A few days ago I said that education has historically always needed a patron, either the wealthy, a corporation, or government. To a significant degree this has been true of news media as well. Though nominally supported through advertising, we see the influence of these three throughout the history of journalism: the press barons, the media corporations, and of course, public broadcasting. This report (128 page PDF) looks at the latest chapter of that history, the patronage by Google of European journalism. Though there are no strings attached, "as any critical journalist would know – and as the the report shows – things are not that simple." Google uses the funding as part of its lobbying efforts. It tends to favour "data projects and robot journalism". And sponsorship ensures "the company always has a say in debates regarding the future of the news media."
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