The Interaction of the Alternative Website and Mass Media

The Interaction of the Alternative Website and Mass Media

In China: Case Study of www.stopdv.org.cn

Bu Wei

Professor, Institute of Journalism and Communication

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Web-master of the www.stopdv.org.cn

Address: P.O.Box 2011, Beijing 100026, P.R.China

Tel: 8610—64461952

Mobil Phone Number: 13611062843

Email:

Abstract

In author’s dual role as a scholar and a web-master of the website “Stop Domestic Violence” (www.stopdv.org.cn), the study attempts to explore the process in which an alternative website run by a women’s NGO can influence the society through its interaction with mainstream media in the Chinese context. The website was built in 2001 as part of a project - Domestic Violence in China: Research, Intervention and Prevention, initiated by the China Law Society. The study found that “Stop Domestic Violence Website” is coexistent and interdependent with mass or mainstream media. On one hand, the mass media relies on alternative media. The independent information source from the alternative media with gender, feminist or human rights perspectives makes extensive and in-depth reporting of issues like domestic violence possible by the mainstream media. On the other hand, through mainstream mass media, alternative media of NGOs make its voice heard and its influence felt by the public. It is possible that alternative media and mainstream mass media have positive and constructive interaction with each other. This experience shows Chinese NGOs or women activists are both conscious of taking advantage of new media technology and also active in creating independent sources of information and spreading feminist voice through constructive interaction with the mainstream media in China.

In author’s dual role as a scholar and a web-master of the website, the study attempts to explore the process in which an alternative website run by a women’s NGO can influence the society through its interaction with mainstream media in the Chinese context.

I. The Concept of Alternative Media in the Chinese Context

The alternative media is regarded as options outside mainstream media in “World Communication Report” by UNESCO in 1989[1]. The definition goes on that it is a communication system and tradition that can supplement the mainstream media. It appears because the mainstream media fails to fully meet the communication needs of certain groups.[2] This definition explains why alternative media exists and what functions it has. The reason for its existence is because “mainstream media fails to fully satisfy the communication needs of certain groups” and its role is to “supplement the mainstream media”.

But I do not think it is adequate to define alternative media as a supplement to the mainstream media. We should think about “why mainstream media fails to full satisfy the needs of certain groups”? Who are these “certain groups”? What are the characteristics of mainstream media? What is its relationship with these “certain groups”? What is the role and significance of mainstream media to certain groups? The information gap theory of mass communication explains that those in better socio-economic conditions are more skillful with communication and information process. They obtain more background knowledge to receive new information and they are more accessible to debates of public affairs than those in weaker socio-economic conditions. More importantly, the nature of mass media is constructed for the use of those in higher socio-economic status. Many issues of public affairs and news on science and technology appear on print media that is often catered according to the taste of people in higher socio-economic status. Such media is designed for their interest[3]. Therefore mass media can widen the information gap between those in better socio-economic conditions and those in poor socio-economic conditions. Therefore “certain groups” are often referred to those in weaker socio-economic conditions divided by the mass media.

As a matter of fact, when we use the concept of alternative media, very often, we use it in reference to mainstream media, namely, alternative media exists only relative to mainstream media. In Michael Albert’s paper “Alternative Media: What Makes Alternative Media Alternative?”, he writes: A mainstream media institution (public or private) most often aims to maximize profit or sells an elite audience to advertisers for its main source of revenue. It is virtually always structured in accord with and to help reinforce society’s defining hierarchical social relationships, and is generally controlled by and controlling of other major social institutions, particularly corporations. In contrast, an alternative media institution (to the extent possible given its circumstances) doesn’t try to maximize profits, doesn’t primarily sell audience to advertisers for revenues (and so seeks broad and non-elite audience), is structured to subvert society’s defining hierarchical social relationships, and is structurally profoundly different from and as independent of other major social institutions, particularly corporations, as it can be. An alternative media institution sees itself as part of a project to establish new ways of organizing media and social activity and it is committed to furthering these as a whole, and not just its own preservation.[4]

The basic model of mass communication is: disseminator – information – media – audience – effect[5]. Some researchers have already questioned the intention of communication (assuming that communication is a process of convincing) and the over simplicity of this model[6], however it is still considered as a convenient and comprehensive method to guide the research of communication process[7]. Moreover, it is appropriate to compare the difference of mainstream media and alternative media in framework of communication model. This paper applies this model to construct and organize the discussion of mass communication, thus to understand the specific features of alternative and mainstream media. See the comparison in Table 1.

Table 1, Difference between Alternative Media and Mainstream Media

Five Elements of Communication / Alternative Media / Mainstream Media
Disseminator
（Manager） / NGO or social activists / Corporations, syndicates, government agencies and others
Information
（content） / Catered to the needs of non-mainstream social groups, demanding for political, economic and cultural rights of marginalized groups; emphasis on dialogue and debate, more interactive and participatory / Catered to the needs and taste of mainstream social groups (advantaged social groups or elites), treating the audience as objects or objectives of media
Channel
（means of communication） / Low-tech, community media, media targeting a certain group or groups / High-tech, global media or mass media
Audience / People with low socio-economic status, marginalized groups or minority groups / Trying to reach all people, but in reality limited by its channel or content, it tends to reach more socially advantaged groups or elites
Effect/impact / Commercial profit is not important, promotion of social equity through empowerment and capacity building of vulnerable social groups / Maximization of communication effect and commercial profit

The comparison above is generated based on dozens of alternative media examples included in “World Communication Report” (1989)[8] and examples drawn from some NGOs’ websites in China. There may be reasons to believe that there is controversy about such generalization, because we can find that the overlap between alternative and mainstream media, particularly under the Chinese context in which both their difference and complementation are being increasingly observed. At the same time, in China, it is observed that the government-controlled official media and commercial media adopted different attitude towards working with alternative media.

