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5 Roles of News Media in Democracy The first news media were newspapers, that is, regularly appearing written accounts of current events, mainly of a political, diplomatic, military, or commercial character. They claimed to offer reliable information, or at least to be an authoritative, official source of information. They primarily served the needs of a mercantile class in growing urban centers of trade and administration . While early European newspapers had only limited freedom in practice and were sometimes organs of authority, the press institution could not have developed without making some claim both to freedom of publication and to economic freedom. The newspaper press grew slowly, its fortunes bound up with economic development and the reigning degree of political freedom. It was more vigorous in northern Europe and in North America than elsewhere. Gradually, new forms of print media emerged alongside the original models of mercantile newsletter and official gazette. Partisan presses of various types came to serve the interests of factions struggling for power or movements for political and social reform. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the mass newspaper formed a new bridge between the established quality press and the true mass media, yet to emerge. The commercial newspaper aimed to be truly popular and universal. Its owners’ primary goal was to make money; but there was often a secondary goal of exerting political influence. These developments, briefly summarized, have made it difficult to combine the various print news media under a clear concept of the newspaper press, so diverse are the forms and goals of publication. The popular press of the twentieth century claimed the rights and respect due to the earlier newspaper—but did not offer to carry out the same roles, fulfill the same social responsibilities, or observe the same norms of conduct. This tension, which in part reflects a disjunction between economic and political goals, remains at the heart of normative debate over the role of journalism in society. i-xii_1-284_Chri.indd 114 5/5/09 8:54:40 AM roles of news media in democracy · 115 There have been continuous changes in the newspaper press, with ever newer journalistic forms. The emergence of broadcast news, first by radio and then by television, has made it even more difficult to treat the news media as a single institution. In these newer media, the provision of news often takes second place to other communication tasks, especially advertising and entertainment. And journalists face entirely new pressures of space, time, and format. The more international character of television news has added to the complexity, since televised news is much more likely to circulate beyond its original context and to convey its meaning more directly than written accounts alone. Print news is largely confined to a national arena and is designed to meet local expectations . Competition between news media has intensified, often leading to a loss of product diversity and new dilemmas of editorial decision making. On the one hand, there is an increased impetus toward objectivity and neutrality, and also toward specialist news in an increasingly secular and information-hungry age. On the other hand, competition generates pressures to make news and information more homogeneous, as well as more digestible and entertaining for a wide audience. The consequences are very mixed, with competing goals and unclear prescriptions for quality and professionalism. While circumstances vary a good deal from one country to another, the many variants that have emerged can be represented approximately by Schudson’s three models of journalism: “advocacy,” “market,” and “trustee” (1999, 118–21). The first describes an essentially partisan press, and the second the commercially driven journalism of popular press and broadcasting. The third refers to professional journalism that aims to look after the varied informational interests of the public in an independent way. In the United States, these three models appeared more or less in sequence, with the first one largely disappearing and the second two now competing for dominance. In Europe the advocacy model, although in decline, has survived longer and with more general acceptance as one model of professional journalism. In Europe, too, the trustee model appeared in an additional guise: that of publicly regulated broadcasting, editorially independent of the state and other interests but charged with broad informational and educational tasks on society’s behalf. These models may have arrived in sequence, but they can and do coexist and compete with each other for predominance. These brief historical notes are relevant for understanding the press’s position...

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