brings together veteran journalists who live in the Amazon region and systematically cover the challenges faced by the underrepresented populations of that part of Brazil, where natural resources are exploited without national scrutiny. To hold power into account is one of the more traditional functions of journalism, but the way these small independent outlets work is still “alternative”: they do not accept advertising and public funds, and act independently

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of the mainstream media. The political coverage of these sites is not only shaped by the hard news cycle or the events involving politicians and personalities of power institutions, so often merely guided by the rhetoric of political marketing. Rather, they aim at a greater understanding of the meaning of public policy focused on areas such as health, education and environmental protection regulations. All these different groups, whether professional or amateurs, openly advocate their socially concerned motivations, but claim not to be in the service of political parties, politicians or powerful institutions, thus transcending Brazil’s growing political polarisation. They are interested in building credibility as sources that are not subject to political propaganda, neither concerned in replacing traditional news (Shaver, 2010). It is possible to relate this with what Nick Couldry points out in terms of legitimacy: “In the long-run, new news sources will fade away unless they secure from somewhere a degree of legitimacy and recognition” (2010:148). Additionally, it is clear that economic precariousness affects alternative practices in general, and this study could not point out a solution for this problem. Alternative producers appear to understand that to be sustainable they have to diversify their revenue sources and increase their audiences. Much of the work they do is voluntary or low-paid, although groups that opted for a more professionally oriented approach have been managing to maintain paid staff mainly due to grants from international philanthropic foundations. Hence, talking about alternative media means acknowledging that financial vulnerability remains an obstacle in the digital age. Their future is uncertain, and not admitting that would mean simply to embrace the first optimistic views of web journalism without taking into account the evidences that corporate media have retained control over the digital economy (Fuchs, 2014, 2014; Curran et  al., 2016, 2016). Nonetheless, the fact that alternative outlets are not seeking to automatically replicate the old business model of mainstream media based on advertising and subscription suggests a shift in the potential types of revenue for journalism beyond a consumer culture. In addition, this analysis permitted the identification of the development of new organisational forms of gathering and sharing news that are important for the discussion on the future directions of journalism. Alternative journalistic activities are based on decentralised modes of production as opposed to the highly centralised and vertical structure of traditional newsrooms. Decentralised

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here does not imply that there is no editorial control. Efforts to develop critical and consistent non-corporate journalism also incorporate rules and guidelines to ensure accurate information, albeit through more horizontal decision-making processes. Producers once again manifested concern to be acknowledged as credible and authoritative sources. However, the lack of ownership that is crucial to alternative media makes room for radical experimentation in terms of organisational practices. This is not to say that alternative journalism is synonymous with anarchical systems. Gatekeeping practices, as stated by the interviewees, are part of alternative producers’ routines. Finally, this investigation stressed that online alternative journalism should not be interpreted as a unique journalism. Echoing Carvalho and Bronosky (2017), alternative journalism is not necessarily revolutionary. Groups examined here appropriate fundamental elements of traditional journalism to a greater or lesser extent, despite their critique to mainstream media dynamics. In that sense, producers’ background matters. Not surprisingly, trained journalists, many with experience in large media corporations, tend to emphasise that their goal is not to perform a brand-­ new journalism but simply what they understand as “good journalism”, which does not yield to commercial pressures. On the other hand, producers who never received training as professional journalists attached less value to conventional journalistic principles, but their criticism is not directed at the values of journalism per se but rather at what they consider as a biased narrative of the mainstream media. These two trends may sound contradictory at times, but alternative journalism does not have a monolithic form, as other scholars have shown (Atton & Hamilton, 2008; Forde, 2011, 2011; Kenix, 2011) and this book confirms. Accordingly, the qualitative content analysis confirmed that the concept of alternative journalism comprises a broad range of genres and demographics that could not fit into a uniformed formula. Therefore, understanding the practices of alternative journalists in the current media landscape in Brazil requires looking beyond technological tools for citizens’ participation. Instead, a deeper analysis of their narratives and the social-political themes they communicate explain how their selection of news makes them a potential democratic force. This study argues that the essence of alternative digital native journalism has some similarities with the Brazilian alternative press of other times, such as anarchist newspapers made by immigrants in the early twentieth century or publications that challenged the military dictatorship in the

