15.09.2026
Alternative News Ecosystems in Context: Conditions of Alternative Media Supply and Demand
New published book chapter by Annett Heft and Eva Mayerhöffer
In: Alternative Media in European Contexts Theoretical Cornerstones, Methodological Challenges, and Systemic Conditions
Edited by: Eva Mayerhöffer, Miriam Kroman Brems, Tine Ustad Figenschou, Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk
Alternative News Ecosystems in Context: Conditions of Alternative Media Supply and Demand (chapter 16)
Authors: Prof Dr. Annett Heft and Dr. Eva Mayerhöffer
The hybrid and digitized media landscape is marked by a diversification of news sources (supply) and a diversification of audiences’ news repertoires (demand). In this multifaceted information and news environment, alternative information providers have emerged in a broad variety of types.
Focusing on systemic factors frequently addressed in comparative research on alternative media, the polarization in politics and media, marginalization of fringe actors in both fields, fringe partisan network and support structures, trust in legacy media, the established journalistic field’s reaction to hyperpartisan alternative news, and media and platform regulation are analyzed in this book chapter. Further the authors exemplify how the mechanisms and conditions under which these factors might or might not be conducive to the supply of and demand for alternative media of different ideological leanings in Europe and how these factors are interrelated. Heft and Mayerhöffer end by discussing the challenges of researching hybrid alternative news ecosystems in context and how a systematic consideration of these factors can inform future comparative research on alternative news.
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