Knowledge Brokering via News Media in the Policymaking Process

• In Event: What's Deciding News: Journalistic Practices

Abstract

A knowledge brokering model of news media is proposed to explain their influence on public policymaking processes. The model identifies five distinct knowledge brokering functions through which news media regulate the flow of policy-relevant knowledge to and from policy actors as well as the specific activities that enable news media to perform each function. It is suggested that by performing these functions, news media facilitate or impede the capacity, motivation, and opportunities of policy actors to engage with policy-relevant information and knowledge. As a consequence, they are also able to dynamically influence the focus, emphasis, and trajectory of the policy discourse around issues which ultimately determines the scope, nature, and pace of policy change.

Authors

• Itzhak Yanovitzky, Rutgers U

• Matthew Scott Weber, Rutgers U

• Teis Moeller Kristensen, Rutgers U

• Nicole Gesualdo, Rutgers U