Media Institutions
Media Institutions
The public, the government, and the media themselves have expectations regarding the role journalism should play in society. Press theories suggest the examination of political and economic influences on this role; therefore, literature that addresses the relationship between the press and the loci of power as well as economic influence on journalistic work is reviewed first. To identify common threads and recurrent roles of media in society, we then examine the wide range of scholars proposed models. These models identify a large number of roles using diverse and inconsistent terminology, which makes an analysis of existing texts (such as codes of ethics) very difficult to pursue. Reviewing the models, however, has made it clear that questions regarding the medias appropriate level of involvement in society and adversity toward the loci of power are central to understanding medias proper role in society. This study proposes a conceptual framework that addresses these two types of roles—toward society and toward loci of power—as a unified conceptual ground for the analysis of all 242 codes.
Theories of the Press
Traditionally, the social role of media and journalists in society has been derived and defined based on the characteristics of governance and the relationship between the media institution and the political institution. The type of regime in a given country was expected to shape the role that the media played in that particular society. Siebert (1963) proposed the seminal “Four Theories of the Press”: authoritarian, totalitarian-communist, libertarian, and social responsibility. Almost a half-century later, the social responsibility model had been widely accepted as an unwritten contract in Western countries, wherein the state waives most of its control over the media—especially prior to publication. Media accept social commitments toward society and restrain themselves accordingly.
Dominant as the four theories have been, there has been no lack of criticism regarding their tenants. Nerone (1995) argued that the four theories were not value free, but were a product of the Cold War. They possessed a pro-capitalist bias; he challenged but did not address economic factors. Winfield, Mizuno, and Beaudoin (2000) asserted that Western press literature disregarded differences in cultures and traditions among societies, specifically with regard to Asian countries.
The social responsibility model left some aspects of the medias role in society unexplained, leading to the design of a new model: development communication or journalism. Taking a “modernization” approach, scholars posit developmental communication as an engine of change from “traditional” to “modern” society, as technology and Western values diffuse toward the developing world (Lerner, 1958; Rogers, 1962; Rostow, 1960). Media were seen as institutional agents of modernizing practices and institutions in society (Schramm, 1964). In this transitional period,