Counter-Informational Politics: How Integration into Alternative Media Ecologies Shapes Contemporary Populist Mobilizations

• In Event: 20220 - Section on Communication, Information Technology, and Media Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Section on Communication, Information Technology, and Media Sociology Roundtable VIII: Politics & Conspiracies

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of counter-informational politics to analyze a distinct form of political mobilization increasingly observed in (Western) democratic systems, where political contestation is centered on “information” and “truth.” I argue that this mode of mobilization is closely linked to the emergence of alternative media ecologies, which have developed within hybrid, platform-based media systems. These circulatory networks function as counterpublics, appealing to participants to define themselves in opposition to a purported “mainstream.” Drawing on repeated interviews with 54 users of German alternative media over two and a half years, I explore how integration into these alternative media ecologies shapes users’ political participation. In the analysis, I identify three distinct “media imaginaries” through which alternative media users conceptualize and use these alternative outlets: contrarian, conventionalist, and constructivist. I further show, how each of these imaginaries, along with corresponding sets of media practices, is associated with distinct mobilization trajectories, shaping how alternative media users move in and out of sequences of counter-informational mobilizations.

Author

• Anna Lea Berg, Central European University