INTRODUCTION

The primary aim of this chapter is to present an overview of the main features that characterise the critical, ‘public’ journalism that has emerged on the Internet, largely through the media of new social movements and radical political organisations and institutions. It will examine the dialogical and popular methods that inform many of the radical journalism projects on the Internet through a case study of the Indymedia network, described by one commentator as ‘to date the pinnacle model of citizen participation in the media’ (Giordano 2002). A key feature is the egalitarian mode of address, where intellectuals share media platforms with activists and where it is hoped that elitism is eroded. Here we find the new media used both by grassroots activists and by dissenting academics and other intellectuals participating in a counter public sphere.

This is not to suggest that radical journalism on the Internet has evolved ahistorically and without reference to mainstream journalism practices. As emerging research suggests (Atton 2002b), there are fascinating interrelations between the two types of news cultures (for example, the radical use of tabloid style by alternative journalists, the erosion of expert hierarchy in radical news). Finally, the chapter will critically examine some of the theoretical claims that have been made for this type of online journalism and in particular ask whether it represents as radical a shift in notions of doing journalism as some of its celebrants believe.