On the Functions and Values of Journalism

In his comment to my article ‘Private Media, Public Funds, and Democratic Allocation’, Fox raised two pressing challenges. The first challenge is theoretical and claims that the deliberative view of journalism I endorse, which assumes as its only function the promotion of deliberation, is too narrow to incorporate all that makes journalism valuable. The second challenge, which naturally follows from the first one, is institutional: such a narrow view of journalism leads to inadequate eligibility criteria, as these criteria will trace back only the institutional features that predispose media organizations to promote deliberation. In this reply, I defend my view of journalism against these two challenges.