A new article examines the resonances between a journalistic habitus and neoliberal logics. Leon A. Salter and Sean Phelan, both of Massey University, New Zealand, studied the case of Campbell Brown.

Brown is a former CNN anchor, who after leaving journalism became a high-profile education campaigner from 2012 to 2016. In 2015, she founded the 74, a news website focusing on covering education, returning again to the field of journalism. The researchers analyze the case from the perspective of Bourdieu’s field theory.

Brown managed to convert her media capital into a form of cultural capital to speak about educational issues, the authors state. The distinctions between journalist and advocate eventually dissolved. Brown articulated a vision of educational justice in the universal name of parents and children, while promoting an elite educational agenda that, “is hardly an exemplar of democracy”, the authors write.

The article ”The Journalistic Habitus, Neoliberal(ized) Logics, and the Politics of Public Education” was published in Journalism Studies and is available online (abstract free).

Picture: Back to school by Kelli Tungay, licence CC0 1.0