Guidomedia

We have entered an era where technology assists the creation of new information. With the current war in Iraq, audiences are turning to the Internet and in particular ‘other’ news sources as a way of obtaining information and contributing to the creation of information. There is a plethora of criticism that has befallen this innovative way of communicating, specifically that it places the profession of journalism into refute. However, with more and more people going online to receive news coverage, the Internet has solidified itself as a major player in the news coverage circuit. With traditional media entering the virtual arena via postings of their electronic versions of their stories, there has also been a growth in alternative media outlets that offer a diverse and alternate perspective on news both foreign and domestic. This essay examines the criticism that surrounds these alternative news outlets, and will look at the impact that sites like thememoryhole.com and thewilderness.com have on traditional media. Attention is also given to weblogs and the impact of the ‘citizen journalist’ within this online media landscape.

The advent of digital media and media technology, in particular the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW), has profoundly altered the current news and journalism landscape. Lasica (1996) identified that in the USA “the Internet [has] exploded in popularity, attracting an estimated 20 million users” (20). At present, computers and the internet are common features of the family home with audiences opting to go online for their daily intake of current news (Kellner 2003, 9). For fear of becoming “museum relics”, we race to keep up to date with the latest multi – media technology, news, information, and gossip (Kawamoto 2003, 34). These technologies have allowed differing ideas to enter the public sphere via alternative media websites and weblogs which present a broader range of information. A profound feature of the Internet is the weblog which differs from other web pages because they provide users a space to fill in information as well as the opportunity to integrate a variety of Internet features into their pages. Also, “blogging” (tech slang for web log) offers postings to readers with the opportunity to reply (Greenlee 2005). Technology together with alternative media sites, have dramatically impacted on the way news is reported and distributed. The advent of the WWW has opened the floodgates for “amateur sleuths and news mogul wannabes” (Kawamoto 2003, 34). Consequently, as the WWW provides a global forum for people to discuss events and post information, anyone can be an amateur journalist. Although American corporate mainstream media institutions such as CNN, NBC, ABC, PBS, and Fox, still garner a news seeking audience, alternative media has posed a threat to these institutions as the sole source of news and information (Kawamoto 2003, 30). Websites and blogs now feature ‘public journalism’ authored by a range of different voices from the amateur journalist, to the conspiracy theory junkie, to the lay person. Public journalism also provides alternative news which may challenge, contradict, and refute traditional sources of news and information, as well as the institutions they reside in.

Media scholars like Rodriguez and Downing, define alternative media as a “citizen’s media” or public journalism, where news has become de – capitalized, and de – institutionalized (Treptow 2002, 6). As such alternative media sites like thewilderness.com and thememoryhole.com help prosper an alternative understanding of events, and at the same time, allow for an involvement and participation in a forum by audiences. Specifically, with Internet users spending an average of three hours and 37 minutes per month using Internet applications, ‘blogging’ especially has become a phenomenon that permits an individual to be their own publisher, whether it is by text or video (Greenlee, 2005). An example is a weblog by Salam Pax, an Iraqi civilian who fed information out to the world via his computer during the most dramatic part of the coalition occupation. In his weblog Pax illustrated his fears of not only of Saddam’s regime and secret police, but also the fear of death by allied bombing. All these websites will be dealt with at a greater length in order to understand the impact they have on mainstream media and on the audience, however, it is prudent to firstly examine and distinguish the differences between mainstream media and online alternative media to better understand the impact they both have within the current political climate.

