There is no alternative: The critical potential of alternative media for challenging neoliberal discourse

Abstract

This article was written in order to contribute to a discussion about a critical definition of alternative media. Asking what role alternative media could play in challenging neoliberal discourse in an age where capitalism have become immune to criticism, it elaborates on the concept of "the alternative" and the media through three sections. The first section discusses neoliberalism and the connection between neoliberal doctrine and mainstream media. This connection is described as promoting "public amnesia", financialization and economization of news journalism. The second section discusses alternative media from the perspective of new social movements and symbolic resistance, claiming that the symbolic resistance framework undermines the critical potential of alternative media, it also comments on some recent critical literature on neoliberalism and capitalism. The third section takes examples from artistic explorations of capitalism and television to propose how a distinction between social and formalist aspects of "the alternative" could inform a critical notion of alternative media.