democracy without journalism confronting the misinformation society

This is a highly insightful collection showing how media capture has crept within a range of systems and institutions for the past two decades. A must-read! Julia Cagé, author of Saving the Media: Capitalism, Crowdfunding, and Democracy Importantly, it also proposes novel solutions for combating media capture and protecting journalists. Bringing together the voices of scholars and reporters, this book provides a fascinating overview of the many ways in which this phenomenon is affecting political landscapes around the world. Media capture is one of the most pressing problems facing democracies today. Providing valuable insight into today’s urgent threats to media independence, Media Capture is essential reading for anyone concerned with defending press freedom in the digital age. They also chart a way forward, exploring the growing need for a policy response and sustainable models for public-interest investigative journalism.

Contributions also shed light on how the rise of right-wing populists has catalyzed the crisis of global media. They examine the role played by new media companies and funders, showing how the confluence of the growth of big tech and falling revenues for legacy media has led to new forms of control. Contributors including Emily Bell, Felix Salmon, Joshua Marshall, Joel Simon, and Nikki Usher analyze diverse cases of media capture worldwide-from the United Kingdom to Turkey to India and beyond-many drawn from firsthand experience. This book features pathbreaking analysis from journalists and academics of the changing nature and peril of media capture-how formerly independent institutions fall under the sway of governments, plutocrats, and corporations. Tech giants such as Facebook and Google have dramatically changed how people access information, with consequences that are only beginning to be felt. Corporate-owned media companies that act in the service of power increasingly exercise soft censorship. As demagogues rise, independent voices have been squeezed out. Who controls the media today? There are many media systems across the globe that claim to be free yet whose independence has been eroded.

Democracy without journalism confronting the misinformation society