Table Of ContentNORMATIVE
THEORIES
MEDIA
OF THE
Journalism in Democratic Societies
Clifford G. Christians,
Theodore L. Glasser, Denis McQuail,
Kaarle Nordenstreng, and
Robert A. White
Normative Theories of the Media
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the history of communication
Robert W. McChesney and
John C. Nerone, editors
A list of books in the series appears
at the end of this book.
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Normative Theories
of the Media
journalism in democratic societies
Clifford G. Christians • Theodore L. Glasser
Denis McQuail • Kaarle Nordenstreng
Robert A. White
university of illinois press
Urbana and Chicago
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© 2009 by the Board of Trustees
of the University of Illinois
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1
∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Normative theories of the media : journalism in
democratic societies / Clifford G. Christians [et al.].
p. cm. — (The history of communication)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-252-03423-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-252-07618-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Journalism—Political aspects. 2. Journalism—
Social aspects. 3. Democracy. 4. Press and politics.
5. Freedom of the press.
pn4751.n67 2009
070.4—dc22 2008049081
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Contents
Preface vii
Introduction
1. Beyond Four Theories of the Press 3
Part One: Theory
2. Evolution of Normative Traditions 37
3. Characteristics of Normative Theory 65
Part Two: Democracy
4. The Principles and Practice of Democracy 91
5. Roles of News Media in Democracy 114
Part Three: Roles
6. The Monitorial Role 139
7. The Facilitative Role 158
8. The Radical Role 179
9. The Collaborative Role 196
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Prospects
10. Media Roles under Challenge 221
References 243
Index 269
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Preface
The question of the role of journalism in a democratic society is so
central that even students and practitioners of communication are used to tak-
ing it for granted. Yet, today, both journalism and democracy are challenged
by great changes, ranging from information technology to the global economy.
All of this is an invitation to examine critically the media’s place and task in
society—in particular in societies where democracy is understood not only as a
political system but as a culture. At issue is not only what is the role of journal-
ism in society but above all what this role should be. Such a perspective of the
media’s mission in democracy leads us to a normative level—beyond factual
landscapes toward values and objectives.
This book is inspired by two interrelated aims: one practical and the other
theoretical. The practical motivation grows out of the fact that the field of jour-
nalism and mass communication has an ongoing need for more theoretical
treatments of media and society in general, and journalism and democracy in
particular. The best known book in this category, Four Theories of the Press, by
Fred Siebert, Theodore Peterson, and Wilbur Schramm (1956), is badly outdated
and without obvious successors (see the reviews by Merrill [2002] and Nerone
[2002]). What is needed is an approach that has much of the same didactic clar-
ity, but with foundations in normative and political theory that can deal more
adequately with basic questions, such as: What is and what should be the media’s
role in a democratic society? How do we classify media systems and journalistic
traditions? These questions are more and more burning in the contemporary
world, where earlier Cold War divisions are replaced by new divides.
The theoretical motivation for this book is to respond to the intellectual
challenge posed by scholars who are concerned with professional ethics, with
a more responsible performance of the media industries, and with a more ad-
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viii . preface
equate education of journalists. The academic study of journalism and mass
communication has become established over the past fifty years. But it still
remains inadequate for describing and explaining the media’s role and task in
society—in short, in providing us with normative theory. And this intellectual
challenge is becoming more and more acute in a world where cultures are clash-
ing and media are converging.
The authors of this book found each other working on these points more than
two decades ago. By the early 1980s, one of us (McQuail) had written a chapter
on normative theories of the press in his introductory textbook, while another
one (Nordenstreng) had made ambitious plans to rewrite the Four Theories. It
was in the middle of the 1980s that we really focused on the topic, brought to-
gether in platforms of the Association for Education in Journalism (AEJ, later
AEJMC), International Communication Association(ICA), and International
Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Fueling this
collegial process was Christians’s work in Illinois on theories of media ethics,
Glasser’s work in Minnesota on theories of democracy and the media, and
White’s work in England on democratization and communication.
An initial inspiration for all of us came from the debate on the New World
Information and Communication Order (NWICO), which was largely about
the normative role media were supposed to perform in society—something lost
in the big power politics waged around the United Nations and UNESCO. A
common concern was that the framework of Four Theories was not sufficiently
open to the whole range of value traditions and sociopolitical philosophies
underlying public communication throughout the world. The typology of Four
Theories, and the variations it inspired, almost invariably favored the industrial-
ized Western powers and tended to institutionalize and justify the great imbal-
ances of the present global order of communication.
Formal and informal meetings between us evolved in the spring of 1993 into
this book project, the basic concept of which was outlined at a lake outside Tam-
pere under the sponsorship of the Academy of Finland. Our intention was to
look for a fresh approach to normative theories of the media—not just to revise
and complement Four Theories. A new beginning was natural because another
team project, Last Rights (Nerone 1995; see also Nerone 2004), with its excellent
critical analysis that revealed the biases of Four Theories, opened the way for a
new framework. Accordingly, we are continuing the project from where Last
Rights left it. We admit that normative theories are culturally bound constructs
or paradigms rather than actually existing systems. Indeed, the point made by
Altschull’s seventh “law of journalism” is well taken: “Press practices always
differ from press theory” (1995, 441). But we recognize the need for normative
theories as cognitive maps for media professionals—despite suggestions that
in these postmodern times they might be obsolete (Nerone 1995, 184).
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preface · ix
A theory is here understood to be a reasoned explanation of why particular
actions lead to certain outcomes. Our premise is that there are two types of
“theories of the press”: first, those prescribing the normative tasks for the media
in society, and second those describing the factual role of the media in society.
The latter approaches the issue from the “objective” angle of media sociology,
while the former deals with the “subjective,” culturally related values held by
various actors about the mission of the media. Normative theory, in our view,
attempts to explain why a certain organization of public discourse leads to better
collective decisions and eventually to an improved quality of life. For instance, if
the norms of public debate in a given country insist that all participate, includ-
ing the poor, then one might argue that the country ought to have a more just
system of education. Thus the media–society relationship can be articulated at
two levels, real or descriptive and ideal or normative, although the difference
between these is far from crystal clear.
Journalism education has typically separated these two levels by placing the
sociological approach into the category of scientific studies, whereas the nor-
mative approach usually has been taught together with media law and ethics
as something that is value bound and part and parcel of professional practice.
Normative approaches to the media among professionals have usually been
taken for granted without questioning their foundations. Thus the prevailing
professional and philosophical assumptions have remained unchallenged and
even legitimized by theories of the press.
Our work is inspired by the idea of raising professional consciousness within
the media world, including media scholarship. Normative theories may serve
not only as a defense of political philosophies but can also be made to sensitize
media policymakers and professionals to acknowledge their own unstated prem-
ises—by exposing discrepancies between philosophical rationales and actual
operations. Thus normative theories are justified, not as affirmative instruments
to strengthen the prevailing ideology—typically the case of Four Theories—but
as instruments of emancipation from the status quo. In this respect, normative
theories support media autonomy and self-regulation. Likewise, normative
theories are foundational for serious press criticism, as aptly demonstrated by
Wendy Wyatt (2007).
At the same time, however, we take seriously the challenge posed by the two
types of theories: ideal and real, normative and sociological. After reviewing past
attempts toward theories of the press, one is no longer sure whether they cover the
ideal or the real level. Obviously a new beginning must cover both. There is con-
siderable confusion regarding the concept of normativity and therefore we attempt
to clarify what is a normative theory and its role in contemporary journalism.
Today this project is especially challenging, as new media and new types
of messages enter the field, affecting the nature of journalism in a computer-
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