tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/wall-street-journal-11419/articlesWall Street Journal – The Conversation2024-02-13T13:23:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2226772024-02-13T13:23:41Z2024-02-13T13:23:41ZSaving the news media means moving beyond the benevolence of billionaires<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574711/original/file-20240209-18-vtb36b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C26%2C5973%2C3961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Billionaire media owners can't change inhospitable market dynamics.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-los-angeles-times-building-and-newsroom-along-imperial-news-photo/1211874817?adppopup=true">Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the journalism industry, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/01/26/media-layoffs-strikes-journalism-dying">2024 is off to a brutal start</a>. </p>
<p>Most spectacularly, the Los Angeles Times recently slashed <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-23/latimes-layoffs-115-newsroom-soon-shiong">more than 20% of its newsroom</a>.</p>
<p>Though trouble had long been brewing, the layoffs were particularly disheartening because many employees and readers hoped the Times’ billionaire owner, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/01/how-patrick-soon-shiong-made-his-fortune-before-buying-the-la-times">Patrick Soon-Shiong</a>, would stay the course in good times and bad – that he would be a steward less interested in turning a profit and more concerned with ensuring the storied publication could serve the public. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-23/latimes-layoffs-115-newsroom-soon-shiong#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CToday's%20decision%20is%20painful%20for,%2C%E2%80%9D%20Soon%2DShiong%20said.">According to the LA Times</a>, Soon-Shiong explained that the cuts were necessary because the paper “could no longer lose $30 million to $40 million a year.” </p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/1749890710118301751">As one X user pointed out</a>, Soon-Shiong could weather US$40 million in annual losses for decades and still remain a billionaire. You could say the same of another billionaire owner, The Washington Post’s Jeff Bezos, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/12/19/washington-post-cut-jobs-voluntary-buyouts">who eliminated hundreds of jobs in 2023</a> after making a long stretch of steady investments. </p>
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<p>Of course, it helps if your owner has deep pockets and is satisfied with breaking even or earning modest profits – a far cry from the slash-and-burn, profit-harvesting of the two largest newspaper owners: the hedge fund <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/alden-global-capital-killing-americas-newspapers/620171/">Alden Global Capital</a> and <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2023/03/the-scale-of-local-news-destruction-in-gannetts-markets-is-astonishing/">the publicly traded Gannett</a>. </p>
<p>Yet, as we’ve previously argued, relying on the benevolence of billionaire owners isn’t a viable long-term solution to journalism’s crises. In what we call the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-slippery-slope-of-the-oligarchy-media-model-81931">oligarchy media model</a>,” it often creates distinct hazards for democracy. The recent layoffs simply reinforce these concerns. </p>
<h2>Systemic market failure</h2>
<p>This carnage is part of a longer story: <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/report/">Ongoing research on news deserts</a> shows that the U.S. has lost almost one-third of its newspapers and nearly two-thirds of its newspaper journalists since 2005.</p>
<p>It’s become clear that this downturn isn’t temporary. Rather, it’s a <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2018/12/we-will-finally-confront-systemic-market-failure/">systemic market failure</a> with no signs of reversal.</p>
<p>As print advertising continues to decline, Meta’s and Google’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-and-metas-advertising-dominance-fades-as-tiktok-netflix-emerge-11672711107">dominance over digital advertising</a> has deprived news publishers of a major online revenue source. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/11/the-print-apocalypse-and-how-to-survive-it/506429/">The advertising-based news business model has collapsed</a> and, to the extent it ever did, won’t adequately support the public service journalism that democracy requires.</p>
<p>What about digital subscriptions as a revenue source? </p>
<p>For years, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2013.865967">paywalls have been hailed</a> as an alternative to advertising. While some news organizations have recently stopped requiring subscriptions <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/02/06/great-subscription-news-reversal">or have created a tiered pricing system</a>, how has this approach fared overall?</p>
<p>Well, it’s been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/07/business/media/new-york-times-q4-earnings.html">a fantastic financial success for The New York Times</a> and, actually, almost no one else – while denying millions of citizens access to essential news.</p>
<p>The paywall model has also worked reasonably well for The Wall Street Journal, with its assured audience of business professionals, though its management still felt compelled <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/wall-street-journal-shakes-up-d-c-bureau-with-big-layoffs/ar-BB1hDv9V?ocid=finance-verthp-feeds">to make deep cuts</a> in its Washington, D.C., bureau on Feb. 1, 2024. And at The Washington Post, even 2.5 million digital subscriptions haven’t been enough for the publication to break even.</p>
<p>To be fair, the billionaire owners of <a href="https://twitter.com/aidanfitzryan/status/1748098450963460180">The Boston Globe</a> and <a href="https://startribunecompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Click-here.pdf">the Minneapolis Star Tribune</a> have sown fertile ground; the papers seem to be turning modest profits, and there isn’t any news of looming layoffs.</p>
<p>But they’re outliers; in the end, billionaire owners can’t change these inhospitable market dynamics. Plus, because they made their money in other industries, the owners often create conflicts of interest that their news outlets’ journalists must continually navigate with care.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three female protestors shout, while one holds a sign reading 'Don't cut our future.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5525%2C3755&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574235/original/file-20240207-28-42qqde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Los Angeles Times employees stage a walkout on Jan. 19, 2024, after learning about layoffs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/los-angeles-times-guild-members-rally-outside-city-hall-news-photo/1945953066?adppopup=true">Mario Tama/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>While the market dynamics for news media are only getting worse, the civic need for quality, accessible public service journalism is greater than ever. </p>
<p>When quality journalism disappears, <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1170919800">it intensifies a host of problems</a> – from rising corruption to decreasing civic engagement to greater polarization – that threaten the vitality of U.S. democracy.</p>
<p>That’s why we believe it’s urgently important to grow the number of outlets capable of independently resisting destructive market forces.</p>
<p>Billionaire owners willing to release their media properties could help facilitate this process. Some of them already have. </p>
<p>In 2016, the billionaire Gerry Lenfest donated his sole ownership of The Philadelphia Inquirer along with a $20 million endowment to an eponymously named <a href="https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/about/">nonprofit institute</a>, with bylaws preventing profit pressures from taking precedence over its civic mission. Its nonprofit ownership model has enabled the Inquirer to <a href="https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/brightspots/philadelphia-inquirer-jim-friedlich-q-and-a/">invest in news</a> at a time when so many others have cut to the bone.</p>
<p>In 2019, wealthy businessman Paul Huntsman ceded his ownership of The Salt Lake Tribune to a <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/11/04/historic-shift-salt-lake/">501(c)(3) nonprofit</a>, easing its tax burden and setting it up to receive philanthropic funding. After continuing as board chairman, in early February he announced that he was permanently <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2024/02/02/paul-huntsman-its-time-step-away/">stepping down</a>. </p>
<p>And in September 2023, the French newspaper <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/about-us/article/2023/09/24/two-major-milestones-for-le-monde-s-independence_6139073_115.html">Le Monde</a>’s billionaire shareholders, led by tech entrepreneur Xavier Niel, officially confirmed a plan to move their capital into an endowment fund that’s effectively controlled by journalists and other employees of the Le Monde Group. </p>