A distinctive feature of alternative news is that it is defined as oppositional to mainstream media institutions and therefore classed as ‘other’ (Galtung and Ruge 1973, 63). Traditional forms of news which originated in print journalism, complied with the news criteria set out by Galtung and Ruge. Their criteria privileged different events and voices of society which are still in practice today. An example is the death of Victorian cricketing captain David Hookes in 2004, as told by the Herald Sun and The Age daily newspapers. In these stories Hookes’ version of events was privileged over the accused, Zdravko Micevic. As David Hookes was a cricketing legend, and was considered a “star” the ensuing stories adhered to the hero/victim narrative used in news (Galtung et al 1973, 66). Over time audiences have become familiar with the news criteria and format as stipulated by Galtung et al. The introduction of the Internet however, has challenged this format and has brought about a series of different ideas and concepts about current events and world news and how they should be handled. As a result, the Internet has added fuel to the criticisms of traditional news content and format. Holt (2004) argues that mainstream media is designed to deliver “monologic” information which is “constructed according to a dominant system of thought” (Holt, 22). Herman and Chomsky (2002) labeled this “the propaganda model” whereby the media communicates content that reaffirms the political and economic conditions in which they exist in (Treptow 2002, 7). Therefore, the argument here is, that mainstream media uphold a shared interest and the status quo which is forced by a dependence on advertising and ownership. The result is an increased influence over the content of news and a “reduction in disseminated perspectives, especially those contradictory towards political or economic powers” (Treptow 2002, 7). An example was mainstream media’s depiction of the war in Iraq which replicated the criteria of Galtung and Ruge by setting the hero/victim and hero/villain binaries where cultural differences served as “objects of positive and negative identification through a combination of projection and empathy” (Galtung et al 1973, 67). For this reason, mainstream media were criticized for constructing an “us” against “them” image, evident more so after the September 11, 2001 World Trade Centre disaster. Kellner (2003) argued that the representation of terrorism that encompassed “good versus evil” and “humanity versus the blood – thirsty” view by mainstream media, forced compliance towards the government and military (Kellner 2003, 90).

Because of the ubiquitous nature of the news, the likelihood of multiple discourses and realities becomes highly probable. Today’s technological advances and forums, i.e. websites, discussion boards, weblogs, allow audiences to take part in the formation of information made available instantaneously via the Internet. In effect, what is occurring is the reusing and repurposing of existing information, which becomes fodder for dissection, and gains momentum because of the very way it is broadcast.

There is very little doubt that the Internet has become a domestic necessity, with the virtual community interconnecting the world through its expediency by “escalating information and multimedia extravaganzas into the home and workplace (Kellner 2003, 14). It has become a viable competitor of broadcast news and their online counterparts as the dominant medium of our time. Online mainstream news sites like CNN.com and MSNBC.com however, have also experienced an immense popularity, and one could argue that it is because of alternative media sites that this has occurred (Lasica 1996, 21). The Internet tracking firm Nielsen/Netratings found that traffic to online news sites increased dramatically following the start of the war in Iraq. With a 29 to 51 per cent increase in viewership on news sites such as CNN.com and MSNBC, it became increasingly obvious that viewers were opting to get their news information online with the word “Iraq” jumping from the fifth most popular search on Yahoo.com, to the most popular (Treptow 2002, 4). More specifically, Internet traffic in Australia and New Zealand rose over 30% according to the Internet ratings agency RedSheriff (RedSheriff.com 2004). With viewers of television news citing mainstream media as biased and less honest, news online increased as an important source of information (Treptow 2002, 7). What increased even further however, were the audiences’ acceptance of alternative media sites as a main source of information. However, it should be noted that during this period of increased activity for mainstream online news sites, alternative news web sites experienced technical difficulty because its servers were unable to cope with the amount of traffic the sites were receiving (Kornblum, 2003).

Within mainstream media, official versions of what is real become legitimized because mainstream media dominate news content. This makes the news seem credible and other versions farcical. Traditional modes of information are regarded as valid versions of reality because of the source and the institutions that govern them (Parenti 1986, 50). This elitism creates a binary between traditional media and alternative media, whereby the latter is criticized as functioning without gatekeepers or intermediaries (Viguerie et al 2004, 278). Hanson (1997) posits that the expectation of instant information creates a glut of information with three effects. He believes these to be; reactivity or loss of, lower standards of reporting, and an emphasis on novelty, i.e. heroes and scandals. The result is the stigmatizing of alternative media sites as nothing more than “giant churning rumour mills whose authenticity can be both controversial and rarely guaranteed” (1). Another criticism that has circulated the use of alternative media sites is their agenda. More specifically, it has been argued that these ‘subcultural activist groups’ are merely using the Internet as a way to “propagate and propagandize for their cause” (Kellner 2004, 2), by nurturing a subjective voice, or an anti establishment stance. For example, thememoryhole.com was criticized for its decision to release photographs of dead marines returning from war when the government would not. However, as Kellner (2003) argues, corporate media can also be criticized for exploiting fear, namely in their expressive presentations of murder and violence and the hysteria generated against a foreign enemy since September 11 (Kellner 2003, 91).

