Beyond the MSM: Understanding the rise of alternative online political media

在英国公众投票决定脱离欧盟、唐纳德·特朗普当选总统以及杰里米·科尔宾在2017年英国大选期间支持率上升之后，主流媒体(MSM)因没有预见到这些事件而受到批评。他们被指责没有反映或理解许多人对主流媒体和政治体制的疏远和愤怒。在政治光谱的两个方面，首字母缩写MSM都已成为一个被广泛使用的贬义词，用来描述一系列代表建制派、保护精英利益和维持政治现状的传统媒体。正是在这种背景下，在2017年英国大选期间，许多选民超越了MSM，转向了被贴上左派标签的媒体网站，在那里传递了更多亲工党和反MSM的信息。这其中包括金丝雀、演进政治、苏格兰上空的翅膀、Novara Media、Skwawkbox和另一个愤怒的声音等网站。他们成为竞选活动的重要组成部分，因为他们通过许多社交媒体平台接触到选民，特别是Facebook，并绕过了对MSM获得新闻的依赖。一项研究发现，虽然老牌MSM品牌在2017年竞选期间主导了网站流量，但在Facebook上广泛分享的报道中，情况截然不同。在线原生新闻网站如金丝雀，甚至博客如另一个愤怒的声音，能够获得比许多强大的印刷和电视新闻品牌更多的受众。(LitTunen 2017)。新的左派媒体的崛起不仅帮助杰里米·科尔宾的工党在年轻人中获得了更多选票，而且挑战了MSM的议程设定权力，包括削弱右翼报纸的编辑权，这些报纸的数量远远超过左倾报纸。自从它们在2017年英国大选期间崛起以来，还没有系统的研究来检验这些网站的内容，它们背后的编辑动机，或者人们如何理解和参与它们。这项研究项目的目的是了解左右翼替代性在线政治媒体的生产、内容和消费情况，如WestMonster、Breitbart UK、保守党女性和Guido Fawkes。我们还有兴趣了解人们对MSM的看法，以及他们是否因为政治报道中的偏见而转向另类媒体。我们将通过对选定的网站及其在2016至2021年期间对Twitter的使用进行全面分析，审查替代媒体的生产、内容和用户，对编辑和投稿人以及75-100名常规用户进行约50次采访。我们还将使用Twitter情感工具来检查观众如何理解MSM和BBC等话题。我们已经与许多另类媒体网站和它们的固定用户建立了访问权限(见支持信)。通过在五年时间里仔细分析另类在线媒体，我们的目标是在2022年下一次英国大选之前了解所讨论的主题和问题。制定这一时间表是为了最大限度地发挥社会和政策影响。已经计划了五次影响活动，以接触到关键的利益攸关方。这包括为资深媒体人物举办研讨会，反思我们的发现，并考虑MSM在2022年大选前如何报道政治的影响。英国议会将在工党和保守党会议上组织一场威斯敏斯特活动和边缘谈话，让政策制定者、政界人士和记者参与进来。将与媒体监管机构举行非公开简报会，讨论替代在线政治媒体网站的编辑标准，并审议政策影响(见支持函和用户审查)。最后，学术会议将汇集另类媒体学者，特别是PGR学生，以鼓励更多的研究。

After the British public voted to leave the EU, Donald Trump's Presidential victory and Jeremy Corbyn's rising support during the 2017 UK election campaign, the mainstream media (MSM) were criticised for not anticipating these events. They were accused of not reflecting or understanding many people's alienation from and anger with the mainstream media and political establishment. On both sides of the political spectrum, the acronym MSM has become a widely used pejorative term to characterise a broad range of legacy media that represents the establishment, protecting the interests of elites and perpetuating the political status quo. It is in this context that many voters went beyond the MSM during the 2017 UK general election campaign and turned to what have been labelled alt-left media sites, where more pro-Labour and anti-MSM messages were being conveyed. This included sites such as The Canary, Evolve Politics, Wings over Scotland, Novara Media, Skwawkbox and Another Angry Voice. They became a prominent part of the campaign because they reached voters across many social media platforms, particularly Facebook, and bypassed the reliance on MSM for news. One study found that while established MSM brands dominated traffic on websites during the 2017 election campaign, in "coverage widely shared on Facebook, the picture is vastly different. Online native news sites like The Canary and even blogs like Another Angry Voice were able to achieve larger audiences than many strong print and TV news brands" (Littunen 2017). The rise of new alterative left media were credited with not just helping Jeremy Corbyn's Labour secure more votes amongst young people, but challenging the MSM's agenda setting power, including diminishing the editorial power of right wing newspapers, which far outnumber left-leaning titles.Since they rose to prominence during the 2017 UK election campaign, there has been no systematic research examining the content of these sites, the editorial motivation behind them or how people understand and engage with them. The aim of this research project is to understand the production, content and consumption of both left- and right-wing alternative online political media, such as Westmonster, Breitbart UK, Conservative Woman and Guido Fawkes. We are also interested in exploring people's views about the MSM and whether they are turning to alternative media because of a perceived bias in political coverage. We will examine the production, content and users of alternative media by carrying out a comprehensive analysis of selected sites and their use of twitter between 2016 and 2021, conducting approximately 50 interviews with both the editors and contributors, as well as with between 75-100 regular users. We will also use Twitter sentiment tools to examine how topics such as the MSM and BBC are understood by audiences. We have already established access with many alternative media sites and regular users of them (see supporting letters).By closely analysing alternative online media over a five year period, we aim to understand the themes and issues addressed ahead of the next UK general election in 2022. This timetable has been developed to maximise societal and policy impact. Five impact events have been planned to reach key stakeholders. This includes a symposium for senior media figures to reflect on our findings and consider the implications for how MSM report politics ahead of the 2022 general election. A Westminster event and fringe talks at Labour and Conservative party conferences will be organised, which will engage policy makers, politicians and journalists. Private briefings will be held with media regulators to discuss the editorial standards of alternative online political media sites and to consider the policy implications (see supporting letter and user review). Finally, an academic conference will bring together alternative media scholars, particularly PGR students, to encourage more research.