<p>On a smaller and far more precarious scale, U.S. journalists have founded hundreds of <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/many-small-news-nonprofits-feel-overlooked-by-funders-a-new-coalition-is-giving-them-a-voice/">small nonprofits</a> across the country over the past decade to provide crucial public affairs coverage. However, most struggle mightily to generate enough revenues to even pay themselves and a few reporters a living wage. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Workers sit at a table in a large, open workspace." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574245/original/file-20240207-18-arb5jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Philadelphia Inquirer moved to a new headquarters in May 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://meyerdesigninc.com/news/the-philadelphia-inquirers-hybrid-headquarters/">Jeffrey Totaro/Meyer Design, Inc.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Donors can still play a role</h2>
<p>The crucial next step is to ensure these civic, mission-driven forms of ownership have the necessary funding to survive and thrive. </p>
<p>One part of this approach can be philanthropic funding.</p>
<p><a href="https://mediaimpactfunders.org/philanthropys-growing-role-in-american-journalism-a-new-study-reveals-increased-funding-and-ethical-considerations/">A 2023 Media Impact Funders report</a> pointed out that foundation funders once primarily focused on providing a bridge to an ever-elusive new business model. The thinking went that they could provide seed money until the operation was up and running and then redirect their investments elsewhere. </p>
<p>However, journalists are increasingly calling for <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/patterns-in-philanthropy-leave-small-newsrooms-behind-can-that-change/">long-term sustaining support</a> as the extent of market failure has become clear. In a promising development, the <a href="https://www.pressforward.news/press-forward-will-award-more-than-500-million-to-revitalize-local-news/">Press Forward initiative</a> recently pledged $500 million over five years for local journalism, including for-profit as well as nonprofit and public newsrooms. </p>
<p>Charitable giving can also make news more accessible. If donations pay the bills – as they do at The Guardian – <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/10/rich-americans-more-likely-to-pay-for-news/">paywalls</a>, which limit content to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/01/11/media-startups-subscriptions-elite">subscribers who are disproportionately wealthy and white</a>, may become unnecessary. </p>
<h2>The limits of private capital</h2>
<p>Still, philanthropic support for journalism falls far short of what’s needed.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/newspapers/">Total revenues for newspapers have fallen</a> from a historic high of $49.4 billion in 2005 to $9.8 billion in 2022.</p>
<p>Philanthropy could help fill a portion of this deficit but, even with the recent increase in donations, nowhere near all of it. Nor, in our view, should it. Too often, donations come with conditions and potential conflicts of interest. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man wearing blue hat sits on a bench reading a newspaper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574248/original/file-20240207-27-cqnylz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Philanthropic giving hasn’t made up for the billions lost in advertising revenue over the past two decades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-sitting-on-a-bench-reading-the-newspaper-news-photo/144075964?adppopup=true">Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same <a href="https://mediaimpactfunders.org/philanthropys-growing-role-in-american-journalism-a-new-study-reveals-increased-funding-and-ethical-considerations/">2023 Media Impact Funders survey</a> found that 57% of U.S. foundation funders of news organizations offered grants for reporting on issues for which they had policy stances. </p>
<p>In the end, philanthropy <a href="https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/a-qa-with-phil-napoli.php">can’t completely escape oligarchic influence</a>.</p>
<h2>Public funds for local journalism</h2>
<p>A strong, accessible media system that serves the public interest will ultimately require significant public funding. </p>
<p>Along with libraries, schools and research universities, journalism is an essential part of a democracy’s critical information infrastructure. Democracies in western and northern Europe earmark taxes or dedicated fees not only for legacy TV and radio but also for newspapers and digital media – and they make sure there’s always <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/4779">an arm’s-length relationship</a> between the government and the news outlets so that their journalistic independence is assured. It’s worth noting that U.S. investment in public media is <a href="https://www.cjr.org/opinion/public-funding-media-democracy.php">a smaller percentage of GDP</a> than in virtually any other major democracy in the world.</p>
<p>State-level experiments in places such as <a href="https://njcivicinfo.org/about/">New Jersey</a>, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/10/20/local-news-vouchers-bill-dc">Washington, D.C.</a>, <a href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/09/the-state-of-california-will-fund-25-million-in-local-reporting-fellowships/">California</a> <a href="https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/free-press-action-applauds-groundbreaking-wisconsin-bills-addressing-local-journalism-crisis">and Wisconsin</a> suggest that public funding for newspapers and online-only outlets can also work in the U.S. Under these plans, news outlets prioritizing local journalism receive various kinds of public subsidies and grants. </p>
<p>The time has come to dramatically scale up these projects, from millions of dollars to billions, whether through “<a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2019/academics-craft-a-plan-to-infuse-billions-into-journalism-give-every-american-50-to-donate-to-news-orgs/">media vouchers</a>” that <a href="https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/the-local-journalism-initiative.php">allow voters</a> to allocate funds or other ambitious <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/17/local-news-crisis-plan-fix-perry-bacon/">proposals</a> for creating tens of thousands of new journalism jobs across the country.</p>
<p>Is it worth it?</p>
<p>In our view, a crisis that imperils American democracy demands no less than a bold and comprehensive civic response.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How can an industry experiencing systemic failure get back on its feet?Rodney Benson, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York UniversityVictor Pickard, C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040832023-04-19T17:34:38Z2023-04-19T17:34:38ZRussia’s legal interpretation of ‘espionage’ has broadened since the Soviet era – as the case of Evan Gershkovich shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521872/original/file-20230419-26-wxakq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C0%2C5439%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich faces up to 20 years behind bars on espionage charges.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-wall-street-journal-reporter-evan-gershkovich-the-us-news-photo/1251953016?adppopup=true">Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The case of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/wsj-reporter-evan-gershkovich-detained-russia-cd03b0f3">Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich</a>, who on April 18, 2023, saw his appeal against investigative detention on spying charges <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/18/europe/evan-gershkovich-appeals-detention-russia-intl/index.html">turned down by a Russian court</a>, has echoes of an earlier era. Not <a href="https://theconversation.com/reporting-is-not-espionage-but-history-shows-that-journalists-doing-the-former-get-accused-of-the-latter-203020">since the Cold War</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-reporter-gershkovich-appeal-against-arrest-detention-russian-jail-2023-04-17/">the Kremlin noted</a>, has an American journalist been charged with espionage in the former Soviet Union.</p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/william-e-butler">longtime specialist on Russia’s legal system</a>, I am aware that the charges levied against Gershkovich are a product of modern Russia – and that could have worrying consequences for the journalist.</p>
<h2>Foreign agents and state secrets</h2>
<p>The legislation on espionage in Russia is no longer the same as that of the former Soviet Union. On July 14, 2022, <a href="https://www.lawbookexchange.com/pages/books/73884/william-e-butler/criminal-code-of-the-russian-federation-september-2022">Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code</a> amended the definition of “espionage.” </p>
<p>Under the revised version of Article 276, espionage now constitutes “the transfer, collecting, stealing, or keeping for the purpose of transfer to a foreign State, international or foreign organization, or of their representatives, of information comprising a state secret.”</p>
<p>If such an act was committed by a foreign citizen or stateless person – that is, a person having no citizenship – then it constitutes espionage, the code provides.</p>
