Journalism, Public, Policy: An Institutional View of the Press’s Legal Discourse at the End of the 19th Century

Abstract

This study analyzes discourse about journalists’ privilege and libel law from 1894 to 1897 to explain how the press articulated the public policy rationale for legal protection at a pivotal moment in journalism history. To illuminate the relationship between emerging professional values and ideas about law, it applies the analytical lens of institutionalism. The study argues that the public policy rationale that appeared in the legal discourse surrounding these key legal issues was both a function of principled professional identity–building and a means of “institutional maintenance” intended to protect the press’s social status.