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1960s and 1970s. Like the contemporary digital producers, those small publications were not guided by a market-driven logic but by their ideological motivation. Besides the fact that digital technologies changed the paradigms of content production, the difference is that throughout the dictatorial times of the twentieth century, mainly during the military government (1964–1985), the Brazilian media system was under control of the state; thus the so-called alternative press was based on the ethos of opposition to the regime. Currently, in spite of political instability and increasing threats to democracy, alternative outlets have more opportunities to contest narratives that privilege the status quo from different and broader perspectives. Through their coverage, they promote debate on issues such as racism, feminism, social inequality and state repression in democratic Brazil, wherefore presenting a renovation of the role of the alternative press of the past as a counter-hegemonic space, albeit fragmented. For example, if we look at websites that discuss discrimination against women, it is not possible to point out a single feminist narrative. Rather, they present different views of women’s demands. Together, they represent a new feminism, formed by infinity of political narratives (Bogado, 2018). Accordingly, different views on the reality of peripheral regions multiply the debate about the lack of social justice on the margins of society. A growing body of research centred in the Brazilian context demonstrates a growing interest in providing conceptual frameworks to better understand media from the margins (Figaro, 2018, 2018; Levy, 2018; Levy & Sarmento, 2020; Medeiros & Badr, 2022). It is important to emphasise that alternative media’s insights captured here are not only based on critiques of mass media news. Their function is much more complex than a binary opposition to mainstream media. This research suggests that alternative journalists attempt to offer alternative construction of news, usually based on the perspective of disempowered groups. In his critique of the alternative press of the dictatorial years, Claudio Abramo (1988) argues that the small newspapers that formed the basis of the alternative press of that period of time were identified as a “counterpoint” to traditional newspapers under state control. Therefore, although they were against the mainstream, they were often “fed” by its content. In other words, part of the raw material of the alternative came from the mainstream media. Instead, this research argues that new digital players make an attempt to overcome this dependency, raising discussions and giving a newsworthy character to stories that generally have no place

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in traditional media. In the next sections, I reflect upon the main empirical findings.

Shaping the Public Sphere As a way of addressing the role of alternative journalists in the Brazilian context, Chap. 4 discussed motivations and ideological influences of alternative media groups. The insights indicate that their role is defined by dissatisfaction with the way mainstream media portray minorities and by a socially concern approach to news selection. As one of the interviewees put it: alternative journalism aims to lift the veil of invisibility that covers certain social issues in Brazil. In the face of an increasing commercialisation and homogenisation of media, fundamental to the mission of alternative producers is to frame news events from the accounts of those who feel “invisible”, or as Forde puts it, “the unrepresented, the voiceless, the downtrodden” (2011, 2011:175). It is possible to make a clear connection between this increasing plurality and the concept of subaltern counter-publics pointed out by Nancy Fraser (1992, 1992). They constitute parallel arenas “that emerge in exclusion within dominant publics and help to expand discursive space” (Fraser, 1992, 1992:123). Free from business considerations, both grassroots media and media produced by professional journalists working in the alternative realm tend to seek stories concerned with the view of ordinary people rather than what concerns the power elites. It is helpful to return here to what Atton (2015) states on the study of alternative media: It shows how it is possible for those who are not part of formal media structures to participate in media discourses, to become reporter of their own realities, to become experts in their own social settings. Alternative media are not simply concerned with presenting a different version of the world; taken together, they offer multiple versions of the world. (Atton, 2015:1)

Brazil is seen a growing media ecosystem of new active social actors, between amateur and trained journalists, who consider the mainstream media as biased and, therefore, aim to offer an amplified and counterbalanced news agenda. Because alternative producers are concerned in telling stories that to an extent are hidden in the mainstream discourse, they naturally defy the consensus of what is news. Hence factors that influence journalist’s actions in a daily basis within large media corporations, such as