<p>This amended text broadened the definition considerably. The Gershkovich case appears to be the first involving a journalist under the expanded definition.</p>
<p>Precisely what information Gershkovich is believed by the Russian authorities to have acquired or collected is not a matter of public record. The FSB, Russia’s security service, has put the accusations in fairly vague terms, saying the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/30/russia-arrests-wall-street-journal-reporter-on-espionage-charges-evan-gershkovich">journalist was caught</a> “collecting classified information” on Russia’s “military industrial complex” <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/who-is-evan-gershkovich-what-does-russia-accuse-him-2023-04-18/#:%7E:text=The%20FSB%20security%20service%20said,a%20steakhouse%20in%20the%20city.">during a trip to Ekaterinburg</a>, around 1,400 kilometers (880 miles) east of Moscow. The FSB added that Gershkovich was “acting on instructions from the American side.”</p>
<p>The journalist’s employer, The Wall Street Journal, has <a href="https://time.com/6267183/evan-gershkovich-arrested-wsj-russia-espionage/">vigorously denied</a> that its reporter was involved in espionage. The U.S. State Department <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/10/wsj-reporter-wrongfully-detained-russia-00091293">has likewise said</a> that Gershkovich has been “wrongfully detained” and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/18/1170595511/moscow-court-rejects-wsj-reporter-evan-gershkovichs-detention-appeal">called for his release</a>.</p>
<p>Either way, under Russian espionage law the newspaper would be regarded as a foreign organization – that is, an entity created under the law of a foreign country.</p>
<h2>Years of detention – or a deal?</h2>
<p>So what lies ahead in the criminal proceedings over Gershkovich’s case? Under the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Russian_Law_and_Legal_Institutions.html?id=aWy-ugEACAAJ">Russian Criminal Code</a>, the crime of espionage requires “direct intent” to be proved by the prosecution.</p>
<p>“Direct intent” is defined under Russian law as being aware of the social danger of one’s actions, or foreseeing the possibility – or inevitability – of consequences that are deemed to create a danger to society.</p>
<p>The prosecution will be seeking to prove that Gershkovich handled, sought to acquire, actually acquired, or had in his possession state secrets. Although the definition of what constitutes a state secret is narrower than during the Soviet era, it nonetheless remains quite extensive and would include the information that Gershkovich is accused to have accessed.</p>
<p>Should Gershkovich be convicted of espionage, the punishment prescribed by the criminal code is deprivation of freedom for a term of from 10 to 20 years. Russian criminal law refers to “deprivation of freedom” because while it may be served in a prison if the individual is dangerous to others, for most it takes the form of detention in some kind of camp where the prisoners share accommodation.</p>
<p>It is probable that the Russian authorities will detain Gershkovich in an investigative cell, probably shared with someone else, while the legal proceedings continue.</p>
<p>Gershkovich’s legal counsel <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000008863670/wsj-journalist-evan-gershkovich-russia.html">invited the court</a> on April 18 to replace investigative detention with either house arrest, potentially at Gershkovich’s Moscow address, or financial security, through a pledge or bail. </p>
<p>Either would have been possible under Russia’s <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Russian_Law_and_Legal_Institutions.html?id=aWy-ugEACAAJ">Code of Criminal Procedure</a>. But both were declined by the court. </p>
<p>The investigation will now continue until trial unless Russia and the United States come to another arrangement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William E. Butler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of Russia’s legal code explains the case against the Wall Street Journal reporter accused of espionage.William E. Butler, Distinguished Professor of Law, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2035842023-04-11T14:28:06Z2023-04-11T14:28:06ZEvan Gershkovich: Wall Street Journal reporter latest in long line of journalists punished for doing their job<p>For the first time since the cold war, Moscow has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65234451">accused a US journalist of espionage</a>. Evan Gershkovich, a reporter with the Wall Street Journal, was arrested in Yekaterinburg on March 29 by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The reporter, a Russia specialist, insists he was there to report on the Wagner Group, a mercenary organisation that fights for Russia in Ukraine. But the FSB has charged him with spying on “one of the enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex”. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal vehemently <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/wsj-reporter-evan-gershkovich-detained-russia-cd03b0f3">rejects the allegations</a>. On April 11 the US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, announced that Gershkovich has been “wrongfully detained” and called for his immediate release, condemning Russia’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65234451">“ongoing war against truth”</a>. </p>
<p>Sitting in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison, Gershkovich will find scant comfort in the notion that he is merely the latest in a long history of journalists harassed, detained or expelled in wartime. The familiar assertion that <a href="https://www.societyofeditors.org/soe_blog/the-first-casualty-of-war-is-the-truth/">truth is the first casualty of war</a> tells only half the story. Journalists who seek to tell it are often victims too. </p>
<h2>Truth to power</h2>
<p>In the 19th century, war reporting was transformed by new technologies including photography and the electronic telegraph. Readers experienced the consequences in vivid coverage of the Crimean war (1853-1856), American civil war (1861-1865) and Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871). </p>
<p>War correspondents were glamorous figures until the first world war, when their freedom to report events as they observed them <a href="https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_correspondents">was curtailed</a> by governments desperate to control information reaching the home front.</p>
<p>In the UK, the 1914 <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/parliament-and-the-first-world-war/legislation-and-acts-of-war/defence-of-the-realm-act-1914/">Defence of the Realm Act</a> greatly increased the state’s powers of control. Winston Churchill, then in charge of the navy, expressed the government’s hostility to the idea that correspondents should report from the frontline. “The best place for correspondence about this war will be London,” he advised newspaper editors. </p>
<p>Philip Gibbs of the Daily Telegraph <a href="https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war_correspondents">was warned</a> that if he attempted to return to France without explicit consent he would be shot.</p>
<p>Suspicion has plagued journalists who attempt to report truth from war zones ever since. The Spanish civil war (1936-1939) offers chilling examples of persecution by both sides. After French journalist Renée Lafont was found by nationalist forces in Cordoba carrying papers issued by the legitimate republican government in September 1936, she was condemned to death as a spy and executed by firing squad – the first female French journalist to <a href="https://www.change.org/p/aubenouvelle-laposte-net-pour-une-rue-ren%C3%A9e-lafont-%C3%A0-amiens?redirect=false">die doing her job</a>. </p>
<p>The second world war brought ruthless suppression of independent reporting in Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, and intense censorship in the allied democracies. In the UK this was, from June 1940, enforceable by <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1940-07-31/debates/b7ac7a4b-299b-4483-966b-5e7741a2a4df/EmergencyPowers(Defence)Act1939">two new defence regulations</a>. </p>
<p>Regulation 2C gave ministers power to “exclude any material calculated to foment opposition to the war”. Regulation 2D empowered the home secretary to close newspapers that systematically fomented opposition to the British war effort. Churchill, by this time prime minister, <a href="https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-152/the-prime-minister-and-the-censorship/">proved willing</a> to deploy these powers against titles that simply criticised policy.</p>
<p>During the Falklands War in 1982, top correspondents including the BBC’s Brian Hanrahan, Independent Radio News correspondent Kim Sabido and Max Hastings of the Daily Telegraph were embedded with British troops. Their reports brought uplifting accounts of British military prowess to audiences in the UK, but their capacity to question policy and tactics <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/feb/25/broadcasting.falklands">was restricted by onerous censorship</a>.</p>
<h2>Challenging the myths of war</h2>
