ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a number of often-overlooked structural questions that have profound implications for digital journalism's future. It focuses on the case study of American journalism, but this analysis also holds implications for the state of journalism and journalism studies internationally. With this in mind, analysis falls into six sections, focused respectively on the new American media landscape, the American journalism crisis, alternatives to the advertising revenue model, economic and regulatory discourse about journalism, new areas for regulatory concern, and why media ownership matters for journalism. Critical questions about the ownership, control, and regulation of media institutions are often given insufficient attention in digital journalism scholarship. Major media mergers are currently pending in the US, such as the mergers of AT&T and Time Warner and of Sinclair and Tribune, whose passage would have a potentially profound effect on American journalism.
