Byline Times is pretty mainstream though - or I see it as such. It's not as biased as some sources, but all the same it has a wide circulation/readership and is often a source of news for other outlets. I haven't come across Open Democracy, but will have a look.
I don't know - I see 'MSM' being sneered at a lot, and take it as a judgement from people who have access to some sort of subcultural or otherwise non-commercial media that they see as more neutral or less manipulative than the sources used by the common herd. I just wondered what these media were.
Social media is valuable, IMO, but hardly more reliable than 'MSM' unless it is in the form of tweets or posts from people you know personally who are involved in a situation. By definition, all media mediate, or act as a go-between between the source of an event and the receivers of the story that results. Anyway, I'm just thinking aloud, really - it's something I have wondered about for a while.