<p>Alan Little, the multiple award-winning BBC conflict correspondent <a href="https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/our-research/are-foreign-correspondents-redundant">describes eyewitness reporting</a> as among “the purest and most decent work” journalists can do. He credits such reporting with “the power to close down propaganda, to challenge myth making”. </p>
<p>In my view, Little is right. Eyewitness war reporting can provide a first draft of history. Sadly, this is among the reasons that armed forces regard journalists as, at best a nuisance to be carefully handled, and at worst a vivid threat.</p>
<p>Nato armed forces share with their counterparts in authoritarian states the desire to restrict access and censor reports. They need to maintain strict operational secrecy. Such caution is applied by even the most blameless victims of aggression. The Ukrainian government also makes strenuous efforts to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/05/ukraines-reporters-adapt-amid-media-restrictions-and-pressure-of-war">control war reporters</a>. </p>
<p>But 21st-century technology presents censors with daunting new challenges. Digital investigators such as the <a href="https://www.bellingcat.com/">Bellingcat group</a> use sophisticated open-source techniques to uncover misdeeds. Both sides in the battle for Ukraine are under scrutiny by such work, which exploits available data – anything from satellite images to electoral registers and telephone directories – to uncover hidden stories. </p>
<p>Russian military bloggers (“<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/russian-war-bloggers-pawns-in-a-political-game/a-64284496">milbloggers</a>”) using virtual private networks to get around Kremlin control of the internet offer additional insights. In some cases they have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/03/killed-russian-blogger-vladlen-tatarsky-soft-target-many-enemies">highly critical</a> of the way the Kremlin and Russia’s armed forces are conducting the war. </p>
<p>And brave reporters still attempt eyewitness reporting. Evan Gershkovich is among them. The son of Soviet émigrés, Gershkovich is a Russian speaker determined to expose wrongdoing and promote the best of his family’s ancestral home. Instead of arresting him, Vladimir Putin might have done well to read his work. </p>
<p>Early in the war, Gershkovich revealed why, contrary to official accounts, the Russian campaign was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/04/opinion/putin-russia-evan-gershkovich.html">chaotic and mismanaged</a>. He worked as part of a reporting team which explained that Putin is surrounded by a military bureaucracy that fears his displeasure. He has few, if any, independent sources of information on which he can rely. Gershkovich could have been one.</p>
<p>There is hope that Gershkovich could be being held ahead of a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/evan-gershkovich-wsj-russia-detain-d97ee4de">possible prisoner exchange</a>. There have already been a number of these during the conflict involving Americans detained in Russia and vice versa. </p>
<p>Now the US State Department’s decision to designate Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained” means that work to secure his release is in the hands of the <a href="https://www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/secretary-of-state/special-presidential-envoy-for-hostage-affairs/#:%7E:text=The%20Office%20of%20the%20Special,the%20practice%20of%20hostage%20diplomacy.">US Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs</a>. It will be given high priority, and Gershkovich, his family and any reporters risking their lives to report the war will be hoping his case is resolved as quickly as possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Luckhurst has received funding from News UK and Ireland Ltd. He is a member of the Free Speech Union and the Society of Editors. This piece is based on research for his book, Reporting the Second World War - The Press and the People 1939-1945 (Bloomsbury Academic 2023) </span></em></p>If truth is the first casualty of war, so are the journalists who risk their lives to report it.Tim Luckhurst, Principal of South College, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2030202023-04-06T12:08:11Z2023-04-06T12:08:11ZReporting is not espionage – but history shows that journalists doing the former get accused of the latter<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519107/original/file-20230403-1415-caez98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C35%2C2615%2C1706&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich being taken into custody on March 30, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXRussiaReporterArrested/5a81f4828dc5447686799b5b65fc7394/photo?Query=Evan%20Gershkovich&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=13&currentItemNo=2">AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/04/europe/russia-wall-street-journal-evan-gershkovich-lawyers-intl/index.html">detention of Wall Street Journal reporter</a> Evan Gershkovich in Russia on espionage charges marks an unusual throwback to the old Soviet tactics for handling foreign correspondents. </p>
<p>Authorities in Vladimir Putin’s Russia have increasingly used criminal <a href="https://ipi.media/alerts/?topic=russia-ukraine-war&alert_type=criminal-investigationcharges&incident_source=0&country=0&search=&">charges against their own journalists</a> as part of a “increasing crackdown on free and independent media,” as Jodie Ginsberg, the president of the Committee to Protect Journalists, <a href="https://autos.yahoo.com/why-russia-arrested-wall-street-164255981.html">has put it</a>. But prosecutions of international journalists in Russia are still rare enough. </p>
<p>Indeed, media historians <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KB_e52gAAAAJ&hl=en">like myself</a> have to reach back decades to recall similar incidents. History shows that when they do occur, arrests of foreign journalists over espionage charges tend to provoke a diplomatic tempest.</p>
<h2>Tinker, tailor, soldier, journalist?</h2>
<p>Take, for example, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1997/09/17/william-oatis-dies/bfd42eb0-670e-4447-87b8-29f4abb9b1f9/">Prague “show trial</a>” of Associated Press reporter William Oatis at the height of the Cold War in 1951. The prosecution of Oatis on spying charges was choreographed to suit the Soviet authorities, but the only real issue was that Oatis talked with Czechs and didn’t get government permission first. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A man wearing glasses and a bow tie squints." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519593/original/file-20230405-558-tlioj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519593/original/file-20230405-558-tlioj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519593/original/file-20230405-558-tlioj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519593/original/file-20230405-558-tlioj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1010&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519593/original/file-20230405-558-tlioj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1270&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519593/original/file-20230405-558-tlioj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1270&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519593/original/file-20230405-558-tlioj4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1270&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Associated Press correspondent William Oatis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APStafferOatis/a9273c0392044c47a2781668c5c90de2/photo?Query=William%20Oatis&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=7&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Reporting is not espionage,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1953/05/22/archives/reporting-is-not-espionage.html">said in an editorial</a> at the time. “[Oatis] was doing what all good newspaper men do in countries whose governments have not chosen to crawl back into the dark recesses of pre-historic barbarism.” </p>
<p>The case <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/107769901008700203">became a cause celebre</a> from 1951 to 1953, and led to years of travel and trade embargoes between the U.S. and Czechoslovakia, which was then strictly controlled by the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>When Oatis was finally released in 1953, the journalist emerged weak and tubercular, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1953/09/18/archives/czech-jail-a-tomb-that-tests-sanity-oatis-describes-discomforts-and.html">describing his prison experience</a> as akin to being “buried alive.” Still he carried on reporting, returning to the U.S. to cover the United Nations for decades before retiring. </p>
<p>Oatis’ case was perhaps the most famous during the Cold War, but it was far from the only one. Other American journalists who were arrested in Soviet sweeps of countries behind the Iron Curtain included Oatis’ fellow Associated Press reporters Leonard Kirschen – arrested in 1950 in Romania and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/01/obituaries/leonard-kirschen-dies-at-74-reporter-jailed-by-rumanians.html">held in jail for a decade</a> – and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/02/nyregion/endre-marton-95-dies-reported-on-the-56-uprising-in-hungary.html">Endre Marton</a>, who was arrested in Hungary in 1955 along with his wife, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/world/europe/ilona-marton-92-who-wrote-of-56-revolt-dies.html">Ilona Marton</a>, who worked for United Press. They were released in 1956 and smuggled out of the country and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/02/nyregion/endre-marton-95-dies-reported-on-the-56-uprising-in-hungary.html">into the U.S. the following year</a>. Dozens of reporters from other agencies and other Western countries were also expelled from Eastern Europe around this time.</p>
