CIVIC JOURNALISM, DEVELOPMENT MEDIA THEORY & DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPANT THEORY

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Theories of Communication MCM 511

LESSON 07

CIVIC JOURNALISM, DEVELOPMENT MEDIA THEORY & DEMOCRATIC

PARTICIPANT THEORY

Civic or Public Journalism

Keeping the spirit of the SR theory in view many newspapers began practicing civic journalism, actively

engaging the members of their areas in reporting important civic issues. It is a form of interactive

journalism, where the newspaper actively enlists and engages people from all walks of life in the

creation of the stories and reports it develops.

According to Gunaratne in 1998 civic or public journalism may be defined as:

An effort by print and broadcast journalists to reach out to the public more aggressively in the reporting

process, to listen to how citizens frame their problems and what citizens see as solutions to those

problems, and then use that information to enrich their newspaper or broadcast report.

A movement to create a more active and engaged public by self-consciously giving voice to the people's

agenda.

A movement to steer journalism towards reinvigorating public life, which many see as excluding

ordinary citizens and devaluing the need to inform them.

Forms of civic journalism

So civic journalism can happen in a variety of ways:

1. By giving a detailed and long-running coverage of important or controversial community issues,

employing citizens as part of the coverage and inviting response and debate through devices such as

hotlines and open forums. E.g. issues like state of public schools, sanitation problems, problems in

public hospitals etc. In these reports local people and groups , local problems and local solutions are

highlighted rather than , national data on minority unemployment or how schools in another state meet

the challenges.

2. Another form of civic journalism is the assembly of citizen panels, composed of diverse people and

interests that meet at regular intervals throughout the life of an ongoing news event, e.g. legislative

budget hearings or a political campaign.

The reactions of the citizens to developments are reported as news.

3. Or developing citizen roundtables, inviting people from different constituencies to hash out their

differences and attempt to find some common ground. These interactions are then reported as news.

Proponents of civic journalism see it as the embodiment of social responsibility theory and a solid form

of community service.

The criticisms on civic journalism are:

1. Competition for advertising revenues from other more national news media like television and

the Web.

2. Too much concern and interests of citizens with personal or narrow agendas.

McQuail in 1987 cites several normative theories that have been developed in other parts of the world.

These include

· Development media theory and

· Democratic-participant theory

Development Media Theory

Development media theory was intended to recognize the fact that societies undergoing a transition

from underdevelopment and colonialism to independence and better material conditions often lack the

infrastructure, the money, the traditions, the professional skills and even the audiences needed to sustain

Theories of Communication MCM 511

media institutions comparable to those of the First world or Second world , in which the four theories

could take root.

Goals of development media theory

It emphasizes the following goals:

1. The primacy of the national development task

2. The pursuit of cultural and informational autonomy

3. Support for democracy

4. Solidarity with other developing countries.

This theory advocates media support for an existing political regime and its efforts to bring about

national economic development. By supporting government development efforts , media aid society at

large. This theory argues that unless a nation is well-established and its economic development well

underway, media must be supportive rather than critical of government. Journalists must not pick apart

government efforts to promote development but rather assist government in implementing such policies.

This theory recognizes the need for some form of government intervention into the operation of media.

It envisions setting up:

Government agencies.

Monitor training and licensing of media practitioners;

Control development of media institutions;

Regularly censor-media content before distribution.

Issue regular guidelines for day-to-day operation of media

Although different degree of self-regulation are encouraged, media practitioners are not trusted by

government officials to carry out their responsibilities without guidance and constant monitoring.

Criticism

An updated version of authoritarian theory and that media should never surrender the power to criticize

government policies even if it risks causing the policies to fail.

Democratic-Participant Theory

Democratic-participant theory was proposed in recognition of new media developments and of

increasing criticism of the dominance of the main mass media by private or public monopolies.

From the 1960's onwards call could be heard for alternative, grass-roots media, expressing the needs of

citizens. The theory supports the right to relevant local information, the right to answer back and the

right to use the new means of communication for interaction and social action in small-scale settings of

community, interest groups or subculture. This theory challenged the necessity for and desirability of

uniform, centralized, high-cost, commercialized, professionalized or state-controlled media.

In their place should be encouraged multiple, small-scale, local, non-institutional, committed media

which link senders to receivers and also favor horizontal patterns of interaction.

Practical expressions of the theory

The practical expressions of the theory are many and varied, including the underground or alternative

press, community cable television, micro-media in rural settings, wall posters Media for women and

ethnic minorities. The theory reflects the market as a suitable institutional form, as well as all top-down

professional provision and control. Participation and interaction are key concepts.

Democratic-participant theory advocates media support for cultural pluralism at a grass-root level.

Media are to be used to stimulate and empower pluralistic groups. Unlike social responsibility theory,

which assumes that mass media can perform this function, democratic-participant theory call for

development of innovative, `small' media that can be directly controlled by group members.

If they cannot afford such media, then government subsidies should be provided to them existing small

media should by identified and funded. Training programs should be established to teach group

members how to operate small media.

Theories of Communication MCM 511

This theory argues that surviving remnants of ethnic groups be given access to media and allowed to

revive or stabilize their culture. This theory has been most fully developed in western Europe and is part

of a grass-roots revival of historically significant cultural and ethnic groups. In Yugoslavia and Kosovo

In Wales e.g. welsh language programming has been successfully aired.

Democratic participant theory is a reaction. The term democratic-participant expresses a sense of

disillusionment with established political parties and with media system, which are seen as having

broken faith with the people.

There is also an element of reaction against the mass society, which is over-organized and alienating.

Free press theory is seen to fail because of its subversion by the forces of capitalism, while social

responsibility ends up as just another form of complicity with the bureaucratic state or a mere self-

serving by entrenched media professional.

Both freedom and self-regulation are seen to have failed

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