Beyond clickbait and commerce

These questions of independence are difficult enough when the
operating environment is secure and governed by the rule of law.
They become exponentially more difficult for journalists in exile
supplying news back into their country of origin, or for journalists
in their country of origin writing stories counter to the interests
of the regime. Clare Cook writes about the dependency of these
journalists on donor funding and the power relationships that
develop between these journalists and their donors. She writes that
for these journalists, economic necessity creates conflicts between
the ideal of independence and the need to pay production costs.
In the UK, there have been calls to further extend charitable status
to certain classes of not-for-profit and non-political journalism
that provides identifiable public benefit. Judith Townend considers
the possible benefits and drawbacks of charitably funding and
structuring journalistic operations. On a related theme, Jonathan
Heawood, founder and chief executive officer of the new press
regulator, IMPRESS, analyses a recent decision to confer charity
status on Britain’s Independent Press Regulation Trust, which
provides financial assistance to IMPRESS.
Finally, Denis Muller gathers together these large themes in a
discussion about the overarching ethical issue of conflict of interest,
referring to case studies in the US and Australia which illustrate
how new and old media alike are making ethical compromises in
order to remain financially viable.
This collection of shorter commentaries and longer research papers
does not offer a solution to the financial difficulties faced by news
organisations old and new, small and big. Many of these models
for not-for-profit journalism have their own particular legal and
ethical challenges and would only be suitable for a limited type
of journalism. Nonetheless, we are optimistic that some of these
developing structures offer an opportunity for both existing
journalistic operations and new start-ups to free themselves from
commercial pressures and help sustain a diverse and stimulating
news media environment. At the very least, we hope that the ideas
and evidence presented here offer a point of departure for further
discussion and research.
Note
1 See http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/07/newsonomics-the-halving-of-americasdaily-newsrooms/
Judith Townend, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Denis Muller, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne
Richard Lance Keeble, University of Lincoln
(joint editors of this special issue)
Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016 5