Based on the above analysis, we may point out some indexes that indicate the differences between alternative media and mainstream media:

Who are the initiators or managers of alternative media?

What is the content feature of alternative media?

What is the channel of alternative media?

Who are the participants and audience of alternative media?

What is the objective of alternative media?

In this paper, the alternative media is defined as “media system, which is advocated and managed by social activists or NGOs for exchange of information concerning marginalized or vulnerable groups with objective to empower marginalized groups and to encourage their participation in the media.”

In this definition, communication channel of alternative media is defined in a highly generalized term as “media system”. It includes traditional media, mass media, new media technology and all media forms for informal information exchange. As mentioned in Table 1, during the 80’s and 90’s, most of alternative media applied low-cost technology, making it more accessible for marginalized groups. In the 90’s, a large number of NGOs and activists adopted computer and Internet technology or other forms of new media technology to set up or develop alternative media. But new media technology has its own problems. Chris Atton questioned the continuous existence of alternative media in the traditional sense after CMC (computer-mediated communication) era[9]. For example, the information disseminated by the highly participatory CMC users no longer has the content feature of traditional alternative media. When every person can become a publisher in theory, how can we distinguish traditional alternative media from CMC version alternative media? Chris Atton says “Perhaps the only significant constant in print and CMC versions of alternative media is content, particularly the origins of that content. For new social movements that content comes from lived experience. In order to sustain a notion of alternative in cyberspace we must let the real world break in on the virtual one。” Therefore his research did not define alternative media as “small audience media” but draws the definition by “communication system”.

In some instances alternative media may “supplement” mainstream media, which is to say that it represents the interest and voice of marginalized groups which are acknowledged and identified but ignored by the mainstream media. In other instances or more often, it challenges the perspective, news value and social value of mainstream media. It also aims at the empowerment of marginalized groups. In such instances, the role of alternative media is not just simply to “supplement” but rather “substitute” the mainstream media. Here “substitute” does not means “replace”. It is used relative to “supplement” to mean to represent the voice that the mainstream media fails to represent. So it co-exists with mainstream media or mass media. Chris Atton summarized the theory and methodology of alternative media in which he also analyzed the difference of alternative culture and oppositional culture and concludes that alternative culture and mainstream culture co-exist with each other and oppositional culture intends to replace the mainstream culture[10].

Media is a tool of power. In his book “Agent of Power” (1984) J.Herbert Altschull points out that there is no such a thing as completely independent newspaper. In all social systems, mass media is agent of those who have economic, political and social power[11]. In UNDP “1995 World Situation of Women: Trends and Statistics”, “women in media” is not an issue of employment or education or training, but an issue of “power and influence” with same significance of women’s political participation[12]. From this point of view the primary role of alternative media is to empower the vulnerable groups and to promote equitable sharing of information in order to create a cultural and social environment that fosters social equality and sustainable human development.

II. Background of Stop Domestic Violence Website

1. International Women’s Movement and Alternative Media

The development of international women’s movement in 70’s and “International Year of Women (1975)” and “UN 10 Years of Women (1976-1985)” had joined impacts and led to women’s actions taken in areas of mass media. These actions included 1) monitoring women’s image in mass media to promote reflection of women’s real image in the media; 2) demanding mass media to employ more women and to increase the number of women in senior leadership positions; 3) creating alternative media; 4) to establish women’s news websites and news agency; 5) to encourage research on women and media, research not only concerning women’s image and women’s participation in mass media, but also research on influential media policies, structure and new media technology[13]. The Forward-Looking Strategy (FLS) issued at the “Assessment Meeting of UN 10 Years of Women” (Nairobi, 1985) regarded increase of women’s participation in mass media at all levels, eradication of gender stereotype and prejudice as well as increase of women’s access to information as priority issues. The Strategy also emphasized the importance of new forms of media and called on national governments and other agencies for more budget allocation to support these plans (para.206). In 1995, “The Platform of Action” was adopted by the 4th World Conference on Women. “Women and Media” was listed as one of the 12 priority areas of concern. Its strategic objectives had it that “to increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication. (para.238), the Platform of Action, calls for national governments to “encourage and recognize women’s media networks, including electronic networks and other new technologies of communication, as a means for the dissemination of information and the exchange of views, including at the international level, and support women’s groups active in all media work and systems of communications to that end” (para. 239, f).

In 80’s and 90’s, women’s alternative media mainly included newspapers, periodical magazines, video/audio tapes, books and publishing houses. It first appeared in North America and Europe and later spread to other parts of the world including Latin America and Asia[14]. After 1995, due to rapid development of new communication technology such as computer and Internet throughout the world, application of Internet as the primary channel of communication for promotion of gender equality and social development issues came on agenda. The 80’s saw the production of alternative media women’s magazine such as “Emma” in Germany and “Ms” in the USA, audio/video material like “Strong Image” produced by Isis International; women’s radios in Europe and North America, Women’s Feature News Agency funded by UNIFEM in 1978, Women’s information and media center such as Isis International, International Women’s Forum Center and a number of gender related women’s information network and data base. The mainstream women’s media quite often has content such as fashion, cosmetics, home decoration, children’s education, cooking and home nursing, targeting middle class audience while alternative women’s media tends to concentrate on more controversial issues related to women’s rights such as reproductive health, gender and racial discrimination, work rights of women, history of women’s movement, sexual violence, women in development and women and peace. They also provide information on women’s actions, plans and networking. These efforts contributed to women’s equal access to information.