Alternative News Sources
Diamond Sharp
BBC News: www.bbcnews.com
This media outlet is the frontrunner in international news. The BBC website is dedicated to making web accessibility easier for every user especially those with handicaps. This mission is evident in the multiple options they offer for each story: thirty three language translations, bigger print, audio archives and transcripts and a low graphics choice is offered for those with slower internet connection. The site is easy to navigate; news is sectioned by country, subject, video and audio.
BBC mission statement: It is an attitude we at the BBC need to keep top of mind in the modern age. We must create services that are accessible to all ages and all abilities, making it easy for every single person to reach our content, and once there, to determine for themselves the value they derive from us."
OneWorld.net: www.oneworld.net
The goal of One World is to build a global community by providing access to news coverage from across the globe. Their mission is to encourage their readers to "Think, act, live beyond your own borders." The site manages to stray from traditional news presentation. In conjunction with their news coverage, they offer a community section that allows readers to connect locally and provide information about jobs and volunteering.
Unwire.org: www.unwire.org
This website is news primarily focused on the actions of the UN. It requires an free email signup to view the site in depth, but coverage of the news is widespread globally and displays obscure. For example, health news such as "In Mumbai, rat fighters have a mighty foe" to internationally known issues such as human trafficking and the AIDs crisis.
Alternet.org: www.alternet.org
Alternet is a leftist news source focused on stabilizing the gap between the amount of conservative news sources and liberal. They offer news from across the globe and also have interesting headlines such as "What if Harry Potter were gay?" and "After Reporting in Iraq, America Feels Like a Bizarre Disneyland." The homepage is sectioned into links to each news story, making it easy to navigate. Alternet utilizes different media mediums like youtube to accompany articles.
Guerrillanews.com: www.guerrilanews.com
Guerrilla News Network (GNN) reports independent news. Their mission is to "expose people to important global issues through cross-platform guerrilla programming". Guerilla news' site is extremely hands on. It allows readers to create their own blogs and a list of the most popular blogs is displayed for the reader's convenience. A video section is dedicated to exhibiting mini-films often produced by the GNN team members themselves. Subject matter includes voting rights (American Blackout below) and discrimination on Capital Hill (The Last Plantation).
The Advocate: www.advocate.com
Highlighting LGTBQ issues is the mission of The Advocate. The site covers stories about the gay community that is often overlooked by mainstream news outlets. Headlines such as "Domestic partnerships put foreign nationals at risk for deportation" covers a wide spectrum of LGTBQ issues. The site also offers a link to subscription to the print magazine.
Colorlines Magazine: http://www.arc.org/content/view/23/43/
This media outlet focuses predominantly on racial issues. Articles such as "Queer Africa" and " Monopoly"(an expose on post Katrina New Orleans) touch subjects often unreported by mainstream media. The site is a wonderful digital extension of their print and provides the reader with links to related articles from past issues.
The Environmental Magazine: http://www.emagazine.com/
This magazine strives to enlighten its readers about current environmental activities. The homepage is not breaking technological barriers or full of cool blogs and videos but stories like, "How Harry Potter Is Saving Trees" (not by magic but by being printed on recycled paper) and "Clean Energy Classes"(which highlights the first undergraduate program on alternative fuels) are just the iceberg to environmental news that often unreported.
Independent Media Center: www.indymedia.org
The magazine is described as "a collective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage." Indymedia has outlets in multiple countries. The site offers a plethora of news articles, many which would be ignored by more traditional news outlets such as the trials in the "White Only Tree" or the activist killed in an Nazi attack in Siberia.