Podcasting as Alternative Media: Navigating Politics, Platform Power, and Journalistic Professionalism in China

This study explores how journalist podcasters and their podcasts function as alternative news media within the Chinese media landscape. It argues that journalist podcasters do not explicitly assert their alternativeness, instead, they adopt non-confrontational approaches to create alternative spaces for public discussion and deliberation. They reinvent journalistic professionalism as a counterstrategy, negotiate between professionalization and personalization, and resist the dictates of algorithms and platforms. This research contributes to the current understanding of alternative media by framing the concept as contextual and relational, particularly highlighting how alternatives are constructed and practiced in relation to platform power and data technology. Thus, alternativeness, much like mainstream media, remains a contested concept. This constrained sense of alternativeness, while offering some liberation, also imposes limitations.