How Media Ownership Matters

Does it matter who owns and funds the media? As journalists and management consultants set off in search of new business models, there's a pressing need to understand anew the economic underpinnings of journalism and its role in democratic societies.

How Media Ownership Matters provides a fresh approach to understanding news media power, moving beyond the typical emphasis on market concentration or media moguls. Through a comparative analysis of the US, Sweden, and France, as well as interviews of news executives and editors and an original collection of industry data, this book maps and analyzes four ownership models: market, private, civil society, and public. Highlighting the effects of organizational logics, funding, and target audiences on the content of news, the authors identify both the strengths and weaknesses various forms of ownership have in facilitating journalism that meets the democratic ideals of reasoned, critical, and inclusive public debate. Ultimately, How Media Ownership Matters provides a roadmap to understanding how variable forms of ownership are shaping the future of journalism and democracy.

Rodney Benson is Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication and Affiliated Faculty in Sociology at New York University. He is the author of Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison, co-author of Public Media and Political Independence, and co-editor of Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field. His theorizing and research on news media ownership, funding, and audiences have appeared in NiemanLab, Le Monde Diplomatique, The Conversation, and leading social scientific journals.

Mattias Hessérus is Director of the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy and sits on the committee of the Engelsberg Applied History Programme at the University of Cambridge and King's College London. Hessérus was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and holds a PhD in history from Uppsala University. He is the author of Rätten till privatlivet, a history of the press and privacy in Sweden.

Timothy Neff is Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Leicester's School of Arts, Media and Communication. He was a 2019-2020 fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and a 2020-2021 postdoctoral research fellow at the Media, Inequality and Change Center at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. His research on journalism, democracy, public spheres, and climate change has been published in numerous academic journals.

Julie Sedel is Assistant Professor in Sociology and Political Science at the University of Strasbourg. She is the author of Les médias et la banlieue, Dirigeants de médias, and Sociologie des dirigeants de presse, and co-editor of Agir par la parole: Porte-paroles et asymétries de l'espace public. Her current research engages with reconfigurations of journalism, through analysis of feminization, modes of financing, and career trajectories.