<h2>The risks of reporting</h2>
<p>Of course, arrest wasn’t the only way to silence a reporter. Then – as now – there’s a risk of violence and death.</p>
<p>Dozens of journalists were killed around the world’s hot conflicts in every year of the Cold War. With the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, <a href="https://cpj.org/data/killed/?status=Killed&motiveConfirmed%5B%5D=Confirmed&motiveUnconfirmed%5B%5D=Unconfirmed&type%5B%5D=Journalist&type%5B%5D=Media%20Worker&start_year=1992&end_year=2023&group_by=year">attacks on journalists slowed down</a>. Nonetheless, the global death toll since 1992 <a href="https://cpj.org/data/killed/?status=Killed&motiveConfirmed%5B%5D=Confirmed&motiveUnconfirmed%5B%5D=Unconfirmed&type%5B%5D=Journalist&type%5B%5D=Media%20Worker&start_year=1992&end_year=2023&group_by=year">stands at over 2,190</a>, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. And in nearly 8 out of 10 cases, the murderers go free. Of those deaths, at least 12 have involved <a href="https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/CoE_report_03-07-2023.pdf">journalists covering the war in Ukraine</a>, according to a March 2023 report by the human rights organization Council of Europe.</p>
<p>As part of its crackdown on free and independent media, Russia’s forces have been particularly hostile to journalists on the front lines of Ukraine, the Council of Europe report noted. Meanwhile, data from the Committee to Protect Journalists suggest an uptick in the number of Russian journalists being held behind bars. Of the 19 currently imprisoned, <a href="https://cpj.org/data/imprisoned/2022/?status=Imprisoned&cc_fips%5B%5D=RS&start_year=2022&end_year=2022&group_by=location">half were picked up by authorities</a> after the invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<p>Journalists working in hostile nations or in war zones do so knowing the risk that death or imprisonment may be used as diplomatic leverage or as a warning to other journalists. It is part of the job. </p>
<h2>Cover stories</h2>
<p>Yet not all reporters or editors are innocent observers. It is true that over the years, American journalists have indeed worked with, or even for, the U.S. government or intelligence services. Several hundred, at least, worked closely with the CIA and other intelligence agencies during World War II and through the course of the Cold War, according to <a href="https://www.carlbernstein.com/the-cia-and-the-media-rolling-stone-10-20-1977?rq=the%20cia%20and%20the%20media">evidence that emerged during the Watergate era</a>.</p>
<p>For many, the collaboration had laudable aims. American <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/18/711356336/a-woman-of-no-importance-finally-gets-her-due">journalist Virginia Hall</a> used her credentials as a New York Post reporter to help the French resistance in World War II, guiding downed Allied airmen to safety in neutral countries and arranging weapons drops. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A black and white photo shows a woman in a black top." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519598/original/file-20230405-1644-qn2j08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519598/original/file-20230405-1644-qn2j08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519598/original/file-20230405-1644-qn2j08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519598/original/file-20230405-1644-qn2j08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519598/original/file-20230405-1644-qn2j08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519598/original/file-20230405-1644-qn2j08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519598/original/file-20230405-1644-qn2j08.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">American journalist and spy Virginia Hall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/virginia-hall-american-journalist-member-of-soe-for-f-news-photo/89864144?adppopup=true">Apic/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Her story was <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/558307/a-woman-of-no-importance-by-sonia-purnell/">told in the book</a> “A Woman of No Importance.” The <a href="https://journalistandspy.substack.com/p/erling-espeland">Norwegian journalist Erling Espeland</a> did similar work in World War II. </p>
<p>In some cases, like that of The <a href="https://journalistandspy.substack.com/p/donald-a-allan">New York Times’ Donald A. Allan</a>, American journalists transitioned from World War II reporting into work for intelligence agencies with relative ease. Allan quit the New York Times in 1952 and supposedly went to work for CBS and United Press. But later, he said that was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/27/archives/a-young-reporters-decision-to-join-cia-led-to-strain-anger-and.html">nothing more than a cover</a> for his work with the CIA.</p>
<p>In 1975, the U.S. and Russia <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/helsinki">signed the Helsinki Final Act</a>, starting a process of detente and trade normalization, including guarantees of press freedom. Still, Western journalists were routinely harassed and detained in the Cold War Soviet Union. In a case that resonates with that of Gershkovich’s, in 1986 Nicholas Daniloff, the Moscow correspondent for U.S. News & World Report, was <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2023-03-30/nicholas-daniloffs-1986-arrest-in-russia-on-espionage-charges-from-the-archives">arrested and detained</a> on charges of espionage. He was later allowed to leave the Soviet Union.</p>
<h2>A totalitarian tool</h2>
<p>Most journalists today would reject the practice of being entangled with the work of the intelligence services. In 1996, Society of Professional Journalists President G. Kelly Hawes <a href="https://www.spj.org/news.asp?ref=455">rejected the use of American journalism</a> as a cover for intelligence. </p>
<p>“The public shouldn’t have to fear speaking to the press, and journalists shouldn’t have to fear for their safety,” she said. “Our integrity is compromised and our lives are endangered. That is wrong.” And to be clear, Gershkovich and The Wall Street Journal have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/us/politics/russia-evan-gershkovich-arrest-wsj-reporter.html">denied the espionage claims</a>. </p>
<p>But to officials in an authoritarian government like that of Russia, journalists are not much different from spies. It is, after all, a reporter’s job to uncover uncomfortable truths, often hidden from the wider world.</p>
<p>Seen in that light, slapping a charge of espionage on a journalist is one of the more Orwellian tools in the authoritarian playbook.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203020/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Kovarik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is far from the first American journalist to be accused of spying, a media historian explains.Bill Kovarik, Professor of Communication, Radford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/719322017-01-27T02:03:58Z2017-01-27T02:03:58ZTrump isn’t lying, he’s bullshitting – and it’s far more dangerous<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154471/original/image-20170126-30410-7z3eqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lying means you're actually concerned about the truth.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/558353116?size=huge_jpg">'Trump' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’ve been paying attention to the news over the past week or so, you know that over the weekend America was introduced to the concept of “alternative facts.” After Trump administration Press Secretary Sean Spicer <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/22/trump-inauguration-crowd-sean-spicers-claims-versus-the-evidence">rebuked the media for accurately reporting</a> the relatively small crowds at President Donald Trump’s inauguration, senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/22/donald-trump-kellyanne-conway-inauguration-alternative-facts">told NBC’s “Meet the Press”</a> that Spicer wasn’t lying; he was simply using “alternative facts.”</p>
<p>News outlets are still working through the process of figuring out what to call these mischaracterizations of reality. (“Alternative facts” seems to have been <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/22/opinions/alternative-facts-lies-obeidallah-opinion/index.html">swiftly rejected</a>.) Many outlets have upped their fact-checking game. The Washington Post, for instance, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/16/now-you-can-fact-check-trumps-tweets-in-the-tweets-themselves/">released a browser extension</a> that fact-checks tweets by the president in near real-time. </p>
<p>Other outlets have resisted labeling Trump’s misstatements as lies. Earlier this year, for instance, the Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief Gerard Baker <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-1-1-17-n702006">insisted</a> that the Wall Street Journal wouldn’t label Trump’s false statements “lies.” </p>
