Welcome to the New Media Upside Down: a parallel universe (think the Upside Down from the Netflix series Stranger Things) that operates as a mirror image of its mainstream counterpart with its own “alternative facts,” audience, and interpretation of truth. The New Media Upside Down looks a lot like the media it’s trying to undermine and replace, but it’s darker in vision — and raw. If you live in the mainstream media world, the New Media Upside Down can be hard to find — the only real crossover between the two worlds is on Twitter, where its leaders lambaste mainstream news reports often with the aim of discrediting them. It’s (reasonably) young and hungry, and has risen with Trump all the way to the White House — where Steve Bannon, who helped construct this upside-down media world while running Breitbart News, now holds sway as senior counselor to the president himself.
The New Media Upside Down is hardly concentrated or uniform in its voice. It’s helmed by a number of charismatic personalities, among them “New Right” blogger, self-described sometimes troll, and self-help author Mike Cernovich; undercover journalist James O’Keefe, conspiracy theorist and radio personality Alex Jones; conservative radio personality Laura Ingraham; pro-Trump Twitter pundit Bill Mitchell; Twitter provocateur and #Pizzagate truther Jack Posobiec; and online conservative media personality Hoft. The New Media Upside Down is diffused across mostly anonymous, massive conservative Facebook pages. But it’s also a beacon for young news organizations like One America News Network (a cable channel that recently hired former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as a talking head) and Lifezette, as well as more established fringe outlets like InfoWars, the Gateway Pundit, Conservative Treehouse, and Breitbart News.
(Source: BuzzFeed)
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