Grassroots media activists positioned blogs and IMCs as an accessible way for everyone to participate in demo cratic journalism, but Indymedia found it difficult to separate itself from the norms of Big Media. It was tricky to find untrained contributors who could create coverage of the same quality as that provided by mainstream newspapers. The legitimacy of online journalism was often measured by whether or not Big Media picked up a story, as in the Lott case. Although blogs and in de pen dent media were positioned as an anti-institutional alternative, the realities of dealing with capitalist structures were more complex.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 109