Platforms and the Fall of the Fourth Estate: Looking Beyond the First Amendment to Protect Watchdog Journalism

Erin C. Carroll

By definition, the Fourth Estate is not loyal to the occupant of any government office, but it is devoted to upholding our form of government. Watchdog journalism is a check on corruption and protection against tyranny. In contrast, the more diffuse Networked Press, with its web of human and non-human actors, has no collective loyalty. By allowing the Networked Press’s most powerful actors, technology platforms, to impose their values on the press, we are at risk of outsourcing a key constitutional function to Silicon Valley. The First Amendment alone is unlikely to resolve this problem. To protect the watchdog role in a Networked Press era, we should look beyond it.