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CIVIC JOURNALISM, DEVELOPMENT MEDIA THEORY & DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPANT THEORY

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Theories of Communication ­ MCM 511
VU
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.
OR
A movement to create a more active and engaged public by self-consciously giving voice to the people's
agenda.
OR
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
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Theories of Communication ­ MCM 511
VU
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.
o
Monitor training and licensing of media practitioners;
o
Control development of media institutions;
o
Regularly censor-media content before distribution.
o
Issue regular guidelines for day-to-day operation of media
o
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.
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Theories of Communication ­ MCM 511
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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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Table of Contents:
  1. COMMUNICATION:Nature of communication, Transactional approach, Communication is symbolic:
  2. THEORY, PARADIGM AND MODEL (I):Positivistic Perspective, Critical Perspective
  3. THEORY, PARADIGM AND MODEL (II):Empirical problems, Conceptual problems
  4. FROM COMMUNICATION TO MASS COMMUNICATION MODELS:Channel
  5. NORMATIVE THEORIES:Authoritarian Theory, Libertarian Theory, Limitations
  6. HUTCHINS COMMISSION ON FREEDOM, CHICAGO SCHOOL & BASIC PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY THEORY
  7. CIVIC JOURNALISM, DEVELOPMENT MEDIA THEORY & DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPANT THEORY
  8. LIMITATIONS OF THE PRESS THEORY:Concentration and monopoly, Commercialism
  9. MCQUAIL’S FOUR KINDS OF THEORIES:Social scientific theory, Critical theory
  10. PROPAGANDA THEORIES:Origin of Propaganda, Engineering of Consent, Behaviorism
  11. PARADIGM SHIFT & TWO STEP FLOW OF INFORMATION
  12. MIDDLE RANGE THEORIES:Background, Functional Analysis Approach, Elite Pluralism
  13. KLAPPER’S PHENOMENSITIC THEORY:Klapper’s Generalizations, Criticism
  14. DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION THEORY:Innovators, Early adopters
  15. CHALLENGING THE DOMINANT PARADIGM:Catharsis Social learning Social cognitive theory
  16. SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEROY:Symbolizing Capacity, MODELLING
  17. MODELING FROM MASS MEDIA:Recent research, Summary, PRIMING EFFECTS
  18. PRIMING EFFECT:Conceptual Roots, Perceived meaning, Percieved justifiability
  19. CULTIVATION OF PERCEPTIONS OF SOCIAL REALITY:History
  20. SYSTEMS THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION PROCESSES:System
  21. EMERGENCE OF CRITICAL & CULTURAL THEORIES OF MASS COMMUNICATION
  22. REVISION:Positivistic perspective, Interpretive Perspective, Inductive approach
  23. CRITICAL THEORIES & ROLE OF MASS COMMUNICATION IN A SOCIETY -THE MEDIATION OF SOCIAL RELATIONS
  24. ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN SOCIAL ORDER & MARXIST THEORY:Positive View
  25. KEY PRINCIPLES USED IN MARXISM:Materialism, Class Struggle, Superstructure
  26. CONSUMER SOCIETY:Role of mass media in alienation, Summary of Marxism
  27. COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE:Neo Marxism, Characteristics of Culture
  28. HEGEMONY:What exactly is the meaning of "hegemony"?
  29. CULTURE INDUSTRY:Gramscianism on Communications Matters
  30. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY I:Internationalization, Vertical Integration
  31. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY II:Diversification, Instrumental
  32. POLITICAL ECONOMIC THEORY III:Criticism, Power of Advertising
  33. AGENDA SETTING THEORY:A change in thinking, First empirical test
  34. FRAMING & SPIRAL OF SILENCE:Spiral of Silence, Assessing public opinion
  35. SPIRAL OF SILENCE:Fear of isolation, Assessing public opinion, Micro-level
  36. MARSHALL MCLUHAN: THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE AND MASSAGE
  37. KNOWLEDGE GAP THEORY:Criticism on Marshal McLuhan
  38. MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY:Media System Dependency Theory
  39. USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY:Methods
  40. RECEPTION THEORY
  41. FRAMING AND FRAME ANALYSIS:Information Processing Theory, Summing up
  42. TRENDS IN MASS COMMUNICATION I:Communication Science, Direct channels
  43. TRENDS IN MASS COMMUNICATION II:Communication Maxims, Emotions
  44. GLOBALIZATION AND MEDIA:Mediated Communication, Post Modernism
  45. REVISION:Microscopic Theories, Mediation of Social Relations