We relate to the world by producing value systems such as media institutions, and education systems. The Internet has become one of these value systems, whereby the audience refers to it as a system of knowledge. Newspapers, radio, and television have all been affected by the revolution in digital technology, especially by the Internet and the WWW as viewers and users form an interdependency on the Internet and WWW, to question the existing order of mainstream media (Treptow 2002, 12). Kawamoto (2003) argues that the most prolific aspect affected by technological change and the way we receive information is that professional journalism has been imbalanced by ‘amateur’ writers who bring novel forms of resistance to mainstream media (32).

Viguerie and Franke (2004) argue that alternative media sites offer a leveled playing field between corporate newspapers that legitimize themselves by having so many resources, and who are able to select what is news and what is not (279). Alternative media therefore has the power to validly contribute to the news making process by dissecting and criticizing what is published and allowing “not only for more voices, and more sources of knowledge, which the consumer or knowledge hunter is always in search of, but for an unlimited number of voices and sources” (Treptow 2002, 17). Arguably, online information can be both progressive and digressive, depending on how it is used and who is using it. (Kawamoto 2003, 35) Where the Internet and alternative media sites have been commended for complimenting and contextualizing mainstream media by stimulating thought and allowing users via weblogs to actively participate in disseminating information, they have also been criticized for producing information specifically designed to confuse and mislead. The argument is, that these sites infiltrate cyberspace and due to their pervasiveness, make it difficult for the user to distinguish between fact and fiction. Can this accusation however, be limited and directed only towards these sites; can’t mainstream media be accused of doing the same thing?

Kawamoto (2003) argues that, “credibility is a gray [sic] area on the Internet”, and sources are not always reliable or credible (34). However, if it weren’t for the web and alternative media sites like the Drudge Report and thememoryhole.com, the Clinton/Lewinsky affair may have never been exposed, and more recently, we would never have seen the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison, where alternative media sites were able to unearth key concerns with regards to modern day methods of interrogation and the use of torture in the 21st Century (O’Neill 2004, 1). This alternative discourse allows audiences to make sense of global tragedies that are senseless – and therefore provoke the inquirer to have recourse to ever more extreme speculations, until one is reached that is capable of offering the inquirer the required emotional satisfaction. Greenlee (2005) argues that conventional media institutions control information and that alternative media with all its facets i.e. ‘blogs’ empowers the user because they are in control of the information that is posted online. Technology therefore, has allowed a discourse of reflection, dissemination, and dissection to come out into the open with alternative media sites providing a foundation for people to help shape the broader culture and polity of which they are a part of (Kellner 2004, 1).

The events of September 11, 2001 became the catalyst for many to reject government policy and its official government stance on what really happened. Michael Ruppert, a former LAPD narcotics investigator is one of these people who actively voice what they believe to be the Bush administration conspiracy. Via his website thewilderness.com, he is able to get his beliefs ‘out there’, with accusations of alleged cover – ups within the government that Ruppert believes mainstream media have failed to report. One of his more damning claims focuses on the Bush Administration having complete foreknowledge of the attacks on September 11. He argues that despite this information, the attacks were allowed to take place giving the government uncontested leverage to execute the war in Iraq. Ruppert wrote:

“You are witnessing a war to control the last remaining oil reserves on the planet as the wealth of the planet is being systematically removed into the hands of a totally ruthless new world order” (Ruppert in Hipsley 2005, 3-4).

Ruppert’s views gained a following with a dedicated online audience of 20,000 people in over 40 countries, and with an estimated 11,000 visitor’s to his site on a daily basis (Hipsley 2005, 4). His theories on cultural imperialism as the fundamental reason for war attracted a response by the Bush Administration who noticed the sites popularity. This prompted President George W. Bush himself to actively voice his disdain and reduce the sites importance by stating that thewilderness.com alongside Ruppert encompassed “outrageous theories” and “malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame from the terrorists themselves” (Hipsley, 4). This is a prime example of how government and media collude to downplay the significance of alternative views by criticizing and dismissing Ruppert’s theories as unpatriotic and weak minded.