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exclusivity, power elite sources, entertainment and drama (Harcup & O’Neill, 2017, 2017), are not the elements that necessarily define what is going to be pursued and published by alternative sites. Many interviewees confirmed the rejection of news values and news routines that prioritise standard stories. Feeling free from concerns such as breaking news, alternative producers seek to provide accounts that can be a force in its own right (Couldry & Curran, 2003). An argument can be made that this is particularly important in moments of political instability, such as the one faced by Brazil. When different media are focusing on the same type of stories during a particular news cycle, what we see is a picture of news homogeneity, as previous studies have concluded (Redden & Witschge, 2010). Accordingly, some outlets are more explicitly political than others, but overall it is discernible that their primary function is to extend the breadth of counter-public spheres that oppose dominant discourses, which constitutes a political act per se (Forde, 2011, 2011). While they have an intended bias in terms of progressive social purpose, alternative producers emphasise their autonomy to avoid becoming a tool for propaganda. “Autonomy” and “independence” were terms very often mentioned by those involved in alternative practices. In the midst of growing political polarisation in Brazil, respondents rejected patronage from political parties as much as they rejected the influence of commercial forces and private interests. It does not mean a support to a supposedly neutral coverage, though. They attested an open emphasis on a progressive set of values, echoing Atton and Hamilton (2008). In that sense, alternative journalism is political for stating a clear ideological motivation, but it is different from the partisan press, either to the right or to the left. More specifically, the discourse of alternative producers stressed not an open political commitment to certain campaigns; therefore, many rejected the label of activists. Evidence suggests that their democratic purpose is more focused on giving voice to underrepresented communities or drawing attention to neglected news, thereby reinvigorating the media landscape. This discussion can lead us to reflect on the contentious ideal of objectivity in journalism. Alternative producers demystify the nature of objective reporting as a synonym for impartiality. But most part of them claimed to be interested in balanced reporting, which embodies the ethical concepts of fairness and accuracy. For example, a group that focuses on investigating cases of abuses committed against workers (Repórter Brasil) has an ethical obligation to hear what corporations accused of irregularity

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have to say. However, it does not mean that the opposing viewpoints will be treated equally in the name of the journalistic balance. This transparency in support of the voiceless remains a fundamental trait of the alternative discourse. One can easily argue that it can also be found in the ethos of traditional journalism, but as one of the interviewees who moved from a corporate newsroom to an alternative media reminded us, framing the news is a more complex process when there are advertisers, owners and shareholders involved in the process. The findings of this chapter, thus, corroborate the idea that there are crossovers between alternative and mainstream in a continuum practice of journalism (Harcup, 2015, 2015), which does not mean that alternative outlets do not maintain their distinctiveness in relation to a market-driven approach.

Diversity of Frames Chapter 5 has drawn on qualitative content analysis of four case studies with varied degrees of diversion from traditional journalistic practices. The cases were purposively chosen (Ritchie & Lewis, 2003) because they all present a departure from what corporate news media do, albeit with very different aims and editorial identities. The main goal of this chapter was to validate some of the claims made by the interviewees and to draw a broader picture of the type of content shared by independent producers. The analysis of the sample was added to reach a deeper understanding of the core elements of emergent forms of digital alternative journalism and to address the following question: To what extent are alternative producers breaking journalistic boundaries and reconfiguring the epistemology of news? Even if they contribute to the newsgathering process quite differently, groups analysed in this chapter challenge the way certain communities are represented in traditional media, once more expanding the debate on human rights, police brutality, racism, sexism and economic abuse, among other issues stressed by the analysis. It would not be fair to claim that traditional media ignore these topics in Brazil, but the way alternative media frame them can be distinct. The analysis confirmed that alternative sites represent a multiplication of news sources, which tend to be more limited and more often related to power structures in the mainstream, as previous studies have shown. For example, Amazônia Real, with its focus on the regional issues affecting the Amazon rainforest, provides a coverage that privileges the

