Abstract
The central challenge in publishing a book about “media capture” involves establishing the parameters of the term. In setting up this collection, editor Anya Shiffrin characterizes media capture and its detrimental effects on journalism with a simple statement: “When journalists come under the control of business and government, they can no longer perform the multiple critical roles the Fourth Estate plays in a democratic society.” Shiffrin argues that media capture has been made much easier in the digital age, leading to soft censorship and a “narrowing of the public sphere.” Although there remains some conceptual fuzziness around the term here, that may be by necessity; these essays make the case that capture comes in many forms.
One of the biggest strengths of this collection, therefore, is the way it helps classify and organize different forms of capture in the news industry. The chapters, produced by both practicing journalists and scholars, illustrate the effects of media capture in concrete ways. They help to show how the forces influencing news publishing have evolved significantly since, in Shiffrin’s words, “the old-style cigar-chomping, top-hatted William Randolph Hearst-type mogul in his dinner jacket shouting orders at a hapless editor . . .” The essays work together to build a case for what capture is today—and how it manifests itself in journalism.
Rana Foroohar sets the stage with a concise explanation of how tech companies, even in their efforts to “help” the news industry, have an outsized influence on news content and the way it is consumed. Nikki Usher builds on this by introducing the related term of “platform capture,” which she defines as the “combined influence of bad actors who rig the tech companies for their own gains, the threat of government regulation, partisanship and hyperpartisanship, and Silicon Valley’s contradictory ideology that favors libertarian conceptions of privacy, speech, and profit.” These pieces further elucidate the ways tech companies, despite long-ago hopes that the internet would make information freer, continue to actively narrow the public sphere.
Some of the key points in this book may seem painfully obvious on their face. Readers won’t be surprised at the immense power Google has over how news content is consumed or that philanthropic groups have extraordinary influence on education reform. But the strength of the scholarly contribution here—not to mention the value this book provides to journalists and news consumers—lies in the detail and clarity of the explanations. John Marshall lays out the voluminous ways Google shapes what news we consume, what that news looks like, and how the company has played (and is playing) such a massive role in upending journalism’s economic model. Likewise, Andrea Gabor adds to the growing scholarly evidence for how much influence philanthropic foundations are having on news coverage.
These works also make clear that capture, with its many varieties, extends across the globe, spanning across national boundaries and thriving amid different forms of government. Drawing on examples in Turkey, India and the United Kingdom, in particular, the book helps to show why such a broad definition of capture is needed. It means censorship and self-censorship in the face of government pressure in Turkey. It means government having tremendous influence on editorial operations in India, where reporters’ beats have often been changed because of complaints from government officials. In the United Kingdom, capture comes in the form of the “PRization” of news in the face of another old standby of capture—pressure from influential advertisers. Philip Napoli uses quantitative data to show the ways capture affects the robustness of local news ecosystems across the United States.
In its third section, the book offers a framework for solutions. Mark Nelson points to civil society organizations as one of the best tools for combating capture, arguing that the problem needs to be fought with multinational and regional approaches to be effective. Dean Starkman and Ryan Chittum point the finger at churn—that push to “feed the beast”—as the biggest factor behind capture, emphasizing how such churn leads to more circulation of elite discourse. They push for a new model. Likewise, Andrew Sullivan makes a strong case for a trust fund to support investigative journalism. While none of the ideas are earth-shattering, they encourage thinking about both root causes and solutions in a more systemic way.
Overall, Media Capture should help inspire more research about the forces that are influencing journalism in today’s digital environment. This book also helps to clearly identify the problems in ways that are useful to practicing journalists so that they can better comprehend the forces under which their work is produced. Most importantly, this book clarifies the issues in ways that should translate for news consumers, whose will and concern are the most important ingredients in the push for positive change.