It is to simplistic to suggest that alternative media provides an indulgence in unfounded, outlandish and unworthy information, or as Kawamoto (2003) argues a decline in ethics and standards where “the less well known, are not always considered ‘credible’ sources of news” (34). Kawamoto claims that if we were to compare an alternative news site to a well known online news site like The New York Times online service, credibility would certainly carry more weight with the official line projected by The New York Times. Its less official counterpart, for example thememoryhole.com would be considered a site run by “crusading cyber journalists” or citizen journalists who exploit the Internet in order to propagate their views (Kawamoto, 34). However, cultural analyst Douglas Kellner (2004), views alternative news sites as forums where groundbreaking news and information, (that mainstream media are too afraid to touch), is elevated into the public sphere for dissemination (Kellner, 14). An example of this was in 2003, when thememoryhole.com editor and creator Russ Kick published photographs of army officer’s coffin’s arriving at Dover airport in Delaware, USA.

The photographs of American war dead first appeared on the website, thememoryhole.com, amidst great debate over family privacy. Pentagon officials argued that photographs of dead soldiers bought back from war should not have been released. Kick retaliated by challenging the Freedom of Information Act which prohibits photographs and media coverage of human remains to be made public (Chase 2003, 1). Kick stated that the prohibition of these photograph’s underscored the war’s human cost. Kick responded to the Pentagon’s noise by posting his views on his website and wrote:

Since March 2003, a newly-enforced military regulation has forbidden taking or distributing images of caskets or body tubes containing the remains of soldiers who died overseas. Immediately after hearing about this, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the following:

I specified Dover because they process the remains of most, if not all, US military personnel killed overseas. Not surprisingly, my request was completely rejected. Not taking 'no' for an answer, I appealed on several grounds, and—to my amazement—the ruling was reversed. The Air Force then sent me a CD containing 361 photographs of flag-draped coffins and the services welcoming the deceased soldiers. Score one for freedom of information and the public's right to know. (Russ Kick creator and editor of TheMemoryHole.com)

Russ Kick’s insistence that the photographs be made public knowledge, paved the way for a third player in the news game, the Web. The WWW has become not just another medium for the distribution of information, but a way to reach people at the same level as that of the mainstream media. The Memory Hole has been a thorn in the government and military’s side since the release of the photographs, with many government official’s questioning Kick’s motives for wanting to publish the photos. However, the websites mantra speaks for itself; “Rescuing Knowledge, Freeing Information” (Thememoryhole.com/Home Page). Upon the release of these photographs, and the subsequent firing of Tami Silicio, a civilian contract worker who took the photographs, the website received 4.2 million hits on the Thursday of their release, and nearly 5 million on Saturday (Smith, 2004). In effect, alternative media sites such as thememoryhole.com and the Drudge Report, do something else other than conspire to create invalidated information, but rather aim to release information that is factual but covered up; information it is argued, that the public should be privy to (Kellner 2004, 2).

Weblogs are an extension of the WWW and exist as a web of hypertext pages. Weblogs differ from other web pages because they provide users a space to fill in there information as well as the opportunity to integrate a variety of Internet features into their pages. Therefore, ‘blogging’ provides postings to readers with the opportunity to reply. ‘Blogs’ since 9/11 have dealt with specific political positions and alternative media sources. News blogs like Google.com and Yahoo.com have created a revolution in journalism, whereby cultures of blogger’s are continuously posting and commenting on news stories that are continuously read and re – published by global media (Kellner 2004, 15). Where blogging has been criticized as a tool for promoting agendas and interests, and borrowing the new online environment for their own socio – political intentions, it has also been commended for its “sub – cultural activism” (Kellner et al 2004, 15).

With interest in blogs rising, some blogger’s are standing out more than others. The most recent examples are two Iraqi civilians filtering information via weblogs to the world in the midst of the turmoil in Baghdad. In September 2002, a 29 – year – old Iraqi man living in Baghdad and calling himself ‘Salam Pax’ started posting descriptions of daily life on the Internet. The weblog illustrated Salam Pax’s fears of not only Saddam’s regime and secret police but also fears of death by allied bombs. As the war progressed, and the American and coalition invasion became more pronounced, many flocked to Salam’s website for real accounts of the effects of war. Described as an “uninhibited and grimly compelling account of the slide into war” – amidst the last days of a long dictatorship, this weblog offered information and communication that rivaled western embedded journalists (Pax 2002, 1).