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perspective of local populations, such as indigenous tribes. Similarly, Agência Pública (AP), an award-winning investigative outlet, contributes to a greater diversity of content by promoting mainly original stories on social issues. Even when it disseminates stories that have already been addressed by mainstream channels, the outlet tends to present them from a different point of view. AP invests in stories that are not usually approached in depth in commercial journalism, such as the brutality of the military police in a northern state far from Brazil’s major industrial centres or the extreme poverty that affects not only isolated populations, but residents of the outskirts of São Paulo, the richest state in the country. This is not to say that this pluralism eliminates the appearance of elite sources in their content, such as official authorities and experts, as also observed by Atton and Wickenden (2006) in their investigation of sourcing routines in the UK activist newspaper SchNEWS. Both Agência Pública and Amazônia Real were founded by women, more specifically trained journalists. The initiatives are motivated by dissatisfaction with the way legacy media operate and by innovative ideas about what online journalism can do for society. These two examples of small-scale groups employing professional journalists contain an ideological critique to media production, but the outlets do not necessarily subvert established practices of journalism. Financed mainly by international foundations, they are helping to fight abuses of power and to portray a country that is not limited to the largest urban centres. The journalism they practice is quite conventional on the one hand: data are checked, several sources are heard beyond official institutions and the narrative follows the one of the long-form reporting also found on traditional magazines. On the other hand, however, their news selection is not driven by immediacy or by other factors that characterise the routine of major newsrooms, including surprise, dramas and the involvement of celebrities or authorities (Harcup & O’Neill, 2017, 2017). This expansion of the news agenda is facilitated by their not-for-profit status. It can be considered a practice of transformative and restless journalism, which goes against the reproduction of colonial values, prejudices and stigmatisation of minority populations. The other two cases examined in the chapter require differentiation for producing a content that is closer to the concept of community media. Coletivo Papo Reto (CPR) and Nós, Mulheres da Periferia (NMP) supply local news stories, but they also appropriate content from traditional media and reframe it to challenge media representations from their

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subordinated perspectives and to express opposition to power structures, relating to the radical alternative media as seen by Downing (2001, 2001). These “reporters of their own realities” (Atton, 2015) are more likely to replace the ideal of objectivity by overt advocacy (Atton, 2003; Meadows, 2013). It is not for nothing that CPR defines itself as “guerrilla media”. For example, this chapter has explored stories on police brutality in which facts were not separated from opinion. Accordingly, NMP disseminates personal narratives that emphasise the relationship between social inequality and racial and gender discrimination. The relevance of these two groups to the media landscape cannot be understood without taking into account the historical context of contemporary Brazil. As Rodríguez, Ferron and Shamas remind us “media repertoires do not happen in a social vacuum” (2014:155). There are, therefore, differences between these alternative producers in regard to the challenge to conventional journalistic codes. This is consistent with the heterogeneous nature of alternative journalism highlighted since the first chapter of this book. Nevertheless, the analysis confirmed the value of a consistent coverage of Brazil’s multiple realities by alternative media producers who are working under unfavourable financial conditions.

Where Is the Money? Chapter 6 addressed the dilemmas around financial stability and emergent business models. When asked to reflect on their efforts to avoid the fate of short life cycle that has always haunted alternative media in Brazil, producers highlighted that economic precariousness remains one of the main challenges to non-profit alternative journalism. As discussed in Chap. 3, Brazil has a long history of radical publications, but political and economic pressures have prevented their long-term survival. Different studies on alternative media worldwide have touched on the point of their eternal financial precariousness (Atton & Hamilton, 2008; Fuchs, 2010, 2010; Forde, 2011, 2011; Uzelman, 2012; Harcup, 2013, 2013). Accordingly, an emergent body of research focused on America Latina has discussed the region’s economic and social particularities and how they affect alternative media projects (Requejo-Alemán & Lugo Ocando, 2014; Harlow, 2017, 2017; Salaverría et al., 2019). More specifically, this chapter sheds light on practices of sustainability and the consequent contradictions between commercial needs and their ideological motivations.

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While the internet offers unprecedented opportunities for the expansion of alternative media, it has brought pressures that affect both not-for-­ profit and for-profit media. For example, how to ensure that the content will stand out in an ever-increasing volume of information circulating on social networks? This is a political-economic dilemma for groups who do not want to replicate the same strategies of commercial media. On the one hand, alternative media are self-managed and challenge the power elite; but on the other, alternative outlets have to survive in a media landscape controlled by media monopolies (Fuchs, 2014, 2014). This chapter allowed further clarification of the models sought by non-profit outlets. This is a worthwhile aspect to reflect on, particularly because one of the obstacles that led to the rapid demise of the alternative press born in the years of the military dictatorship was a total lack of financial planning (Kucinski, 1991). Firstly, the producers acknowledged the dilemma of how to achieve financial stability if they are driven by a rejection of the commercialisation of the media industry. On the one hand, they celebrate new digital technologies as facilitators of media production and content sharing. As one of the interviewees acknowledged: “Facebook is our newsstand”. On the other, they demonstrated an understanding that social media platforms are moving closer to the same commercial logic of the analogue era. Therefore, having access to digital technologies does not ensure an egalitarian media system. Interviews suggest an awareness of how the digital market works, as well as a desire to break up with the “alternative ghetto” (Comedia, 1984). Just as legacy media struggle to identify a long-term sustainable model in the digital age, independent digital native sites did not point to a single financial solution neither deepened the debate on how to support alternative platforms to avoid oligopolies on social media. Nonetheless, they showed no intention of following the trends of news commoditisation. There is, in turn, what can be interpreted as a pragmatic shift towards favouring mixed forms of funding in a clear rejection of the advertising and subscription-based model that once sustained mass media. Drawing on examples from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand, Kenix (2011, 2015) argues that alternative media that are commercially minded do not have the aim to make profit, but simply to preserve a continued existence. She adds: “In a hypercommercialised culture, all media coexist in this mass culture, regardless of whether the media outlet is directed explicitly towards non-commercial outcomes” (2015:67). Thus, she points to a growing convergence between norms and routines in the

