@palllyyy

That seems circular to me:

you say Mastodon is "alternative" media.
And that's why you call it "alternative" media.

If the usage was, say
"… an alternative to centralised social media"
or
"… an alternative to FB/X/TikTok"

I could understand, but I read the usage as being just like the phrase "alternative medicine", which has connotations of being weird, and not based on proven scientific facts.