What We Talk About When Talk About “Media Independence”

TLDR

Media independence is a contested concept with varying meanings across contexts, debated by media organisations, journalists, researchers, and regulators, and its definition has been further heated by commercial media’s framing of independence versus state media, while digital transformations and new actors challenge its relevance. The authors examine how the notion of independence is used in contemporary media policy discourse, including controversies between public service and commercial media and other settings where the term is invoked. They develop a fine‑tuned understanding of media independence’s dimensions in contemporary media and argue that its relational nature renders it problematic as a normative principle.

Abstract

Media independence is a contested concept that carries different meanings in different contexts. As a normative ideal, independence can be discussed on many levels, and media organisations, journalists, researchers and regulators often invoke the term in contradictory ways. In contemporary European media policy, the conceptual contestation over the meaning of independence has been further reheated by commercial media's attempts to reframe the distinction between commercial and public service media as a choice between "independent" and "state" media. The digital transformations and the emergence of new media actors and platforms also challenge the meaning and relevance of different conceptions of media independence and dependence. In this article, we discuss the changing uses of the notion of independence in current media policy discourse, including controversies between public service and commercial media, but also other settings where the notion is invoked. We then develop a more fine-tuned understanding of the different dimensions that media independence contains in a contemporary media environment. Finally, we discuss how the relational nature of independence makes it problematic to employ as a normative principle in media policy.