<p>Baker argued that lying requires a “deliberate intention to mislead,” which couldn’t be proven in the case of Trump. Baker’s critics <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/01/02/yes-donald-trump-lies-a-lot-and-news-organizations-should-say-so/">pushed back</a>, raising valid and important points about the duty of the press to report what is true. </p>
<p>As important as discussions about the role of the press as fact-checkers are, in this case Baker’s critics are missing the point. Baker is right. Trump isn’t lying. He’s bullshitting. And that’s an important distinction to make. </p>
<h2>Bullshitter-in-chief?</h2>
<p>Bullshitters, as philosopher Harry Frankfurt wrote in his 1986 essay “<a href="http://www.stoa.org.uk/topics/bullshit/pdf/on-bullshit.pdf">On Bullshit</a>,” don’t care whether what they are saying is factually correct or not. Instead, bullshit is characterized by a “lack of connection to a concern with truth [and] indifference to how things really are.” Frankfurt explains that a bullshitter “does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.”</p>
<p>In addition to being unconcerned about the truth (which liars do care about, since they are trying to conceal it), Frankfurt suggests that bullshitters don’t really care whether their audience believes what they are saying. Indeed, getting the audience to believe something is false isn’t the goal of bullshitting. Rather, bullshitters say what they do in an effort to change how the audience sees them, “to convey a certain impression” of themselves. </p>
<p>In Trump’s case, much of his rhetoric and speech seems designed to inflate his own grand persona. Hence the tweets about improving the record sales of artists performing at his inauguration and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/trump-rnc-speech-alone-fix-it/492557/">his claims</a> that he “alone can fix” the problems in the country. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"816718880731234304"}"></div></p>
<p>Likewise, his inaugural address contained much rhetoric about the “decayed” state of the country and rampant unemployment (<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/24/news/economy/trump-administration-unemployment-bls/">a verifiably false statement</a>). Trump then proceeded to claim that he was going to rid the country of these ailments. The image of Trump as a larger-than-life figure who will repair a broken country <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-each-side-of-the-partisan-divide-thinks-the-other-is-living-in-an-alternate-reality-71458">resonates with his audience</a>, and it doesn’t work without first <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/us/politics/trump-inauguration-day.html">priming them</a> with notions of widespread “carnage.”</p>
<h2>A stinky, slippery slope</h2>
<p>There are several problems with Trump adopting the bullshit style of communication. </p>
<p>First, misinformation is notoriously hard to correct once it’s out there, and social media, in particular, has a reputation for spreading factually inaccurate statements and conspiracy theories. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-facebook-confirmation-bias-misinformation-paranoia-20160108-story.html">One study</a>, for instance, examined five years of Facebook posts about conspiracy theories. The authors found that people tend to latch onto stories that fit their preexisting narratives about the world and share those stories with their social circle. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/113/3/554.abstract">The result</a> is a “proliferation of biased narratives fomented by unsubstantiated rumors, mistrust, and paranoia.” <a href="https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/47257">Another study</a> examined Twitter rumors following the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. These researchers explored how misinformation about the identity of a suspected terrorist abounded on the social media platform. They found that although corrections to the error eventually emerged, they didn’t have the same reach as the original misinformation.</p>
<p>Second, because Trump’s communication style relies heavily on anger, people who are predisposed to his message may become even less critical of potential bunk. Research suggests that when people are angry, they evaluate misinformation in a partisan way, typically accepting the misleading claims that favor their own political party. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcom.12164/abstract">One study</a>, for instance, primed participants by having them write essays that made them feel angry about a political issue. The authors then presented them with misinformation about the issue that either came from their own party or the opposing party. Participants who felt angry were more likely to believe their party’s misinformation than people who were primed to feel anxious or neutral. </p>
<p>Finally, a communications strategy based on bullshit inherently makes enemies of anyone who would seek to reinstate the truth and expose his statements as bunk. <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/313777-trump-berates-cnn-reporter-for-fake-news">Journalists</a>, scientists, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/sep/12/donald-trump-obama-keeping-down-interest-rates-fed/">experts</a> and even government officials who disagree with him are subject to charges of ineptitude, partisanship or <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/26/donald-trump/facts-dispute-donald-trumps-claim-donation-fbi-spo/">conspiracy</a>. They’re then threatened with restrictions on <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/25/14388928/environmental-protection-agency-grant-freeze-temporary-donald-trump">funding</a>, <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-01-18/trump-wont-remove-press-from-white-house-but-says-he-will-pick-who-gets-in">access</a> and <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-epa-climatechange-idUSKBN15906G">speech</a>. We’ve already seen this happening with the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-epa-studies-20170125-story.html">suggestion that Environmental Protection Agency data may undergo review by political appointees</a> before being made public. </p>
<p>In fairness, Trump may very well believe the things that he’s saying. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/lie-notable-quotes-trumps-pre-inauguration-interviews/story?id=44852845">He was recently quoted as saying</a> “I don’t like to lie.” And people can convince themselves of things that aren’t true. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/nov/22/donald-trump/fact-checking-trumps-claim-thousands-new-jersey-ch/">There’s some evidence</a>, for instance, that he avoided information that Muslims in New Jersey didn’t actually celebrate the terrorist attacks on September 11th, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/22/donald-trumps-outrageous-claim-that-thousands-of-new-jersey-muslims-celebrated-the-911-attacks/">as he claimed</a>. Like all of us, Trump may be putting up psychological defenses to avoid accepting information that challenges his worldviews, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2010-25386-006">as research suggests all of us do</a>. So although he’s corrected frequently by journalists and on social media, it’s a very real possibility that he’s simply shut out anyone or any source of information that threatens his way of seeing things. </p>
<p>But this is of little comfort. Trump has an affinity for speaking mistruths with little consideration for their factual accuracy. Combine this with his relentless efforts to discredit anyone who challenges his declarations and his heavy use of social media – where posts and tweets can go viral with little context and no fact-checking – and it sets the stage for a dangerous turn in American political and civil discourse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71932/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Griffin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Inflating his own grand persona is Trump’s sole goal, and he doesn’t care whether or not you believe him.Lauren Griffin, Director of External Research for frank, College of Journalism and Communications, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/657312016-09-21T00:01:47Z2016-09-21T00:01:47ZHarvard study: Policy issues nearly absent in presidential campaign coverage<p>Years ago, when I first started teaching and was at Syracuse University, one of my students ran for student body president on the tongue-in-cheek platform “Issues are Tissues, without a T.” </p>
<p>He was dismissing out of hand anything that he, or his opponents, might propose to do in office, noting that student body presidents have so little power as to make their platforms disposable.</p>
<p>Sadly, the news media appears to have taken a similar outlook in their coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign. The stakes in the election are high. Key decisions on foreign and domestic policy will be affected by the election’s outcome, as will a host of other issues, including the appointment of the newest Supreme Court justice. Yet, journalists have paid scant attention to the candidates’ platforms. </p>
