Between Mainstream and Alternative – Co-orientation in Right-Wing Populist Alternative News Media

Abstract

Alternative news media with a right-wing populist leaning are flourishing. They pitch themselves as opposition to a hegemonically interpreted mainstream news media system. Yet, at the same time, they rely on the so criticized others to justify their own existence. Using a co-orientation framework, the current study asked in how far right-wing populist alternative news media orient themselves towards the mainstream. Using a qualitative content analysis of all 658 websites referenced by a popular right-wing conspiracy-theoretical YouTuber in Germany, we demonstrate that distinct source types were quoted. References ranged from mainstream news media up to ultra-right wing truther blogs. A quantitative examination of the content-analytical categories confirmed significant differences between mainstream news media and right-wing populist blogs, with special interest and alternative news media ranging in between these poles. Alternative news media were overall found to orient themselves stylistically strongly towards the mainstream but less so regarding their content selection. Particularly, the top sources, accounting for over 76% of all references, were mostly rooted in the alternative ultra-right-wing ecosystem. In sum, our analyses showed how stylistic co-orientation is used to build a bridge towards the mainstream while content-related co-orientation towards other ultra-right-wing alternative sources allows for validating one’s own right-wing populist worldview.