Journalism unions and digital platform regulation: a critical discourse analysis of submissions to Australia's News Media Bargaining Code

Abstract

Journalism unions are among the chorus of voices advocating for digital platform regulation. Yet, despite the documented impacts of platformisation on working conditions and labour markets, few of the recent inquiries into platform power have addressed the impacts of platforms on labour. In this article, we ask: what is the role of labour unions in shaping digital platform regulation? As our case study, we analysed how Australia's journalism union (the MEAA) articulated the interests of news workers in submissions to the Digital Platform Inquiry and the resulting News Media Bargaining Code. Through a critical discourse analysis of the union's submissions, we found that the MEAA's lobbying efforts championed the interests of freelancers, advocated for a more inclusive Code, and sought guarantees that the revenue it generated would be used to pay for content creation. The MEAA used a range of discursive strategies, including seizing on ambiguity surrounding the definition of the policy problem and key actors. For the most part, the submissions aligned the union with the regulator, state and media companies in pursuit of platform regulation. However, the competing interests among this advocacy coalition became increasingly clear in the later stages of the policy-making process. Ultimately, the union's strategies were constrained by the hegemony of market-centric discourses that framed the inquiry and shaped the policy outcomes.