Monitoring the Establishment: The Development of the Alternative Press in Australia

Abstract

The mainstream press in Australia, and indeed most Western nations, claims a strong and romantic history. But our alternative press also has a strong past, harking back to the days of the great general strikes and the anti-conscription movement, which were all captured in detail by the radical working-class press. Similarly, the counter-culture publications of the late 1960s and 1970s recorded and reflected a time of major social change and upheaval in our nation. This paper is principally an overview of the Australian alternative press, past and present, and is part of a larger study of the contemporary Australian alternative press. The study identifies 28 alternative publications and surveys editors' and journalists' attitudes to issues of objectivity, news values, ethics and news-gathering practices. A look at the alternative press industry has revealed publications with an overwhelming commitment to ‘filling in the gaps’ left by the mainstream, and providing context to issues which are generally given cursory treatment by the dailies.

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