ABSTRACT
Taking as a starting point the breakdown in public trust in mainstream politics and journalism in liberal democracies, and claims that liberal democracy is currently in crisis, this article will interrogate the extent to which crisis is a helpful metaphor for understanding our contemporary conjuncture and argue that the liberal theory of media freedom is itself in crisis, with its claims to represent the public interest being increasingly contested by the publics themselves. Ultimately, I will argue that we need to rethink media freedom beyond its roots in liberalism and to recast the relationship between media and publics if we are to address the current crisis in legitimacy.
