News Startups, Boundaries, and Borders in a Time of Platforms and Algorithms

• In Event: Researching Ecologies of News: The Role of Markets and Communities

Abstract

This article is an empirical investigation of 18 venture-backed news startups from around the US and Europe. The central concern here is to examine yet another new entrant to the journalism ecosystem by asking how venture-backed news startups both depart from and replicate traditional journalism. News startups aim to solve what they see as problems with journalism in novel ways, yet their concerns mirror larger historical critiques of journalism. However, their distinct technological and cultural innovations do prompt consideration about how the underlying doxa of the field might be changing or at least challenged.

Author

• Nikki Usher, George Washington U