On the Mainstream/Alternative Continuum: Mainstream Media Reactions to Right-Wing Alternative News Media

Abstract

Using the mainstream media as a starting point, this article argues that the ongoing changes in the mainstream/alternative continuum are not just dependent on how right-wing alternative news media relate to certain journalistic practices but also on mainstream media reactions to their emergence. The following questions are thus asked: Are right-wing alternative news media accepted or rejected as journalistic actors, and are their ideological orientation deemed legitimate or deviant? this article combines insights into how the boundaries between mainstream and alternative media have become increasingly blurred in the digital context and uses the concepts of boundary work, interloper media and Hallin’s three-sphere model to examine these questions in a Scandinavian context. Based on a quantitative content analysis of 430 online mainstream news articles, this study demonstrates striking differences between the Scandinavian countries. While there are few or no reactions from the Danish mainstream media, the Swedish mainstream media largely reject right-wing alternative media as journalistic actors and position their ideological orientation as deviant. The Norwegian case is found in between. The results contribute to developing the scholarly understanding of the mainstream/alternative continuum and, thus, right-wing alternative news media’s position in the wider digital media landscape from a mainstream media perspective.