Leading Theories in

Journalism
 Selected theories of Journalism
Totalitarian theory
Authoritarian theory
Development theory
Social responsibility theory
Libertarian theory
Democratic-participant / Democratization theory
 Totalitarian Theory
 Media is under the total control of the government.

 Totalitarian regimes establish complete political, social and cultural

control over their subjects, and are usually headed by charismatic leader.

 The government usually prioritize cultivation of a homogeneous, national

culture.

 Full control of the media by the dominant political party was seen as
essential to prevent deviant, disruptive views from being expressed by
enemies of the people.

 Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini coined the term totalitario in the early
1920s
 Totalitarian Theory
 The most relevant reflection for this theory was government of Germany
under Hitler, who used the media to propagate Hitler’s ideology through
his speeches on the Arian race and how to challenge the world.

 Hitler established of the German Ministry for Propaganda and Popular

Enlightenment in 1933. Joseph Goebbels, who served as a minister of
propaganda, told newsmen at his first press conference that the press
would always receive information from the ministry as well as guidance
to help explain to the public just what the government had in mind.

 The media, thus, became a tool of propaganda, to win the loyalty and
cooperation of Germans. Viewpoints in any way threatening to Nazi
beliefs or to the regime were censored or eliminated from all media.
 Totalitarian Theory
 Totalitarian theory of press still exists in North Korea.
o The state news agency, the Korean Central News Agency, provides
the only source of information for all media outlets.
o The government only allows speech that supports it and the ruling
party, the Workers' Party of Korea. all North Korean journalists must
be members of the Workers' Party.
o Approximately 90% of airtime on international news broadcasts in
North Korea is propaganda spent describing the publication of
works by Kim Jong-il
o Foreign newspapers are not sold on the streets of the capital.
o The general population of North Korea do not have internet access.
◦ Media mislead the North Korean public as to the outside world's
perceptions of the country.
 Authoritarian Theory
 All forms of communication are under the control of a governing elite or
authorities.

 Authorities justify their control as a means to protect and preserve the

social order.

 The press has to avoid any criticism to government officials or

established order.

 The state retains the right to punish journalists or close media outlets
that implicit limits on reporting.
 Authoritarian Theory
The government practice different types of censorship like
Political censorship, Moral censorship, Religious censorship,
Military censorship, Corporate censorship.

However, considerable freedom might exist to publicize minority

viewpoints and culture as long as authorities didn't perceive a
direct threat to their power.

Examples: Arab countries

The main difference between Totalitarian and Authoritarian
regimes is that the totalitarian controls all the media
outlets, while the authoritarian allows private media with a
small share of freedom.
 Development theory
Authoritarian for a good cause.
Applied in countries at lower levels of economic development and
with limited resources that takes various forms but essentially
proposes.
Media freedom under desirable conditions favoring the ones in
power.
It demands that most institutes should be subordinated of
necessity to the requirements of economic, social and political
development & nation building efforts.
 Development theory
The theory argues that unless a nation is well-established & economically developed, media must
be supportive rather than critical of government. Journalists must promote government
developmental policies, hence it recognizes the need for some form of government intervention into
the operation of media. It envisions setting up:
· Government agencies.
· Monitor training and licensing of media practitioners.
· Control development of media institutions.
· Regularly censor-media content before distribution.
· Issue regular guidelines for day-to-day operation of media

 The western press portray these non-democratic theories negatively as anti-democratic whatever
their potential merits.

 The
Chinese government, for instance, defends a market socialist approach to the media, which
combines limited market freedoms with continuing state control.
 Social Responsibility theory
 The underlying principle of the social responsibility theory is
that the press should be free to perform its functions but this
freedom should be exercised with responsibility towards the
people & the society.

 It helped in in setting a high level of professionalism.

