The Need to Historicize Alternative Media Within Today’s Creator Economy
The Need to Historicize Alternative Media Within Today’s Creator Economy
Jay Hamilton, “The Need to Historicize Alternative Media Within Today’s Creator Economy.” Presented to the Community Communication and Alternative Media Section, IAMCR (International Association for Media and Communication Research) Conference, June 2026, Galway, Ireland.
Abstract: This paper makes an empirical case for historicizing and thus retheorizing “alternative media” as a concept and practice. As but one facet of this task, the paper analyzes the change in conception and valuation of alternative media in empirical scholarly work from 1980s through the present, explaining differences in terms of what has come to be called the creator media economy. Acknowledging and understanding the immense differences between “alternative media” at its emergence and today, including drastic differences in historical conditions present at the emergence of “alternative media” in the 1980s versus currently, can contribute to and help invigorate continual experimentation and innovation for progressive and emancipatory media work responsive to current times.
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