Similarly, Riverbend or Baghdad Burning began to contribute her thoughts and criticisms on the Internet via a weblog. Her ‘blog’ deals with the war in Iraq and the ramification’s that western occupation has had on herself and the people she knows who live in Iraq. Her first blog was written on August 1, 2003, and she continues to write two years down the line, sometimes contributing twice maybe three times a day. Although she provides an email address on her site, her name is not revealed and simply refers to herself as ‘Riverbend’. The ‘blog’ allows for interaction and provides links to other Iraqi’s who themselves have blog sites, as well as links to the BBC online, Al – Jazeera online and The New York Times. In a contribution posted July 31, 2004, ‘Riverbend’ wrote;

Is there sympathy with all these abductees? There is. We hate seeing them looking frightened on television. We hate thinking of the fact that they have families and friends who worry about them in distant countries and wonder how in the world they managed to end up in the hell that is now Iraq… but for every foreigner abducted, there are probably 10 Iraqis being abducted and while we have to be here because it is home, truck drivers, security personnel for foreign companies and contractors do not. Sympathy has its limits in the Iraqi summer heat. Dozens of Iraqis are dying on a daily basis in places like Falloojeh (sic) and Najaf and everyone is mysteriously silent- one Brit, American or Pakistani dies and the world is in an uproar- it is getting tiresome.

Saturday July 31, 2004

A week ago, four men were caught by Iraqi security in the area of A'adhamiya in Baghdad. No one covered this on television or on the internet, as far as I know- we heard it from a friend involved in the whole thing. The four men were caught trying to set up some explosives in a residential area by some of the residents themselves. One of the four men got away, one of them was killed on the spot and two were detained and interrogated. They turned out to be a part of Badir's Brigade (Faylaq Badir), the militia belonging to the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. Should the culprits never have been caught, and should the explosives have gone off, would Zarqawi have been blamed? Of course.

Sunday October 3, 2004

This blog is important mainly for two reasons. 1) It offers a personal perspective on the hostilities in Iraq, and 2) it directly critiques the western media and the inclusion and exclusion binary of news (Galtung et al 1973, 63). In order to make a different point, a world event can be framed and contextualized differently, that is, different contexts express different claims. This blog therefore, offers a first hand worldview of the effects of war not recorded in mainstream media. As such, media institutions and alternative news sources on the web find themselves with differing interpretations. Treptow (2002) argues that web blogs “have allowed for anyone with a computer and Internet access to carve their own little niche on the Web” (Treptow, 16). As a result of these niche news markets, there have been a record number of people opting to go online for news coverage in order to interact within the “blogoshere” (Kellner 2003, 3).

Smith in Heaton suggests that criticism surrounding weblogs has been plentiful. Smith wrote that ‘blogging’ nurtures a rift between itself and mainstream media where ‘anybody’ can become a journalist. The ‘citizen journalist’ he posits, now has the ability to reach millions of people because of the Internet, which problematizes traditional media and the distribution of information (Heaton 2005). In the case of ‘Riverbend’ it is a personal perspective of life during and after war and a contribution that has garnered a large global response, making it invaluable. For ‘Riverbend’, the need to make an online contribution proved necessary, for it became a means of communication created in a medium where western media becomes challenged through a new perspective on life amidst turmoil. Weblogs therefore, can be invaluable in supplying a “human look” at unfolding events that challenge the centers of power by exposing the tragedies and injustices of war.

Websites such as the aforementioned and ‘blogs’ like Baghdad Burning, address diverse but important aspects of civic life by focusing on the construction of social activism. Holt (2004) claims that alternative media sites , with their ability to transcend borders and time, and reach an audience quickly and easily, also transform public communication therefore making it very relevant in effectively structuring and shaping society by nurturing free speech even if what is said is not accepted en masse (Holt, 45). Regardless of the criticism’s that circulate alternative media, it has become a viable method of communication utilised by the citizen who finds the need to disseminate the non – linear narrative form of mainstream media. Websites such as thememoryhole.com and weblogs like Riverbend do more than propagate a differing view, but play a part in shaping important public debates in a realm where there is an absence of boundaries. More specifically the Internet and the WWW allows alternate media sites to prosper by forming a power balance between the upper echelons of corporate media and alternative media outlets. These sites, together with weblogs create a revolutionary circulation and democratization of information and culture that audiences come to identify with as they attempt to redefine and construct information in ways which the Internet affords them.

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