Fake news has become more prevalent today than perhaps ever before. In fact, fake news wasn’t even a term several years ago. Today, it’s one of the greatest threats to free debate, public discourse, and democracy.
As a result, alternative media has become increasingly more popular because people want to know more than what corporate-backed mainstream media is willing to share with the public.
What is Alternative Media?
The key difference between alternative media and mainstream media is that it is independent and not backed by corporate interests. Alternative media is, therefore, also referred to as independent media.
Given the growing concern around fake news, many people are turning to alternative media to learn the truth about what is really going on.
In this guide, we take a look at ten popular alternative media outlets to check out in 2020.
Signs of the Times
Signs of the Times (SOTT.net) is a distinct player in the alternative media space. SOTT has 120 volunteer editors in different countries across the globe. They curate news from around the world and publish them on the news platform.
Articles are formatted form various sources into a single, readable format. Each article features a commentary from the editor, which is differentiated from the main article with a blue background.
SOTT.net doesn’t accept any commercial advertising and support. Instead, it achieves its objectives through reader donations and its own resources. Advertisement on its website is either from their own fundraising products or unpaid publicity offered to their research partners and friends.
Truthdig
Truthdig was founded in 2005 by editor-in-chief Robert Scheer and publisher Zuade Kaufman. The alternative news media is dedicated to reporting on current issues that aren’t sufficiently covered by mainstream media. In fact, their motto is “drilling beneath the headlines”. They do this to provide readers with expert reporting and commentary from a liberal point of view. As such, they offer an outlet for exceptional journalists to publish their original work. The platform is known for credible and honest reporting as well as careful fact-checking.
Shareholders or advertisers do not influence Truthdig. This gives them the freedom and responsibility to publish the type of content they do. In fact, their commitment has enabled them to continuously get grants from philanthropists and foundations. In addition, they also receive contributions from readers who want them to maintain their excellent commentary and reporting. Besides giving their contributors freedom on what to write, the team is also largely comprised of writers and editors who’ve worked for major publications. These publications include The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and the San Fransisco Chronicle, among others.
The Empire Files
The Empire Files is an alternative media outlet whose content is in video format. Curated by Abby Martin, the videos posted on theempirefiles.tv take more of an interview style. Martin’s no-nonsense journalism exposes the world as a place that’s riddled by war and inequality. Something that the mainstream media doesn’t share with the public.
Martin focuses on issues such as mass shootings, Islamophobia, and trans rights in America. She also has other interviews on different issues in various countries such as Syria, Venezuela, etc. In all these, Martin focuses on how empires run the world.
The Empire Files platform doesn’t have advertisements. Instead, the media outlet asks viewers to donate or buy Empire Files merch.
The Corbett Report
The Corbett Report is another popular alternative media source that is run by James Corbett. The platform is independent and operates on the open-source intelligence principle. Moreover, it’s also supported by its listeners. It features different content in different formats such as interviews, podcasts, videos, and articles.
The Corbett Report focuses on current affairs and breaking news. Corbett focuses on a wide range of issues such as geopolitics, false flag terror, central banking fraud, eugenics among others. Corbett himself operates the platform.
He created the platform back in 2007 as an avenue for independent critical analysis of society, politics, economics, and history. Since he established it, Corbett has written, recorded and edited thousands of hours of video and audio for the site as well as online video series for YouTube.
SGT Report
SGT Report describes itself as the “corporate propaganda antidote.” They also go ahead to describe themselves as the “source for truth in a time of universal deceit.”
SGT Report originally focused on precious metals and economic news. With time, it became more political and begun focusing on current affairs. Still, it stayed true to its precious metal beginnings. The platform is hosted by Sean, who is passionate about discovering the truth in our world. He shares hard-hitting truths with the public to uncover the lies and disinformation shared by corporate media.
Sean’s storytelling style encourages readers to investigate and question the world they live in. SGT Report is a popular alternative media source as Sean takes readers through all the information while discovering the truth with everyone.
We Are Change
We Are Change is another independent media outlet to follow in 2020. It’s an independent, non-partisan media outlet run by independent journalist Luke Rudkowski.
The platform seeks to expose the lies told by the corporate elite and the government. We Are Change focuses more on finding the truth by asking the questions that mainstream media doesn’t ask.
We Are Change’s goal is to create a community of peacemakers and truth-seekers who share a commitment to non-violent action. They also don’t discriminate on any basis. Anyone who wants to join We Are Change can do so either as an individual or a group.
Truthstream Media
Truthstream Media is a platform that focuses on “seeking answers”. Aaron and Melissa – a couple who are keen on understanding what is really happening – launched the media outlet. The platform provides both articles and videos. The videos have excellent video production. Furthermore, the series, documentaries, and videos all have great quality. They report from their personal perspectives, which gives their audience a nice and refreshing angle.
The couple always carries out their hard investigative journalism before they can present their experience to an audience. Similar to SGT Report, Aaron and Melissa try to figure things out with their audience making the alternative media platform even more interesting.
Anti-Media
Anti-Media is another alternative media outlet you can go to for independent news. The platform grew from a fiercely independent news blog to what it is today; “the Homepage of Independent Media”.
Anti-Media is a non-partisan media aggregator and anti-establishment news publisher. The platform has grown by combining its strengths of broad-spectrum anti-establishment journalism, a huge network of free thinkers and activists from across the political spectrum, and strategic partnerships with different independent media outlets.
Through their platform, users can sign up, submit their content and using the Anti-Media’s voting system, decide where they’d want their content published. In addition, Anti-Media asks their readers or people who find their work valuable to donate to them.
Zero Hedge
Zero Hedge is arguably one of the most popular alternative media outlets for financial and economics news. At the time, their motto was “On a long enough timeline all fiat currencies return to their intrinsic value of zero”. Over the years, their popularity grew and their slogan changed.
Today, their slogan is “On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.” Many people view Zero Hedge as a “doom and gloom” site as their content isn’t for the faint-hearted. ZH is a good platform to check out what alternative media is saying about current economic affairs.
Adbusters
Adbusters is a progressive liberal print magazine for anyone who is fed up with corporate influence. The publication wants to share radical ideas in the hopes of changing the present-day corporate status quo to something more humane.
Adbusters focuses on grassroots efforts and culture jamming in a bid to bring change to society.