<p>That conclusion is based on three reports on the news media’s coverage of the 2016 campaign that I have written for the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where I hold a faculty position. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-2016-national-conventions/">third report</a> was released today and it covers the month-long period from the week before the Republican National Convention to the week after the Democratic National Convention. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Pre-Primary-News-Coverage-Trump-Sanders-Clinton-2016.pdf">first report</a> analyzed coverage during the whole of the year 2015 – the so-called invisible primary period that precedes the first actual contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Election-2016-Primary-Media-Coverage.pdf">second report</a> spanned the period of the primaries and caucuses. </p>
<h2>10 major outlets studied</h2>
<p>Each report was based on a detailed content analysis of the presidential election coverage on five television networks (ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC) and in five leading newspapers (Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and USA Today). </p>
<p>The analysis indicates that substantive policy issues have received only a small amount of attention so far in the 2016 election coverage. To be sure, “the wall” has been in and out of the news since Donald Trump vowed to build it. Other issues like ISIS and free trade have popped up here or there as well. But in the overall context of election coverage, issues have played second fiddle. They were at the forefront in the halls of the national conventions but not in the forefront of convention-period news coverage. Not a single policy proposal accounted for even 1 percent of Hillary Clinton’s convention-period coverage and, collectively, her policy stands accounted for a mere 4 percent of it. </p>
<p>Trump’s policies got more attention, but not until after the Democratic convention, when he made headlines several days running for his testy exchange with the parents of a slain Muslim U.S. soldier.</p>
<p>That exchange sparked a “controversy,” which is sure to catch reporters’ attention. We’ve seen that time and again this election year. Past elections were not much different, featuring everything from Jimmy Carter’s <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/carter.htm">“lust in my heart”</a> Playboy interview in 1976 to Mitt Romney’s <a href="http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/did-the-47-percent-video-sink-romneys-campaign">“47 percent”</a> statement in 2012. None of these controversies was predictive of anything that happened in the presidency during the subsequent four years, but their coverage during the campaign overshadowed nearly every policy proposal put forth by the candidates.</p>
<p>“Medialities” is the label political scientist Michael Robinson has given to such controversies. Journalists find them irresistible, as political scientist <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=jGHNDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=%22Lance+Bennett%22+birther+claims+Trump&source=bl&ots=ex-lGyb3gz&sig=JFqBmO6eUHbTL2MsxgG4Eg7B2y0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNxOrk_Z3PAhXL6YMKHRpHDeQQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=%22Lance%20Bennett%22%20birther%20claims%20Trump&f=false">W. Lance Bennett</a> noted when looking at Trump’s birther claims. When Trump in 2011 questioned whether President Obama was a native-born American, his statement was seized upon by cable outlets and stayed in the headlines and on newscasts for days. </p>
<p>Veteran CNN correspondent Candy Crowley interviewed Trump on this issue, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/us/17trump.html?_r=0">justifying it by saying</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There comes a point where you can’t ignore something, not because it’s entertaining.… The question was, ‘Is he driving the conversation?’ And he was.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In truth, the media were driving the conversation.</p>
<h2>What distracts us</h2>
<p>The leading “mediality” of the 2016 campaign has been Clinton’s emails. That and other news references to Clinton-related “scandals” accounted for 11 percent of her convention-period coverage, following the pattern of earlier stages of the campaign. What Clinton might do in the Middle East or with trade or with the challenge of income equality could reasonably be anyone’s guess, given how little attention her policy statements have received in the news.</p>
<p>At that, controversies rank second to the horse race as a staple of journalists’ diet. No aspect of the campaign meets journalists’ need for novelty more predictably than does the horse race. Each new poll or disruption gives journalists the opportunity to reassess the candidates’ tactics and positions in the race.</p>
<p>Policy issues, on the other hand, lack novelty. A new development may thrust a new issue into the campaign, but policy problems are typically longstanding. If they came and went overnight, they would not be problems. It is for this reason that when a candidate first announces a policy stand, it makes news. Later on, it normally doesn’t.</p>
<p>Granted, election news would be limp without attention to the horse race. The election’s bottom line – who will win in November? – is of undeniable interest. What’s open to debate is the relative importance of the horse race in the middle of the summer. During the convention period, even though questions of policy and leadership were on the agenda within the halls of the national conventions, they were not on journalists’ agenda. Polls, projections, strategy and the like constituted about a fifth of all coverage, whereas issues took up less than 1/12 and the candidates’ qualifications for the presidency accounted for less than 1/13.</p>
<p>As the campaign enters its final stage, one might hope that the press will provide America’s voters with information that can help them better understand the policy choices they face in November. No doubt, the presidential debates will help focus the public’s attention on the differences in the Trump and Clinton platforms. However, press coverage of past campaigns would suggest that news stories will take voters’ minds in a different direction. There’s a distinct possibility that voters will go to the polls in November with “the wall” and “emails” uppermost in their thoughts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65731/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas E. Patterson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How is the Trump-Clinton contest being covered by the country’s major newspapers and broadcasters? We look at the data.Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451412015-07-24T09:33:57Z2015-07-24T09:33:57ZJapanese media giant Nikkei bets £844m on a rosy future for the Financial Times<p>Business reporting has always been one of the most global forms of journalism, with economic and business news leaping continents in a globalised economy dominated by multinational countries. But business news organisations have still always had a strong national flavour, with even the global business news wire services reflecting their national origins.</p>
<p>But recent developments, culminating in the news that the <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d7e95338-3127-11e5-8873-775ba7c2ea3d.html#axzz3gk22jvH3">Financial Times was being acquired by the Nikkei group</a>, which owns Japan’s largest financial newspaper, suggest that business journalism could become even more global.</p>
<p>This follows the purchase of the other flagship business newspaper, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118589043953483378">the Wall Street Journal</a>, by Rupert Murdoch in 2007, and the acquisition of Business Week magazine by Bloomberg News in 2010.</p>
<h2>Global presence</h2>
<p>The FT is in many ways the premier global business news brand, with its depth of sources and superb analysis by its well-respected columnists. It is also one of the more successful newspapers in making the transition to digital, with its large <a href="https://www.pearson.com/news/announcements/2015/july/pearson-to-sell-ft-group-to-nikkei-inc-.html">online subscriber base contributing a large proportion</a> of its revenue, as well as providing advertisers with ready accessibility to a group of super-rich individuals. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89557/original/image-20150723-22852-27h479.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89557/original/image-20150723-22852-27h479.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89557/original/image-20150723-22852-27h479.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89557/original/image-20150723-22852-27h479.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89557/original/image-20150723-22852-27h479.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89557/original/image-20150723-22852-27h479.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89557/original/image-20150723-22852-27h479.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89557/original/image-20150723-22852-27h479.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nikkei newsroom in Tokyo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nikkei</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>But it has faced challenges in its attempt at global expansion and, in many ways, the Nikkei’s Asian strength could provide a boost for the new global group. </p>
