Abstract

Critical questions about the ownership, control, and regulation of media institutions are often given insufficient attention in digital journalism scholarship. Many factors contribute to this neglect, including the marginalized position of political economic approaches to media within the broader field of communications, as well as the often-invisible nature of media policies and other structural factors that shape journalistic practices and institutions. This oversight is also symptomatic of a broader technocentric discourse that imagines the digital media landscape as a wild terrain of disruptive innovation with little governmental oversight. According to such narratives, this landscape tends to create a more equitable and open space for news producers and consumers, one that is left unfettered by the state. Despite such libertarian assumptions, this chapter brings into focus structural questions – particularly issues connected to media policy – that arise in the face of journalism’s digital future.