Thursday, May 14, 2009

NORMATIVE THEORIES OF THE PRESS REVIEWED

MASS COMMUNICATION II

NORMATIVE THEORIES OF THE PRESS
Normative theory of the press explains how ideas to operate with a specific system of social values.It show how the press operated under the various political environments. Sieberts, Peterson, Schramm presented this in the book: FOUR THEORIES OF THE PRESS in 1963.
The normative theory of the press affirms how things should or ought to be, how to value them, which things are good or bad.
A theory, in the general sense of the word, is an analytic structure designed to explain a set of observations
Mass media do not operate in a vacuum. This assertion is generally agreed upon, and has led researches to study the relationship between mass media and the government.
The authoritarian theory
When the mass communication began in the sixteenth century, this theory developed quickly in Europe.
According to Siebert, the authoritarian state system requires direct governmental control of the mass media. This system is especially easy to recognize in pre-democratic societies, where the government consists of a very limited and small ruling-class. The media in an authoritarian system are not allowed to print or broadcast anything which could undermine the established authority, and any offense to the existing political values is avoided. The authoritarian government may go to the step of punishing anyone who questions the state's ideology
The fundamental assumption of the authoritarian system is that the government is infallible. Media professionals are therefore not allowed to have any independence within the media organization. Also foreign media are subordinate to the established authority, in that all imported media products are controlled by the state.
One may think that there is an inevitable parallel between the authoritarian media system and a totalitarian society. This is true for the most part, but a government may enforce a authoritarian profile without being openly totalitarian. A state that comes close to this media system today is Albania.
In the authoritarian theory system, the relationship between the state and the media in an authoritarian system is vertical, in that, the information is from the top (government) to down (media).
The libertarian theory
In his book, Siebert goes on to explain the libertarian theory, which is also called the free press theory. In contrast to the authoritarian theory, the libertarian view rests on the idea that the individual should be free to publish whatever he or she likes. Its history traces back to the 17th century's thinker John Milton, who asserted that human beings inevitably choose the best ideas and values. In the libertarian system, attacks on the government's policies are fully accepted and even encouraged. Moreover, there should be no restrictions on import or export of media messages across the national frontiers. Moreover, journalists and media professionals ought to have full autonomy within the media organization.
It is hard to find intact examples of libertarian media systems in today's world. The U.S. will in many aspects come close, but as we will see later, this country's media system has have tendencies of authoritarianism as well.
There is no explicit connection between the government and the media in the libertarian theory.
The Soviet theory
Apparent from its name, the Soviet theory is closely tied to a specific ideology; the communist. Siebert traces the roots of this theory back to the 1917 Russian Revolution based on the postulates of Marx and Engels. The media organizations in this system were not intended to be privately owned and were to serve the interests of the working class However, there is a major difference between the two theories that needs to be clarified: The mass media in the Soviet model are expected to be self-regulatory with regard to the content of their messages. Also, the Soviet theory differs from the authoritarian theory in that the media organizations have a certain responsibility to meet the wishes of their audience. Still, the underlying standard is to provide a complete and objective view of the world according to Marxist-Leninist principles. Today, the name of this theory is only of historical interest. Beginning in the mid-eighties and continuing after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia has performed a mass media model closer to the social responsibility principle. The clearest current example of the Soviet media theory is how the media function in China, where TV, radio, and newspapers are controlled by the communist government.
The social responsibility theory
An American initiative in the late forties brought forth the social responsibility theory. Realizing that the market had failed to fulfill the promise that press freedom would reveal the truth, The Commission on Freedom of the Press provided a model in which the media had certain obligations to society. These obligations were expressed in the words "in formativeness, truth, accuracy, objectivity, and balance. Siebert writes that the goal of the social responsibility system is that media as a whole is pluralized, indicating "a reflection of the diversity of society as well as access to various points of view".
As opposed to the libertarian theory, the social responsibility principle is to provide an entrance to different mass media to minority groups. The journalist is accountable to his audience as well as to the government.
Most media systems in Western Europe today come close to the social responsibility theory. An illustration of the theory puts the mass media and the government on the same level, signifying an interaction where both parts are allowed to criticize the other.

REFERENCE
Altschull, J. Herbert. Agents of Power: The Role of the News Media in Human Affairs. New York: Longman, 1984.
Biagi, Shirley. Media/Impact: An Introduction to Mass Media. Sacramento: Wadsworth, 1990.
Commission of Freedom of the Press. A Free and Responsible Press. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947.
Griffin, Em A. A First Look at Communication Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991.
Kamen, Jeff. "CNN's Breakthrough in Baghdad: Live by Satellite (Censored)." Washington Journalism Review March 1991: 24-27.
Lowenstein, Ralph L., and John C. Merrill. Macromedia: Mission, Message, and Morality. New York: Longman, 1990.
MacBride, S. et al. Many Voices, One World. London: Kogan Page, 1980.
Martin, Leslie John, and Arju Grover Chaudhary. Comparative Mass Media Systems. New York: Longman 1983.
McLeod, Jack M., and Jay G. Blumler. "The Macrosocial Level of Communication Science." Handbook of Communication Science. Ed. Charles R. Berger and Steven H. Chaffee. California: SAGE Publications, 1989. 271-322.
McQuail, Denis. Mass Communication Theory: An Introduction. London: SAGE Publications, 1987.
Rogers, Everett M. Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press, 1983.
Siebert, Frederick S., Theodore Peterson, and Wilbur Schramm. Four Theories of the Press. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1963
INTRODUCTION TO MASS COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA SYSTEMS IN GHANA(KOFI AMPONSAH-BEDIAKO

4 comments:

  1. WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER PRESS THEORIES

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  2. not elaborated with reference to the four theories .... only the definition of normative theory is available with a well defined note.

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