Pandemic lessons for democracies: High time to provide journalism as essential service with a financial lifeline

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis has revealed a steady demand for professional journalism as an essential public service. However, the disfunction of the conventional advertising-supported business model has affected an overwhelming proportion of the industry workforce. This article contrib-utes to the discussion on thinkable solutions. It argues that the pandemic has created further empirical evidence to support Habermasian ideas of providing a lifeline for the quality press as a vital contributor to the public sphere, a pillar of good governance in Western democracies. Amid the global challenge posed by the emergency, professional news organizations have proven their essentiality as providers of reliable information vital to tackle healthcare system and policymaking tasks. However, the legacy media are progressively less able to perform their social functions, losing the competition for revenue to the Big Tech. Therefore, liberal democracies should fund independent journalism to ensure the latter remains strong in the post-coronavirus world, holding the political systems accountable. The paper concludes that the pandemic has fostered an environment conducive to translating the feasible policy options into concrete political steps, regulation and lawmaking.