THE CHANGING ECOSYSTEM OF NEWS AND CHALLENGES FOR FREEDOM OF THE PRESS** Martha Minow* I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 500 II. NEWS DESERTS, ECHO CHAMBERS, ALGORITHMIC EDITORS, AND THE SIREN CALL OF REVENUES ..... 503 A. TRENDS ................................................................................... 504 B. NEW OWNERS .................................................................. 507 C. DIGITAL PLATFORMS ....................................................... 509 III. A FRAGILE RIGHT: PRESS FREEDOM HINGES ON THE VIABILITY OF EVOLVING PRIVATE INDUSTRY.......................................................................... 518 A. GOVERNMENT ENGAGEMENT WITH SHIFTING TECHNOLOGIES AND FINANCING OF MEDIA ................. 519 B. GOVERNMENT POLICIES, INVESTMENTS, AND LAWS ...... 521 IV. WHAT’S NEW AND LESSONS FROM THE PAST ............. 531 V. WHAT WOULD MEIKLEJOHN DO?: FIRST AMENDMENT AND DEMOCRATIC OBLIGATIONS .... 538 A. FIRST AMENDMENT AND GOVERNMENT ACTS, OMISSIONS, AND INVOLVEMENT WITH THE MEDIA ECOSYSTEM ................................................................... 540
* 300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard University. Thanks to David Beard, Grayson Clary, Evelyn Douek, Rachel Keeler, Daniel Morales, Paloma O’Connor, Mira Singer, and Hannah Solomon-Strauss for valuable assistance, and Newton Minow, Mary Minow, Nell Minow, Susan Crawford, Nick Lemann, Sabeel Rahman, Zia Rahman, David Rhodes, Doug Smith, Geoff Stone, and Joe Singer for helpful suggestions, and to Susan Moffitt and Brown University’s Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy for the invitation to give the Alexander Meiklejohn Lecture, March 6, 2018. ** This piece is part of a larger book project by the same name, forthcoming, Oxford University Press. This work reflects only the personal views of the Author, who is a member of the CBS Corporation and a member of the board of the public broadcaster, WGBH.
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