The Political Economy of Contemporary Journalism and the Crisis of Public Knowledge

From its foundation in the later 18th century, political economy has been centrally concerned with understanding how the production and delivery of goods and services are structured by relations between capital and government, and how private interests should be balanced against the public good. This chapter asks how the dual impact of marketisation and digitalisation has altered the organisation and practice of journalism and the conditions of public access to communicative resources for active citizenship, and what can be done to make provision more comprehensive and inclusive. The constitution of citizenship and participatory politics was at the core of this concern. Adam Smith’s manifesto for minimally regulated capitalist markets, The Wealth of Nations, appeared in 1776, the same year that Britain’s American colonies declared their independence and founded a republic based on elective assembly. Newspapers launched websites in the expectation that increased visibility and interaction would cement reader loyalty and boost print edition sales.