Alternative or Radical Media? : An Exploration of Civil Media@Taiwan

Abstract: Alternative media, as another choice for the public besides mainstream media, has been increasingly growing in Taiwan during the era of Web 2.0. In an attempt to report social issues properly, alternative media is trying to break the hegemonic range of mainstream media while being oriented by the public. Civil Media@Taiwan has been established since the year of 2007. During its ten-year history, Civil Media@Taiwan has identified itself as an alternative medium. Although the rise of alternative media has been studied by researchers from different fields, there have been very few studies on alternative media in Taiwan. The aims of this study are first to reveal the principles and practices of alternative media, then to investigate whether Civil Media@Taiwan is alternative media or radical media. The theoretical approaches used in the research include the theories on alternative media, and theories on radical media. Content analysis on the official website of Civil Media@Taiwan and semi-structured interviews of fourteen interviewees are utilized as the methodology. The study has two research questions, which examine whether Civil Media@Taiwan is alternative or radical, and how it serves the public. The journalistic profession and the organization of Civil Media@Taiwan are investigated in order to answer the research questions. The results of the study conclude that Civil Media@Taiwan is partly alternative and partly radical, but combining the characteristics of both kinds of media. Moreover, Civil Media@Taiwan serves the public by challenging the rules of journalism and broadening the hegemonic range from mainstream media.