Radical, not political

Advancement of the football zine movement in the late-80s did provide supporters with a host of alternative and radical media to choose from, while the initial success proved that the market was there and interest was high. The advent of this medium was not purely driven by zines; some had become hybrids incorporating characteristics from mainstream magazines. The combination of traditional zine and magazine conventions placed these hybrids in the position of having authenticity and credibility, but could they have both?

Two of these hybrids were When Saturday Comes and Newcastle United's The Mag; one described itself as a 'half decent football magazine' and the other as the 'Independent Supporters magazine', both followed a few conventions of both mediums but as their popularity has grown they have taken on an appearance all of their own.

Many of the zines that emerged during the boom followed a standard zine formula that was parodied in an article by Tom Davies, in WSC#43. His representation of the average simulacrum of a male zine writer began with a five-point plan that began by exposing the real inspiration behind many zines, which was just to see your name in print and not to articulate the fears of the football fan. He continued by detailing the required inclusion of a badly drawn cartoon of your rival manager's sexual deviancy; distribution proving who your real friends are; use obscure tracks from your favourite band as match report headlines; and avoid extremist Militant politics.

In only a short period, the zine had acquired a set of stereotyped features, which may explain why some editors adopted a magazine-hybrid. Most who ventured into this publishing sub-culture did so not because of ego, but to rally against the institutions that were ignoring the problems.

The Mag's editor Mark Jensen explains that he saw no conventions at the time, "The whole thing with the fanzine culture was that it could be anything you wanted it to be, so a fanzine doesn't have to be photocopied, hand-written or whatever, as long as the core thing is that its written by...people who pay to go to the matches, not these journalists who turn up in the press box and are on expenses."

Mark considers that his readers view The Mag as a magazine but realistically it was a magazine written by fans. The content of The Mag is anti-establishment, there are typos and it fulfils the criteria laid out by theorists, such as Stephen Duncombe, on the characteristics of a zine.

Duncombe describes zines as, "non-commercial, non-professional, small-circulation magazines, which their creators produce, publish, and distribute by themselves". However, The Mag contains advertisements, has always been produced on professional equipment, has a circulation of 12,000, Mark has a staff of over 40 writers, employs over 20 match day sellers, articles do not always unite readers and the editor is commonly quoted in the mainstream press.

Therefore, if it is not a zine, what is it? The difficulty in defining its position in the media stems from the confusion of the term 'alternative media', which has become an all-encompassing definition with its boundaries increasingly blurred. In his book Alternative Media, Chris Atton states that his own model of alternative media is as much concerned with how it is organised within its sociocultural context as with its subject matter.

Atton begins by highlighting the findings of the Glasgow University Media Group and their view that industrial relations are always from the position of the powerful, such the board of directors, politicians, Sky television, while those of low-status, the supporters, are shown as irritants.

The rule of the dominant or hegemonic powers in society has always been the antagonists for inciting producers of alternative media to rise up and resist the ideologies disseminated by them. Whether encouraging anarchy, condemning capitalism, criticising mass media or championing their own political stance, the alternative media continued to flow against the tide of culture produced by the mainstream media. Antonio Gramsci termed this counterhegemonic culture and it has since been established throughout zines and other modes of participatory culture.