Merely TINCering around: the shifting private authority of technology, information and news corporations

Abstract

This article examines the “technology, information, and news corporations” (TINCs), a group of under-studied non-state actors to enhance understanding of the interplay between forms of private authority in times of crisis. Three interrelated arguments regarding the shifting private authority of leading UK- and US-based TINCs are presented. First, contributions to the period of economic instability that began in 2007 have destabilized the long-standing authority of Anglo-American firms including Bloomberg, Dow Jones, and Thomson Reuters. Second, through their involvement in two overtly normative niches of global finance, environmental and Islamic finance, these private actors have responded to contestations of their authority with an enhanced stress on moral authority since 2007. Third, a mere tinkering around with pre-crisis technical knowledge and a persistent reliance on liberal market values is likely to perpetuate rather than resolve the unstable authority of the leading TINCs. Based on an original analysis of primary documents and interviews undertaken with industry participants, this article contributes to existing literature analyzing the changing nature of private authority by revealing limits to shifts and combinations between its moral and technical forms.