The Contexts and Consequences of Hybridity for Alternative News Audiences

This commentary surveys and analyzes the flourishing field of alternative news audiences, whose values, attitudes and practices were previously underexamined by scholarship. Rauch discusses this new research as a response to significant recent shifts in the conceptualization of both audiences and alternative news, including recognition of their hybridity as well as their negative influences on democratic discourse. She interprets these trends in light of John D.H. Downing's prescient warnings of two decades ago regarding a slippage toward binarism, a neglect of far-right or repressive media, and a conflation of technologies, genres and formats in media user research. This article synthesizes and extends findings about the contexts and consequences of hybrid news consumption, including those related to mutually reinforcing relationships between alternative and mainstream media and those addressing their potential to provoke intrapersonal and interpersonal conflict. Rauch proposes several new directions for future research on alternative news reception, including extended comparison of national contexts and attention to audience attitudes regarding journalism reform.