Alternative Media in Lebanon: The Role of Digital Platforms in a Polarized Hybrid Media System

This article aims to contribute to the literature about the roles and limitations of alternative media activism in different hybrid media systems by scrutinizing the organizational and discursive counter-hegemonic agency of digital alternative platforms in the Lebanese media system that is prone to high political parallelism, elite control, and polarization. To achieve this objective, semi-structured interviews with Lebanese journalists and a qualitative framing analysis for the alternative and mainstream media coverage of the Beirut Port explosion, which took place on the 4 August 2020 and led to the death of hundreds of people, were conducted. Our results show that Lebanese alternative media strive to escape the hegemonic control of sectarian and political groups by trying to achieve editorial and financial independence. Besides, they attempted in their framing of the explosion to develop a different narrative of the political conflict as a meta-sectarian one between the people and the ruling class from all the sects. However, they face the challenge of distinguishing themselves from the mainstream oppositional media that stands against the current regime. These results highlight the challenges and new possibilities opened by digital technologies for alternative media to escape the political hegemony in a polarized hybrid media system.

本研究旨在为探讨不同混合媒体系统（hybrid media system）中替代性媒体行动主义的角色与局限的相关学术文献贡献新知，具体通过细致审视黎巴嫩媒体系统中数字替代性平台的组织性与话语性反霸权能动性（counter-hegemonic agency）展开——该媒体系统普遍存在高度政治平行性、精英控制与社会极化现象。为达成上述研究目标，本研究对黎巴嫩新闻从业者开展半结构化访谈（semi-structured interviews），并对2020年8月4日发生并造成数百人遇难的贝鲁特港爆炸事件的替代性媒体与主流媒体报道展开定性框架分析（qualitative framing analysis）。研究结果显示，黎巴嫩替代性媒体力求通过实现编辑独立与财务自主，摆脱教派与政治团体的霸权控制。此外，在对此次爆炸事件的报道框架建构中，此类媒体尝试将政治冲突构建为一种以民众与各教派统治阶层为对立双方的超教派叙事。但此类媒体仍面临一项核心挑战：如何与当前反对现政权的主流反对派媒体划清自身界限。本研究结果凸显了在极化混合媒体系统中，数字技术为替代性媒体摆脱政治霸权所开辟的全新机遇与挑战。