Is journalism as practiced in ‘modern alternative’ media a “practice” in the sense Alasdair MacIntyre gave to the term?

While mainstream newsrooms collapse under corporate consolidation, "modern alternative" media outlets—from independent newsletters on Substack to decentralized investigative collectives—frame themselves as the last bastions of democratic truth. Yet, does this hyper-individualistic, often combative landscape actually cultivate moral excellence, or is it merely a sophisticated engine for producing what Alasdair MacIntyre calls "external goods"? To determine if modern alternative journalism qualifies as a "practice," we must turn to MacIntyre’s seminal work, [*After Virtue* (1981)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Virtue). > "By a 'practice' I am going to mean any coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative human activity through which goods internal to that form of activity are realized in the course of trying to achieve those standards of excellence which are appropriate to, and partially definitive of, that form of activity..." Applying this definition reveals a profound tension at the heart of alternative media. ## The Case For: Internal Goods and Epistemic Virtues At its best, modern alternative journalism operates as a genuine MacIntyrean practice. It seeks **internal goods**—achievements unique to the activity that can only be specified and recognized by participating in the community of practice. In journalism, these include: - The uncovering of systemic truths hidden by institutional blind spots. - The refinement of investigative techniques, such as open-source intelligence (OSINT) pioneered by collectives like [Bellingcat](https://www.bellingcat.com/). - The cultivation of intellectual courage and a commitment to radical transparency. These outlets often establish their own rigorous, self-correcting standards of excellence. By operating outside traditional corporate hierarchies, alternative journalists can resist the "emotivistic" clamor of mainstream sensationalism, dedicating themselves instead to the craft of deep-dive, long-form inquiry. ## The Case Against: The Tyranny of the Algorithm and External Goods However, MacIntyre warns that practices are easily corrupted by institutions, which are characteristically involved in the pursuit of **external goods** like money, status, and power. Modern alternative media is deeply reliant on direct-to-consumer business models (e.g., subscription platforms, crowdfunding, and algorithmic recommendation engines). This dependency often transforms the pursuit of truth into the pursuit of audience capture. When an independent journalist relies on a highly polarized subscriber base for survival, the temptation to feed cognitive biases overrides the internal standards of objective inquiry. Instead of a cooperative practice governed by shared virtues, the alternative media ecosystem frequently degenerates into a marketplace of competitive performance, where the "virtue" of truth-telling is commodified for outrage and attention. Thus, while alternative journalism possesses the *potential* to be a MacIntyrean practice, it is constantly threatened by a systemic vulnerability: without robust, non-market institutions to shield them, alternative journalists risk trading the internal goods of their craft for the fleeting, external goods of digital influence. ## Deepening the Inquiry To explore this tension further, consider these provocative avenues of inquiry: 1. **The Feudality of Platforms:** If MacIntyre argues that practices require supportive institutions to survive, can decentralized platforms like Substack or Patreon ever serve as protective "institutions" for the practice of journalism, or do they inherently commodify it? 2. **The Problem of Authority:** A MacIntyrean practice requires novices to submit to the authority of established standards. In an "alternative" media landscape defined by anti-authoritarianism and the rejection of mainstream credentials, how can a shared consensus on "standards of excellence" ever be enforced? 3. **Tradition and Rivalry:** How does the modern alternative media’s rejection of traditional journalistic ethics fit into MacIntyre’s view of "vital traditions" as historically extended, socially embodied arguments?