Blog #8 - EOTO Alternative Media

Believe it or not, alternative media is all around us and we might not even realize it. If you don’t know what alternative media is, you're in luck! This blog post will discuss alternative media and how it goes beyond the definition and how it affects society as a whole. Looking at the impact of alternative media affects yourself and your family/friends. Through these different types of implications, alternative media affects society by keeping the public informed, strengthening the community attitude, and challenging gender roles. Some examples of alternative media are: Podcasts, social media apps, billboards, newsletters, and graffiti.

For those who simply don't know what alternative media is, it is a non-mainstream source of information/communication that offers perspectives, narratives, and voices outside of mainstream media. They tend to advocate the interests of those excluded from the mainstream. For example, community empowerment, media reform, cultural diversity, and social justice. The implications alternative media has on society are mostly positive. Alternative media gives less powerful people a voice to be heard. Being able to state their purpose and try to influence other people to think the same way or inform them about issues. It gives the chance to
the community to participate in media production and come together over similar conflict interests. For instance, back in 2014, three men convinced billions of people to dump ice bucket water on their heads and posted videos of them dumping the water to raise awareness for ALS. It was called the Ice Bucket Challenge, and it raised over $220 million across the world. Making ALS a major charity for donations, which is amazing because so many people suffer from this terrible disease.

The ice bucket challenge is also a good example of civic participation. Alternative media implicates the opportunity people have to communicate with others and become active participants in raising awareness for ALS. Through these different types of implications, alternative media affects society by keeping the public informed, strengthening the community attitude, and challenging gender roles. Alternative media can strengthen the community by encouraging participation and communication through the community, strengthening society's attitude towards certain issues. Alternative media also challenges gender roles by being able to share stories and provide information on different perspectives of different people's views. This could impact people with different types of religion if someone is gay, bi-sexual, or straight. Gives people the opportunity to challenge one another on their beliefs and help others understand different points of view. Helping others grow in their beliefs and keeping the public informed on what's happening with the mainstream media getting in the middle of it and only showing their side of the story. Alternative media, however, gives other people the chance to speak on topics they believe in. 

Overall, alternative media affects everyone in the world, but how it might affect myself, or my friends and family is informing us on what's happening in the world. Might bring us together through community participation and my friends wanting to be involved with the community. Alternative media can change how we view things and change our perspectives. It also allows my peers and I to share our thoughts and make a difference in the world.