How the heck do you define "alternative media"?

So, my friend asked me today: so, give me an example of alternative media. And I told her that alternative media was just the media outside mainstream media...like most things on youtube and other more obscure sites that she hadn't heard of. But, really, I wasn't satisfied with that answer. So, I typed "alternative media" into google. And I got directed to http://www.zmag.org/altmediawatch.htm. And I clicked on this article about what makes alternative media alternative.

Well, what Michael Albert says is that really anyone can call themselves alternative. It's has no really strict guidelines, but if he had to give an outline of what makes alternative media he would say that alt. media:
----doesn't try to maximize profits
----seeks broad, non-elite audiences
----independent of other social institutions

First of all, do you guys think that this is a fair list? Should there be things added or subtracted from it?

Also, this last point (of being independent of other social institutions) is emphasized on page 23 of Hand Held Visions, in which DeeDee talks about the Media Alliance set up outside of the public television station. Halleck writes, "maintaining a vision of a liberatory media [has] created alternative institutions in an authentic media alliance. It is in this community effort that our creative abilities, vision, and opinions will be able to develop uncensored and thrive to their fullest potential" (23).

Do you agree with DeeDee? How important do you guys think being independent of other media corporations is to the success of alternative media?

---Jason