The main tasks of press based on social responsibility are:

 Providing a truthful, accurate and comprehensive account of
the events & information in a context which gives them
meaning. (The social responsibility theory of mass media changed the
way press published news from simple objective reporting to
interpretative reporting )
 Social Responsibility theory
 Presenting and clarifying the goals and values of the society.
 Serving as a forum for exchanging comment and criticism.
 Improving the standards of journalism.
 Formulate the code of conduct for the press.
 Safeguarding the interests of journalism and journalist.
 Implementing penalties for violating the code of conduct.
 Acting as a tool for maintaining & achieving social
development.

In addition of its basic roles which are providing information,

enlightenment, serving as watchdog, entertainment.
 Social Responsibility theory
Examples of Social Responsibility theory
 Reports on health gives information and awareness about
health problems, symptoms, treatments…etc. (Virus C- bird
flu).
 Reporting on the performance of government institutions and
unveiling corruption.

 On the other hand, ads of cigarettes and alcohol are

considered to be misconduct according to the social
responsibility theory.
 Media can damage the reputation of some politicians and
political parties through irresponsible journalism, leading to
major conflicts in the society.
 Libertarian Theory
 Libertarian theory sees people are rational and their rational
thoughts can lead them to find out what are good and bad.

 Press audience are subjected to interpret and decide which

information they need and the authenticity of the information.

 They believed strongly in the power of unrestricted public

debate and discussion to create more natural way of raising
awareness and structuring society.

 Hence, the press shouldn’t be restricted. It shouldn’t censor

anything even a negative content may give knowledge and can
make better decision.
 Libertarian Theory
 This theory implies the idea of 'free marketplace of ideas’; ideas are
'traded' freely among people, the correct or best ideas will be bought,
thus will prevail.

 In other words, if a journalist comes up with a good idea and then

transmits it through media and people like the message, They will
buy the message, pay for its production and distribution costs. Once
these costs are covered, the message producer earns a profit.

 Ifpeople are wise message consumers, then the producers of the best
and most useful messages will become rich and develop large media
enterprises while the producers of bad messages will fail. If good
ideas succeed these ideas should become more easily available at
lower cost. Similarly bad ideas cost should rise and access to them
should lessen.
 Libertarian Theory
 The press, left to its own devices, will represent diverse
voices and hold government accountable, but the only
requirement for the press is to pursue its own economic
interests.

Examples: US- UK
 Media outlets republishes wikileaks documents that contain
all sorts of confidential or restricted information. They
provide knowledge about governmental misconducts,
corruption in different fields …etc. with the purpose of
informing people and leading them to make conscious
decisions.
 Democratic-participant Theory
 The idea of Democratic participant theory was started by grass-
root level media in 1960s.

 It emerged because of the dissatisfaction with other models such

as Libertarian theory, social responsibility theory, etc. because of
their failure to achieve social benefit anticipated for them. Plus the
fact that the concentration of media doesn’t most probably result
in diversified content.

 The democratic-participant theory believes there is a professional

hegemony in the media today and the media is totally centralized
in the hands of the huge conglomerates (CBS Corporation,
Gannett Company Inc., Walt Disney, Viacom, Time Warner
Inc. ..etc.) and is becoming totally commercial.
 Democratic-participant Theory
 The democratic-participant theory considers there should not be monopolization (public/private),
centralization or top down approach in the press.

 The press should be pluralistic, decentralized, bottom-up or horizontal and must have equality (equal
access to media).

 It proposes that the media should propagate, support and promote the views and opinions of individuals.

 It emphasized the need for equal and unhindered access regardless of their status, wealth, and position.

 The theory suggests replacement big media houses with small media & believes in reviving local
cultures by promoting the right to information (global and local), right to express (feedback), right to
use new technologies, freedom to local data, freedom to take part in social action, etc. regardless the
economic profit.
 Democratic-participant Theory
 The examples of democratic-participant theory are the present
concepts of community newspapers, radios and televisions in some
countries such as UK, US, Nepal, India …etc.

 Another main is the social media, with all what it the offers to people
to have full control over the ideas and views they share with the
world.

 That’s way it is considered, in a way, the technological version of the

libertarian theory.