Journalism, corporatism, democracy

Abstract

The corporatising of journalists has been an issue in the United States for most of the current decade. Journalists find themselves increasingly drawn into the commercial strategies of their employers. Indeed, the role of the editor is increasingly also one of publisher. News value is as much a question of how to pursue and capture audience demographics and psychographics as it is about servicing the general democratic needs of citizens. Similar trends and concerns are evident in Australia. The question is whether this constitutes some kind of crisis for democracy or an evolving communication industry. What is certain is that the work of journalists increasingly needs to be analysed in terms of the 'communications industry' as a whole. It is Windschuttle's failure to any longer look at the industry as a whole, and to insist that journalism is some kind of scientifically pure practice, which leads off this discussion of the corporatisation of journalists