This essay analyzes the relationships between major works on alternative media and historical contexts in order to discover various conceptions’ limitations and possibilities for practice. It begins by tracing the emergence and development of a dominant interpretive theory based in vanguardism, essentialism, and technological determinism, and concludes by discussing recent efforts that are grounded in materialist theories of culture and society. Such a change signals an ongoing project of generating understandings of alternative media that suggest the reciprocal relationships between modes of production, media forms, and oppositional, participatory practice.