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alternative and the mainstream media spectrum since the goal of self-­ sustainability is mutual. Although this book has pointed out some level of convergence, it argues that media situated outside the corporate universe still operate in a very distinct way even within the same capitalistic framework. Types of revenue streams adopted by alternative outlets include grants from international foundations; crowdfunding; tailored content for private companies or NGOs; special events or courses and a few public grants. The result is a rather fragmented and generally fragile sustainability system. Only groups receiving funds from international institutions can make longer-term plans and afford paid staff, for instance. As this form of funding is only available to those who can present a more professionally oriented approach in terms of media management knowledge, it seems therefore necessary to distinguish between digital native outlets with a more consolidated editorial structure and groups founded by producers with no entrepreneurial experience. Combined, they form a dynamic and still evolving media ecosystem that has potential to change public discourse (Salaverría et al., 2019). Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go before we could point out a single model against financial vulnerability. This part of the research may sound pessimistic, but producers’ discourse on sustainability was not limited to the amount of resources they are able to raise. Here I argue that alternative journalism in its various forms is an emergent player of the so-called era of post-industrial journalism (Anderson et  al., 2012). Participants do not interpret their role as passive subordinates of an overly commercialised media system. Rather they appear motivated to find mechanisms to stay active; avoid the rapid death of their publications and form a larger counter-public sphere, even if it is necessary, for example, to work in partnership with traditional media. Examples of cooperation include occasional interactions during particular news coverage (e.g. when violence in the favelas erupts, mainstream media use community media as hyperlocal sources), as well as more permanent forms of joint projects. Newspapers can distribute content in collaboration with investigative outlets, for instance. Alternative producers described these possibilities as a way to increase their reach and influence, helping to multiply their messages across communities. Viewed in this light, narratives highlighted in this chapter assume not a merger between mainstream and alternative, but a positioning that reflects a distancing from the “ghettoization” pointed out by Comedia (1984). What is at stake here is not the revolutionary ideal that shaped a large part of the

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alternative press of the times of the military dictatorship that embedded “contempt for administration, organization and commercialization” (Kucinski, 1991:13). By accepting interactions with the mainstream media, alternative journalists reinforce their aim to extend the reach of peripheral voices, or in other words, to make a difference. More recent developments also indicate a strengthening of ties between alternative groups themselves. For example, a partnership between a consortium of independent media groups, some of them cited in this book, produced a series of reports on domestic violence and femicide in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. It helped to promote public debate on gender inequality and gave visibility to sources, mostly women, who contradict data published by the government (Amaral et al., 2021). Another point that this chapter stressed is how alternative organisational structures are different from what is predominant in corporate media. An emphasis on anti-hierarchical routines is one of the strongest elements of alternative media. Editorial decisions are often taken collectively; there is much disagreement, as the respondents reported, and even if there are certain specific roles among team members, the horizontal character of the work is much valued, as opposed to the highly hierarchical structure of large newsrooms. This emphasis on horizontal decision-­ making process is not to suggest that in their everyday practices of publishing alternative producers do not need some level of authority. Even the Indymedia activists who idealised a participatory process radically different from traditional journalism had to face “the emergence of informal hierarchies” (Giraud, 2014:6). Running even a very small collective of citizen journalists without any interest in choosing a “chief-manager” means that, in the end of the process, a final decision of what is going to be published needs to be made. Nonetheless, the economic pressures faced by traditional news organisations have led to a broad range of discussions on new forms of media ownership. In Brazil this discussion is vital since the largest media groups are concentrated in the hands of few families. The report “Media Ownership Monitor”, produced by two NGOs, Reporters Without Borders and Intervozes, in 2017, mapped the most popular 50 media outlets in the country, owned by 26 media organisations (Media Ownership Monitor, 2017). According to the report, in addition to audience and ownership concentration, a lack of transparency in relation to economic, political and religious interests points towards a worrisome scenario. Therefore, following the trajectory of emerging non-profit outlets may

