Activists for Diversity or Diverse Journalists? How Austrian Peripheral Journalistic Actors’ Role Orientations Serve as Boundary Markers

Technological innovations have signaled a shift in the journalistic field, enabling a widerrange of actors to participate in public discourses and challenge the hegemonic powerstructures of traditional journalism from the outside. Consequently, historical notions ofalternative media have expanded to encompass a variety of new actors within and beyond theboundaries of the journalistic field, with some explicitly claiming to focus on issues ofdiversity. This study examines the role orientations of peripheral journalistic actors whoprioritize journalistic diversity in their work. It also explores how they use their roleorientations to position themselves within the journalistic field and its periphery. Based on 18in-depth interviews with Austrian peripheral actors, the study finds that while their roleorientations diverge from those of more traditional media, they share similarities withlongstanding normative ideas of progressive alternative media. Further, they employ theircognitive and normative role orientations as boundary markers to distinguish themselves fromthe practices of more traditional media.