Mainstream American journalism rests on a pluralist model of democracy that conserves the status quo, essentializes culture, and trivializes diversity. A very different understanding of diversity emerges from a multiculturalist perspective that questions existing arrangements, posits a relational view of culture, and defines diversity in terms of patterns of discrimination and inequality. A case study of coverage of a local issue in the mainstream and minority press underpins a discussion of the importance of diversifying journalism by restructuring the American press. Journalism diversity matters most not only as it heightens sensitivity to cultural differences but as it strengthens the role of minority media in the struggle to achieve the social justice and political parity that a culturally diverse society demands.
The concept of autonomy has had an integral and enduring role in political economic reflection on the relationship between culture and the economy. A prevailing version of the concept, developed in postmodernist scholarship, has suggested the erosion, if not complete demise, of autonomy. The article contends that autonomy, as an aesthetic concept in these debates, has mainly overlooked its function in critical thinking about capitalism's expansion to the sphere of culture. By building on recent research on the Frankfurt School, in particular, the work of Theodor Adorno, it is possible to reassert the importance of a version of the concept of autonomy in the critical analysis of culture today.
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