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point to new paths, not only in relation to the adopted business model but also in terms of more horizontal organisational structures. These aspects have an influence on the type of content produced by alternative producers, which, as some argue, represent a reconceptualisation of civic journalism (Konieczna & Robinson, 2014). I hope that this book has illustrated that alternative media should not be dismissed because of their relatively small audiences in comparison to mainstream media. Neither of these groups should be perceived as radical anarchists whose aim is to disseminate a revolutionary vision of journalism. Rather, alternative journalists are part of the growing segmentation of new streams and readers (Lievrouw, 2015), and should be acknowledged for their sustained effort to reconceptualise the notion of public interest criteria, going beyond a simple “curation” of online content or opinionated blogs. As Leah Lievrouw puts it, “given their niche constituencies, concerns and readerships, alternative and community media projects are segmented almost by definition” (2015:309). But in confronting power in its different dimensions and expressing resistance to dominant narratives, alternative journalists add diversity and plurality to media ecosystems. Atton and Hamilton point out that the many challenges faced by alternative journalists might lead us to think about “environments that are under-­ funded (and perhaps even have no funding), unorganized (perhaps even disorganized) and also so far from being professionalised that they are not simply amateurs, but incompetents” (2008:42). The findings of this study contradict this perception.

Background, Limitations and Future Directions This research has not drawn on the political polarisation that has been increasing in Brazil since the 2013 massive protests and which led to the impeachment of former left-wing President Dilma Rousseff and, later, to the election of far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. The political and economic crisis in Brazil is the background of this study, as explained in the Introduction, though my intention was not to investigate digital networks under the direct light of the political turmoil. Rather, the focus was on different forms of journalism that result from the critique of dominant media practices, as suggested by Atton and Hamilton (2008).

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The context, however, should not be downplayed. In the last few years, populist discourses have become a common feature of the political scenario in various countries. This current wave is also situated in the emergence of far-right alternative media that threatens journalists’ authority (Figenschou & Ilhlebaek, 2018, 2018; Panievsky, 2021). Indeed, while the alternative media evaluated in this study struggle for social justice and for the amplification of marginalised voices, far-right activists also stand as opponents of what they classify as an elite discourse and of what they consider a left-wing biased mainstream media. Brazil witnessed the same surge, especially since the presidential elections of 2014, when right-wing organised groups became more active on social media (Brugnago & Chaia, 2014). During the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, a powerful network to spread misinformation was maintained by his anti-democratic supporters as a direct attack on freedom of expression and news organisations. Though we may consider that far-right media is a type of alternative media (Atton, 2006), this study did not engage with these groupings, adopting instead the frame of progressive independent sites that work for the notion of democratic communication. The analysis of the explicitly partisan networks, some of them deeply engaged in the massive dissemination of fake information, can be addressed in future research within the context of post-truth (Vargas, 2020). In addition, by choosing to analyse the emergence of different genres of alternative journalism, whether practiced by professionals or amateurs, this research did not intend to absorb the full details of the impact and ethical dimensions of each of these media. As a means of grasping the understanding of new forms of providing content relevant to their audiences outside large media corporations, the hybridisation of the media landscape is certainly an important aspect to discuss. Nonetheless, this broader approach may result in many limitations. More focused empirical research is required to debate the impact and main elements of specific communication channels and genres discussed here, such as news shared by favela-based producers, grassroots media, feminist media, NGOs or investigative outlets. In this case, an ethnographic method, for instance, which was not adopted for this study, could capture insights that are beyond the scope of this book. All these types of digital media are relatively new and not extensively theorised in the context of the Global

