Journalism as a Public Good: How the Nonprofit News Model Can Save Us from Ourselves
From Digital Culture & Society
Westenskow, R. C., & Carter, E. L. (2021). Journalism as a Public Good: How the Nonprofit News Model Can Save Us from Ourselves. Communication Law and Policy, 26(3), 336–375.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10811680.2021.1937005
Context
This article is important as it shows the benefits of journalism being used as a public good and the economic benefits of non-profit journalism. This article goes in-depth and describes the considerations regarding the first-amendment and journalism, as well as the legal considerations with regard to business ownership when it comes to a non-profit model. The article describes the potential equity changes in a non-profit model, as well as the methods of running a non-profit news organization successfully. It concludes by making the claim that non-profit news organizations produce higher quality material than for-profit news organizations. The article is important as it elaborates on other studies that have occurred regarding non-profit news organizations and how they have a higher quality of news compared to for-profit models. The article attempts to make the case that journalism is generally a public service and therefore should follow a non-profit model, and analyzes the potential legal and ethical implications of for-profit and non-profit journalism models. This article is especially relevant to my topic of profit-motives in news and journalism is the authors are from an organization composed of journalists and authors, and the article discusses the topics of profit motives in depth.
Overview
This article was published in 2021 by authors from the Taylor and Francis group, which is an organization composed of journalists and authors. In this article, they discuss the benefits and advantages of non-profit news models as opposed to for-profit news models. It provides information from other studies, elaborates on First Amendment concerns and government ownership, as well as ways that non-profit models can be sustainable. The article discusses public support statistics, public disclosure requirements, business taxes, how to ensure compliance, how board governance and ownership would work, and much more. It elaborates on the quality of journalism compared to for-profit models. It provides information from the Internal Revenue Service regarding news organizations being tax-exempt and the consequences that come along with that. The article discusses if it's worthwhile for news organizations to shift from a for-profit model to a non-profit model, as well as the legal statuses that would be required to do so and how non-profit organizations tend to be better for the public good.
Strengths and Weaknesses
This article is very strong with regard to showing the benefits and flaws of a non-profit model in news organizations, and describes how they can be run successfully. It also describes the potential concerns followed by switching to a non-profit model, and addresses those concerns in a direct manner. Another strength is that this article provides information from the Internal Revenue Service, addresses First Amendment rights and concerns, and discusses how business models can be sustainable. One of the weaknesses of this article is that it's entirely American and does not discuss how this can be implemented in Canada, nor does it address the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as it does with the First Amendment. Furthermore, this article is strong as it is very relevant to the current age as it was created in 2021 therefore it has more relevance than other older articles. This article is also made strong because the authors are from an organization comprised of journalists and authors.
Assessment
I believe this is a very strong article, if not one of the strongest articles yet. Anyone would benefit from reading this if they had time; however, the audience that may benefit the most from this article may be those who run or own news organizations in general and are looking to make a more sustainable business model with higher quality journalism. The article makes a good argument for why news papers should qualify for "501(c)(3)" status and how doing so will cause higher quality journalism in the long run, thus benefiting the public good as well. The article is very convincing with regard to arguing for a general non-profit model for all journalism, and discusses how journalism is a public service. Another audience that could benefit from this article would be anyone who is interested in becoming a journalist; they would benefit from this article as it gives an incentive to be ethical with how they create articles and report news and pushes journalists to ensure they are in the best interests of the public.
- Tyler Swartz - Ts18fq 10:30, 6 December 2023 (EST)
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