Alternative media - alternative publics - alternative realities? Users and usage of anti-system alternative media and their significance in the media repertoire over time

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christian Schwarzenegger
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 467295482

The proposed project investigates the users of anti-system alternative media in Germany and their usage patterns over time. It addresses the question of the extent to which the use of alternative media is accompanied by a turning away from traditional public spheres and a participation in alternative public spheres and ultimately also alternative (media) realities. For this purpose, a media repertoire perspective examines how and under which conditions alternative media emerge in a repertoire and how the repertoire evolves over time (emergence, maintenance and (re-)formation of media repertoires). Anti-system alternative media are strongly associated with the spread of misinformation, conspiracy myths and populist agitation and the danger of social polarization up to radicalization. Therefore, the way citizens deal with alternative media contents and the potential consequences are of high social and political relevance. In the project, the development of (alternative) media use over time and possible entailed transformations will be investigated, drawing upon a typology of alternative media users based on preliminary work by the applicant. Such transformations refer to the status and centrality of alternative media in the users’ media repertoires and in their relationship to other media; as well as to the related communicative practices (e.g., sharing, liking, interpersonal communication, and networking). In the course of this, the project also examines the conditions under which the use of anti-system alternative media can lead to a turning away from democratic discourse and a turning to more radical positions. Specifically, the project investigates in a qualitative long-term study 1) the conditions of the inclusion of alternative media in the media repertoire, 2) the development of the centrality of alternative media in the repertoire as well as the relationship between alternative media and other media sources, and thus the connection to traditional public spheres over time, 3) the consequences of sporadic and regular alternative media use for one's own political positioning, and 4) the related communicative practices, especially networking and communalization, that can be associated with alternative media use. The proposed project thus addresses an evident research gap in Communication Studies and investigates a topic that has so far received only sporadic empirical attention.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants