How News Organisations Might Develop Counterpower against the Dominance of Platforms

The second and final speaker in this AoIR 2023 session is Theresa Seipp, whose interest is in the notion of counterpower. Online, power has now shifted from legacy organisations to platform companies; this is exacerbated by the severe industrial concentration, with a few transnational companies dominating the industry. Current legal frameworks in a number of countries and regions appear unable to address this effectively, not least because they define size by audience metrics rather than control of technologies. Such legal frameworks also often lack a concrete commitment to normative goals. And, of course, the platforms are also able to exercise considerable commercial and lobbying power.

But is there a form of counterpower that may be exercised here – news publishers have started to quit Facebook in response to its erratic engagement with the news, for instance, and others are finding other approaches to claim back some of their editorial control and independence. How might this look like in larger practice, and be supported through regulation and legislation? Theresa pursued this in part through a series of interviews.

This pushes back against the routine and unconsidered systemic and dominant power that platform companies now exercise; it exploits the dependencies of the powerful on the advice and cooperation of subordinates. This potential for counterpower can be further explored through the dimensions of spaces, infrastructure, and relationships, and counterpower thus seeks to reclaim power and control over spaces and infrastructure.

This might mean seeking control of the spaces through which news organisations reach audiences and build relationships; it might involve the procurement and use of technologies that allow for greater independence; and explore new business models that enable sustainable alternative approaches.

Theresa interviewed key personnel in news organisations in the UK and Netherlands, and analysed the interviews for a number of major themes. Key findings show a commitment to normative and professional values including quality news, trust, and direct audience relationships, as well as economic goals relating to commercial and strategic decision-making. This makes a trade-off between connecting with audiences where they are and avoiding overbearing platform moderation of content; and between the embrace of new technologies like AI, and the maintenance of editorial rigour and quality.

Concrete strategies include the continued reliance on social media (quitting was not an option for most), but alongside newsletters, email, Websites, and other tools; and a commitment to diversifying platform dependencies in order to break platforms’ feedback loops and minimise the exposure to single points of failure. This also involves the greater use of alternative providers, and an investment in new and alternative communication platforms and technologies.

Further, there are also legal dimensions to all of this: many of these new strategies are only possible for larger and better-resourced news organisations; and the extraction of mandatory payments from platforms to support them only serves to increase platform dependence and fails to support local journalism outlets. Outlets would also like to collaborate more with each other in order to be able to push back against platform power, but this is sometimes prevented by anti-concentration regulation in the media industry.

Counterpower thus does not mean a complete disengagement from platforms, and its true essence lies in independently defining strategies and approaches and exercising control while adhering to professional standards. Some legal conditions for this counterpower are now emerging, for instance through the EU Digital Services Act and European Media Freedom Act regulations; there should also be more emphasis on the vertical rather than horizontal concentration of power in media concentration regulations.

The EU Digital Markets Act removes barriers for alternative providers, and this is welcome; this should enable more security and privacy standards especially when it comes to the use of AI. There is also a need to adjust contract and procurement law to enable fair terms and conditions in procurement. Such interventions could empower news organisations to exert control over the spaces and infrastructures in which they operate, but there is a need to strike a careful balance with media regulation.