2017 Chapters (Layout Features)

Toward a Taxonomy of Media Capture

Stiglitz, Joseph E.

Preventing capture, and ensuring that the media can perform their societal function, requires an understanding of the myriad and sometimes subtle ways the media can be compromised by the very actors they are supposed to monitor. To that end, this chapter proposes four somewhat overlapping forms of capture–(a) ownership, (b) financial incentives, (c) censorship, and (d) cognitive capture– arguing that a broader view of what constitutes capture usefully highlights less obvious but equally insidious threats to journalistic independence.