The deeper case for journalism is not functional but epistemic. Democratic self-governance requires that citizens have access to accurate, comprehensive and intelligible information about the world they inhabit and the decisions being made in their name.
Without journalism, citizens are not governed by information but by assertion. The powerful tell the story of their own power, and there is nothing to contradict them.
This is why attacks on press freedom are not merely attacks on journalists. They are attacks on the informational foundation of democratic life.
Leave a Reply