The hidden cost of paywalls: How restricting news hurts democracy
About this episode
This episode explores the impact of paywalls on quality journalism and democracy.
Quality journalism costs money while misinformation is usualy free? But most quality news is behind a paywall and few people want to pay. In this episode of UnSpun , DrSturg traces the history of the news paywall from the early days of online newspapers to today's subscription economy and examines what decades of research tell us about who pays, who doesn't, and what that means for public knowledge. Follow @drsturg on Bluesky DrSturg's book, Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News teaches you how to identify this kind of shady language yourself, using real examples from the news. Check it out and be smarter! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
People in this episode
Host: Amanda Sturgill
Topics covered
- paywalls
- journalism
- democracy
- public knowledge
- subscription economy
- misinformation
Keywords
- paywalls
- quality journalism
- democracy
- subscription economy
- misinformation
- public knowledge
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Bluesky
Books & works: Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News
More episodes of Unspun
- Less news, more noise: Why weaker newscasts are bad for democracy
- Should We Trust AI Fact Checkers? | UnSpun Journal Club
- From Waco to Tulsi Gabbard: How the news media struggle to cover cults
- The reflecting pool is blue: The Big Lie (UnSpun Rewind)
- Why do conservatives think the media hates them? UnSpun Journal Club
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Unspun podcast page.