Special Collection: News Media Bargaining Codes and Sustainable Futures for Journalism

EDITORS:
Terry Flew, The University of Sydney, Australia
Agata Stepnik, The University of Sydney, Australia

There has recently been a strong push, led by news publishers, for governments to implement news media bargaining codes for digital platforms, as a way of ensuring the sustainability of news and journalism. Such codes include Australia’s Mandatory News Media and Digital Platforms Bargaining Code and Canada’s C-18 Online News Act, with similar measures under consideration in other countries. These codes start from the premise that there is an asymmetrical bargaining relationship between news publishers and digital platforms, and that government intervention is required to ensure that there is fair exchange between the two parties in distribution and payment for news content.

This special collection includes papers that explore the contexts within which such news media bargaining codes have been considered or implemented within, the impact that such interventions have had upon news publishers, digital platforms, and consumers, and importantly, how the future of journalism might be shaped in response to them.