`The Unspoken - Said'

There is a long and continuing tradition of alternative media being produced to challenge the discourse(s) of mainstream media. This article explores the ways in which the journalism of alternative media differs from mainstream journalism; whether or not alternative and mainstream media use different sources; and how relationships between producers and sources in alternative media differ from those in mainstream media. These questions are addressed by examining alternative media in the UK: first, by briefly tracing the history of that country's alternative press; second, by comparing how a major news story was covered by a mainstream local newspaper and an alternative local newspaper in the same city; third, by interviews with members of a collective producing a radical website that draws on the traditions of the alternative press. The analysis is informed by the concepts of the `public sphere' and the `alternative public sphere'; and takes issue with the categorization of alternative media as an exemplar of `failure'. The article concludes with some comments on the ability of alternative media to play a counter-hegemonic role in relation to mainstream media.