The Journalistic Habitus, Neoliberal(Ized) Logics, and the Politics of Public Education

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between neoliberalism and journalism as it relates to the articulation of a marketized education agenda. We examine the case of Campbell Brown, the former CNN anchor, who, after leaving journalism in 2010, reinvented herself as a high-profile education campaigner from 2012 to 2016, asserting an identity that was hostile to trade unions and supportive of charter schools. Brown initially represented her advocacy as a departure from journalism, though the rationale changed in 2015 when she co-founded The 74, an educational news website that promised to reconcile a commitment to journalism and advocacy. We analyse the significance of Brown’s case from a field theory perspective, especially in how it captures the inter-field dynamics of journalistic power and highlights Brown’s specific ability to convert her media capital into a form of cultural capital to speak about educational issues. We then examine the resonances between a journalistic habitus and neoliberal logics, as illustrated in this case by the discursive importance of appeals to transparency and accountability to both journalism and neoliberal governance. We end by briefly reflecting on the general significance of our analysis, partly with reference to Keane’s concept of “monitory democracy” and Crouch’s concept of “post-democracy”.