Today’s “Alternative” Newspapers Essay Example for Free

Today’s â€Å"Alternative† Newspapers Essay Two fundamental cultural currents swept through America in the latter half of the Twentieth Century. In the mid-1950’s the Beat Generation began flourish primarily cour-tesy of the â€Å"hip† authors of the time: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Bur-roughs. Within a short decade the second wave, arguably built on the first, known as â€Å"hippies† developed primarily through the young musicians of the era: The Warlocks, later known as The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to name just two. Along with the music came the War in Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, campus protests and a very healthy distrust of anyone over thirty and anything of Mainstream America. The flower children of the sixties had no trust of the â€Å"establishment† newspapers and alternative â€Å"free presses† came into being. Like most things in popular culture the East and West Coast took the lead and eventually any city of size or any city with a large university had a â€Å"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 â€Å"alternative†, â€Å"radical† or â€Å"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 â€Å"in your face† attitude towards â€Å"Amerika† as their edi-tors preferred to write. All of the papers were ferociously opposed to the War in Vietnam, the â€Å"military-industrial complex† and traditional politicians. Their reporters religiously covered every rock music show that came to town and every album they produced. Popu-lar â€Å"underground† comics, such as The Fabulous Furry Freak 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 published. As Grace Slick, songstress and radical voice of the Jefferson Airplane proclaimed at Woodstock, â€Å"It’s a new dawn. † Times changed and virtually all of the free presses faded like so many denim 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 found in â€Å"head shops† to electronic print found by Google. But the attitude remains. The LA Free Press, always the most radical, lists a daily death count of Iraqi citizens and bills itself as â€Å"the true alternative to corporate controlled media. † (2) The Village Voice is still growing on its radical liberal roots but 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 blanch at the thought of being considered â€Å"mainstream† and both are still in-fluential, entertaining and worth reading. Works Cited (1) Stephens,Mitchell. â€Å"History of Newspapers†. 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/