Migration and counter-information practices: enhancing mobility while subverting the mainstream media

There is a growing critique within media studies regarding the democratic deficits embedded in a corporate-dominated, highly commercialized media system. Particularly, these deficits refer to inequalities of access, issues of representation and political/ideological power, economic and structural alignment with globalizing capitalism, and proliferation of consumer culture (Carroll and Hackett 2006). Moreover, mainstream media has been accused of reproducing migration critical and xenophobic discourses (d’Haenens et al. 2019; Titley 2019). At the same time and to counter these deficits and discourses, social movements, and people in solidarity with migrants, have taken advantage of the spectacular technological changes since the popular- ization of the internet and digital media. They are early adopters of digital technology, and they use digital media in creative and alternative ways for inclusive organizing and to encourage alternative forms of participation in democratic politics (Uldam and Vestergaard 2015).