<p>But they will face a challenge in making the merger work because of the very different corporate cultures in Japan and Britain – and the fact that the Nikkei group also has major television interests. A key to the success will be preserving the FT’s independence while leveraging the additional distributional and financial resources of its Japanese parent company.</p>
<h2>Was the price right?</h2>
<p>The Japanese conglomerate probably paid above the odds to acquire the FT, with the US$1.3 billion (£844m) purchase price representing a significantly higher multiple than most recent sales of newspapers. Rupert Murdoch was also prepared to pay substantially more for the Journal, given the prestige it gave his group, and a trophy acquisition will undoubtedly enhance the global profile of the Nikkei group. The fact that another important regional media group, Germany’s Axel Springer, was <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bc96456e-315e-11e5-8873-775ba7c2ea3d.html#axzz3gk22jvH3">also actively in the bidding</a> shows the attractiveness of this strategy.</p>
<p>From the point of view of Pearson, which never seemed like an obvious fit with the FT, weakness in its core <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2014/jan/23/pearson-2013-results-us-education-market">educational business in the US</a> has probably encouraged the lucrative sale ahead of its own earnings statement.</p>
<h2>Emerging rivals</h2>
<p>Despite the success of the FT both as a brand and as a business model, global business newspaper groups still face significant threats from rivals in the digital age.</p>
<p>On one side, the commodification of business news online means that unless newspapers have a scoop or exclusive news story, information from wire services is likely to be available for free. And even in relation to the key competitive advantage of the FT, in its analysis and commentary, new internet companies such as <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/">Business Insider</a> are growing fast with a combination of news and speculation, and have <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/apr/05/business-insider-blodget-bezos">attracted significant venture capital investment</a>. </p>
<p>Global business media groups are going to have to be fleet of foot to capitalise on the growing market particularly in emerging market countries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Schifferes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>High price reflects the fact that the Pink ‘Un is adapting to the digital world better than most other newspapers.Steve Schifferes, Professor of Financial Journalism, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/289352014-07-10T11:18:17Z2014-07-10T11:18:17ZHyper-capitalist Taylor Swift is the perfect person to write for the Wall Street Journal<p>It may have raised eyebrows for some, but it is entirely appropriate for Taylor Swift to be <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/for-taylor-swift-the-future-of-music-is-a-love-story-1404763219">writing an article for the Wall Street Journal</a>. Over the past few years she has appeared regularly in the Forbes <a href="http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2014/30-under-30/music.html">30 under 30 list</a> as one of the richest young people in popular music. Forbes styles itself the “capitalist tool”. If so, the WSJ must be capitalism’s Swiss-army knife: an enduring, versatile and sharp-edged combination of implements for understanding and advancing the cause of prosperity.</p>
<p>Swift, 24, has a story that is every inch a tale of personal and corporate prosperity and absolutely congruent with the cause of <a href="https://theconversation.com/taylor-swift-got-it-right-almost-on-the-future-of-the-music-industry-28908">celebrating</a> the Wall Street Journal’s 125th birthday. Born to parents well-placed in high finance, Swift has, with their direct support, made waves in country music since the age of 12. Country music, as pop music generally, has always had a place for the child prodigy. From Brenda Lee (11) to Leann Rimes (13) there have been teens and pre-teens who have enjoyed huge acclaim, but no-one compares to Taylor Swift. </p>
<p>Swift signed to RCA Records at the age of 14 and released her first album at 16. That album, Taylor Swift, sold 5m copies and, throughout a time of an extreme and seemingly defining downturn in sales of albums, especially on physical formats, Swift’s releases continuously buck the trend. For example, Forbes <a href="http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eeel45ehgfg/taylor-swift-24/">reported</a> her fourth album Red had “moved 1.2m units in its opening week”. </p>
<p>But it is not just record sales and touring that contribute to her vast wealth, it is an astute, collective business brain – her own, her parents’ and her managers’ – that has created not just a music phenomenon, but a business one.</p>
<h2>Covers and cross-overs</h2>
<p>If Lady Gaga created her enormous following through Twitter, Taylor Swift was one of the great successes of MySpace. MySpace, for those who don’t remember, was Facebook before Facebook but Swift was no gauche unsigned musician drawing in followers who enjoyed her home recordings. </p>
<p>From the outset, her parents recognised their daughter was talented and used their resources to find her a manager who, in turn, exposed her to the music industry. Taylor’s particular favourite was Shania Twain and, in pursuit of a Twain-like career, the family moved to Nashville to further her ambitions. Certainly, no-one makes it without talent, but talent alone is nowhere near enough to succeed in popular music.</p>
<p>The music industry is not called an industry for no reason, and Swift is nothing if not industrially-aware. From her first album release onwards, she has has used a co-ordinated strategy of conventional marketing, social networking and product endorsement to reach a loyal fan-base. </p>
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<p>She has used collaborations with established song-writers to cross over beyond country music to pop more generally. She has then secured and deepened her appeal through extensive touring where a feature of her tours has been the regular inclusion of unlikely cover songs and the introduction of a host of stars for onstage duets. </p>
<p>This cross-genre and cross-era strategy has seen her cover Rihanna, Justin Timberlake and Eminem and duet with James Taylor, Justin Bieber, Nicky Minaj and Carly Simon. An astute balancing act has followed: Swift remains “country” while, in fact, being about as pop as it can get. The country dimension secures her as a true Heartlands sweetheart while the crossover strategy has allowed her to avoid the excesses that, for example, Miley Cyrus has needed to engage in, to break free of child star constraints.</p>
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<h2>Risk-tamer</h2>
<p>Against such a background, Swift’s Wall Street Journal article is consciously disingenuous; lashings of “heart and soul”, “emotion”, “art” and “awe” but set inside a context of “price point(s)”, “financial value”, “Instagram”, “Twitter”, and “risk”. Taylor Swift embodies the great contradiction of capitalism – which is that the entrepreneurial risk-taker succeeds by taming risk, by minimising it and, best of all, eliminating it. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53416/original/sxnpjzs8-1404904093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53416/original/sxnpjzs8-1404904093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53416/original/sxnpjzs8-1404904093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53416/original/sxnpjzs8-1404904093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53416/original/sxnpjzs8-1404904093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53416/original/sxnpjzs8-1404904093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53416/original/sxnpjzs8-1404904093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/53416/original/sxnpjzs8-1404904093.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Oh, these old things?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.epa.eu/arts-culture-and-entertainment-photos/music-photos/54th-annual-grammy-awards-press-room-photos-50215106">Paul Buck/EPA</a></span>
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<p>With four albums behind her, what she must do now is maintain her place in the firmament, but what that success is based upon was a savvy business mind and deep financial support; a winning combination that brought her all of the ingredients for take-off that less well-advantaged 12-year-olds can only dream of. </p>
<p>From take-off to today, Swift’s career has been handled astutely and, as her article shows, that astuteness is hers as much as it is anyone else’s. Like Madonna before her, Taylor Swift is here to stay, and she is here to stay because, as few realise and fewer can finesse, music industry means knowing when and how to pay attention to music and to industry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28935/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mike Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It may have raised eyebrows for some, but it is entirely appropriate for Taylor Swift to be writing an article for the Wall Street Journal. Over the past few years she has appeared regularly in the Forbes…Mike Jones, Course Director MA (Music Industries), University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.