Journalism and the state- the regulatory and political context

Hackett’s article analyses three varieties of perspectives of journalism in a democracy including a Conservative critique, public sphere liberalism and radical democrats. He concludes that there is a democracy deficit in Anglo-American journalism and argues that it is greater in American mass media than it is in the UK.

Hackett begins by investigating journalistic roles in a free economical market. I achnowledged that the press should act as both an exposer of immorality and exploitation of power and to oversee the governments actions. These two key roles give the perception that voters take on the role of consumers and that the public’s participation is “neither necessary nor even desirable” (Hackett, 2005: 86). The press should ensure that the elites are held accountable and take repsonsiblity of their policies. Therefore, citizens should have little consideration to debate the actions of the elites. I can infer that this links to the concept of a procedural democracy as it’s a normative ideal that doesn’t put pressure on citizens to vote. Stromback (2006: 334) supports this idea that people voting or not is of little significance as long as the guidelines and processes of democracy are respected.

Hackett then proceeds to explore the concept of public sphere liberalism. This involves the public being more active debaters in political discussions rather than just passive consumers. This can be linked to the increase of citizen journalism which stimulates and encourages online discussion and debate. This liberal perspective sees citizen journalism as a positive and a success; perhaps it can help mend the democratic deficit. They blame journalism for destroying citizen participation in democracy as journalism should be an area which enables citizen debate and discussion.

Lastly, radical democrats emphasise the importance of prioritising equality as a fundamental attitude of democracy. They believe there are three key roles the media should perform. The press should report on situations and opinions in relation to significant social affairs. These should be exclusive to the agendas of elitists in order to expedite the social change which is deemed necessary. This links to Stromback’s idea of a social contract between journalism and democracy. This perspective states that democracy is the only “form of government that respects freedom of speech” (Stromback, 2006: 334). It allows a system of fluid and honest information which is independent to the state which fulfills the primary ethos of journalism.

In conclusion, modern journalism is not seen to adequately serve the needs of communication between the political system and the public sphere. Although each political perspective differentiates, they all agree on the fact that there is in fact a deficit. However, Hackett concludes that it is a greater issue in the United States than the United Kingdom.

Bibliography:

Hackett, Robert (2005) ‘Is there a democratic deficit in US and UK journalism’ in ‘Journalism: Critical Issues’ ed. Stuart Allan. Maidenhead: Open University Press

Strömbäck, J. (2006) In the search of a standard: four models of democracy and their normative implications for journalism. [pdf] Edition 3. London: Routledge. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14616700500131950

Accessed 26 October 2017.