Corona and the capitalization of the media industry By Johannes Malmgren
direct, threats to media freedom as authoritarian regimes.
As the corona pandemic emerged and spread, numerous commentators quipped that the pandemic was accompanied by an “infodemic” of misinformation, rumors, and fake news. Such fears provided a welcome pretext for governments seeking to adopt authoritarian measures towards media organizations. Another aspect of the corona crisis is the worsening economic conditions of news media around the world. Such conditions pose as far-reaching, if not always as
Media played a pivotal role during the course of the COVID pandemic crisis. As lockdowns and other restrictions on freedoms were implemented, the interest in, and dependence on, digital news reports attained unprecedented global importance. The pandemic accelerated digitalization, leading to urgent economic crises for many media outlets. At the same time, the media industry is undergoing processes of commercialization, that is, adapting and transforming itself ac-
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