Independent media haven't really changed

Of course, there have been hundreds of years in changes to technology, changing how the alternative press delivers its news. However, its core values are still very much in tact, and the summary of the first part in Rodger Streitmatter's Voices of Revolution offers readers the primary reasons for a dissident press. They...

• speak on behalf of the oppressed
• face financial hardship
• receive neither sympathy nor support from the mainstream press
• have an open forum
• are active proponents of change
• have impact
• have timeless issues

Much of this reminded me of lambasted modern independent media, such as WikiLeaks, which is repeatedly attacked by the mainstream press even though they are doing a service to the world by providing information that politicians and large corporations would rather keep secret. And this is only one example; there are plenty of others.

Independent media are also forward-thinking. The feminist paper The Revolution, by Stanton and Anthony, covered many women's issues, but they covered one that is still controversial today: abortion.

The Revolution argued that "it was not moral degeneracy that led a woman to end an unwanted pregnancy...but sexual exploitation by the man who had impregnated her."

It's no surprise that this was considered a radical idea in the 1800s; to some, it's still radical today. Stanton and Anthony were activists who wanted to give voice to the voiceless. They wanted--and needed--to change the idea that "A woman is nobody. A wife is everything." The mainstream press attacked them, calling their paper "Amazonian." The mainstream media even personally attacked the women's character, calling them hermaphrodites because they defied social norms.

And yet, they did not let this bother them. They were giving a greater voice to a democracy that needed to be improved (by including women's voices) while the mainstream press were slow to realize that women had the same rights as men. Of course, the majority believes in equality today, but the modern mainstream press is still slow to recognize social and political problems today that everyone will recognize years from now.