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South. I am aware that due to the differences that they entail in relation to news content and purposes, each one of them would deserve an in-depth academic study. To conclude this note about the limitations of the analysis presented here, I would like to remind readers that as Brazil is a country of great size and strong regional differences, it would not be realistic to aim for a complete picture of what is produced by alternative media. My hope is that the chosen sample presents a coherent set of practices that can shed light on the emergent challenges to media power in a country that is going through a profound transformation. There is no doubt that the conservative wave that elected Bolsonaro brought exceptional challenges for journalists in Brazil, whether they are inside or outside large newsrooms. The spread of political propaganda “disguised” as facts represents a blow to those who defend the integrity of journalism and democratic values. The right-wing government nurtured an authoritarian political climate, disqualifying both traditional media and alternative outlets that are not aligned to its rhetoric. Without attempting to delve too deeply in the operation of a disinformation machine used not only against the press, but also against the judiciary, civil entities and scientists, this context of extremism has led to growing discussions on the ability of journalists to fight anti-democratic campaigns anchored in social media. In his analysis on anti-press online attacks in the US, Silvio Waisbord (2020) defines this threat to democratic communication as “mob censorship”, or a bottom-up, citizen antisocial behaviour aimed at silencing journalists. Similarly, press freedom Brazilian organisations recorded an escalation of violence against journalists and media outlets. According to the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ), there were 428 attacks against journalists in 2020 (105% more than in 2019). NGO Reporters Without Borders states that Brazil’s poor placement in the World Press Freedom Index (110° in a list of 180 nations in 2022) is directly related to the climate of confrontation and persecution stimulated by the Bolsonaro government.1 In an open letter to the National Congress in defence of freedom of expression, the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) warned of the dangers faced by journalists and communicators. The letter from 2021 mentions “difficult access to public data, judicial 1  The FENAJ report is available here: https://fenaj.org.br/violencia-contra-jornalistas-­ cresce-10577-em-2020-com-jair-bolsonaro-liderando-ataques/. The Reporters Without Borders 2022 index is available at https://rsf.org/en/index.

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censorship, removal of content, threats and physical attacks, defamatory campaigns and online harassment”, in addition to impunity in crimes committed against journalists.2 One of the issues that can be raised in future research is how the rise of populist discourse and the consequent toxic context that it helped to spread reflected on the content produced by alternative media. Despite the renewed interest in journalistic strategies to maintain the public’s trust while countering anti-media attacks (Koliska et  al., 2020; Panievsky, 2021), it is not sufficient to follow only the responses given by large media organisations. Researchers must also watch over the answers that alternative journalism sought in Brazil and elsewhere in the Global South, also paying closer attention to the growing barriers to the working practices of non-hegemonic media outlets. A research conducted by Reporters Without Borders and the online outlet Gênero e Número revealed the effects of misinformation and online violence on women journalists and LGBT+ journalists in Brazil. According to the report, 80% of the respondents have changed their use of social media to reduce exposure and more than 50% said they felt an impact on their working routines (Gênero e Número and Reporter Without Borders, 2022). Thus, studies on the exercise of journalistic activities should take into account the vulnerability of minority journalists to digital hate and misogynistic narratives. Though orchestrated online attacks against women journalists is a global problem (Posetti et  al., 2020), underfunded organisations, with not enough resources to provide digital safety training, could be more vulnerable. In parallel with the growing prominence of the authoritarian discourse, Brazil has also witnessed greater political participation of peripheral voices (Levy, 2018). For instance, a new wave of activism gained traction, resulting in the emergence of intersectional black women’s collectives, which emphasise a repertoire that demands attention to issues such as colourism, sexuality and self-presentation (Rios & Maciel, 2021), just to mention one type of grassroots organisations that are becoming more visible in the public sphere. Grounded in a growing understanding of the historical inequalities and oppressions by race, gender, class and sexual orientation, 2  The open letter published by Abraji was signed by other seven independent organisations: Article 19, Conectas Human Rights, Intervozes, the National Federation of Journalists, the Vladimir Herzog Institute, the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders. It can be read in Portuguese at https://abraji-bucket-001.s3.sa-east-1.amazonaws. com/uploads/ckeditor/attachment_file/data/267/Carta_P_blica_ao_Congresso_ Nacional_em_Defesa_da_Liberdade_de_Express_o_no_Brasil.pdf.

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discourses targeted at social change have been transcending academic and activism circles and influencing mainstream media coverage. Alternative journalism is also part of this development. In this light, Brazil presents a captivating case to study evolving practices of news making.

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