ABSTRACT

Why did we ever imagine that we knew what journalism is? Why do so many people speak as if there was this Thing called Journalism that has only recently been called into question? A volume of papers devoted to ‘rethinking journalism’ understandably assumes that this is an especially appropriate moment for reconsideration, that journalism stands at a time of epochal change, and that there are grounds for concern that some of the elements of change do not bode well for journalism or for some valued features of society and politics that journalism is said to support – notably, democracy. I agree with these premises, but I worry that they may seem to imply that we know what journalism was, at least up until yesterday or the day before yesterday.