Today’s “Alternative” Newspapers Essay Example for Free

Todays Alternative Newspapers EssayTwo fundamental cultural currents swept through with(predicate) America in the latter half of the Twentieth Century. In the mid-1950s the Beat Genearned run averagetion began flourish primarily cour-tesy of the hip authors of the time Jack Kerouac, all(prenominal)en Ginsberg and William S. Bur-roughs. inside a short decade the second wave, arguably built on the first, known as hippies developed primarily through the young musicians of the era The Warlocks, later known as The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to name just deuce.Along with the music came the War in Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, campus protests and a precise healthy distrust of anyone over thirty and anything of Mainstream America. The flower children of the sixties had no trust of the establishment newspapers and alternative free presses came into being. Like most things in normal culture the East and West Coast took the lead and eventually any city of size or any ci ty with a large university had a radical free press. Two of the oldest were The Village Voice in New York (Greenwich Village) was born in 1955.The West Coast had the LA Free Press, es-tablished in 1965. These two alternative, radical or underground papers were the strongest and most influential of the genre which included The Detroit Free Press, the Berkeley Barb and the San Francisco Oracle among a host of others. (1) All of the papers shared an in your face attitude towards Amerika as their edi-tors preferred to write. All of the papers were ferociously opposed to the War in Vietnam, the military-industrial complex and traditionalistic politicians.Their reporters religiously covered every rock music show that came to town and every album they produced. Popu-lar underground comics, such as The Fabulous Furry teras Brothers, Susie Cream-cheese and Mr. Natural provided ribald if not pornographic humor. Not to be forgotten was some of the strangest classified ads to ever be publishe d. As Grace Slick, songstress and radical section of the Jefferson Airplane proclaimed at Woodstock, Its a new dawn. Times changed and virtually all of the free presses faded like so many jean jeans.The two notable exceptions just happened to be the oldest, The Village Voice and the LA Free Press. Both have gone from hard copy newsprint rig in head shops to electronic print found by Google. But the attitude remains. The LA Free Press, always the most radical, lists a daily last count of Iraqi citizens and bills itself as the true alternative to corporate controlled media. (2) The Village Voice is still growing on its radical liberal roots except has a mellower style and prefers to rejoice in all things New York.(3) Despite their longevity and acceptance by a now-international audience, either paper would still blench at the thought of being considered mainstream and both are still in-fluential, entertaining and worth reading.Works Cited(1) Stephens,Mitchell. History of Newsp apers. Colliers Encyclopedia On-Line. http//www. nyu. edu/classes/stephens/Colliers%20page. htm (2) The Los Angeles Free Press. http//www. losangelesfreepress. com/ (3) The Village Voice. http//www. villagevoice. com/