Modernization, Marginalization, and Emancipation: Toward a Normative Model of Journalism and National Development

Abstract

Pages: 143-166The idea of "development journalism," central to many discussions of mass communication and development in the Third World, needs to be reconceptualized because deliberations about its validity and usefulness have been bogged down in arguments structured by Western notions of press freedom. The debate has diverted attention from important questions about how journalism can contribute to participatory democracy, security, peace, and other humanistic values. This article argues that social transformations are deeply rooted in changing ideas and practices related to space and time. Thus, as background for reconceptualizing development journalism, the expectations and actual impacts of the dominant models of mass communication and development are analyzed, with particular attention to the relationships among mass communication, space, and time. Then the concept of emancipation is explicated and a normative model for "emancipatory journalism" is outlined. The model specifies an activist role within "new social movements" for journalism and journalists in the process of national development. The relationship between emancipatory journalism and social change is considered in the final section.

The Claims of Multiculturalism and Journalism’s Promise of Diversity

“…Thus, rather than conceptualizing journalism in relation to a unitary public sphere, segmented and targeted by newsrooms vying for their share of a lucrative market (Garmer, 2006; cf Gandy, 2001), a multicultural conception of journalism posits a range of publics whose discursive needs define the division of labor among newsrooms. Justice and journalism coalesce, then, in the conviction that the press, understood as a loose confederation of institutions, needs to provide for people who need it “spaces of withdrawal and regroupment,” which, in Fraser’s (1992, p. 124) intentionally subversive language, become “bases and training grounds for agitational activities directed toward wider publics.” Apart from its other roles, journalism’s “emancipatory potential,” to extrapolate from Fraser’s work and the work of others (e.g., Shah, 1996), resides in its ability to offset “the unjust participatory privileges enjoyed by members of dominant social groups in stratified societies” (Fraser, 1992, p. 124).…”

“…Justice and journalism coalesce, then, in the conviction that the press, understood as a loose confederation of institutions, needs to provide for people who need it ''spaces of withdrawal and regroupment,'' which, in Fraser's (1992, p. 124) intentionally subversive language, become ''bases and training grounds for agitational activities directed toward wider publics.'' Apart from its other roles, journalism's ''emancipatory potential,'' to extrapolate from Fraser's work and the work of others (e.g., Shah, 1996), resides in its ability to offset ''the unjust participatory privileges enjoyed by members of dominant social groups in stratified societies'' (Fraser, 1992, p. 124).…”

An appraisal of the applicability of development journalism in the context of public service broadcasting (PSB) This paper was presented during the South African Broadcasting Corporation's ‘News Content Planning’ workshop on 21 October 2006, held at the Birchwood Executive Hotel, in Boksburg, South Africa.

“…Lastly, both concepts seem to be infused with a concern for the development of societies in their entirety (see the definition of 'development news' offered by Shah [1996] above).…”

“…How, anyway, will AsgiSA undo a decade of the Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) programme? As noted by Shah (1996), development news would thus focus on how AsgiSA would meet the primary, secondary and tertiary needs of the people.…”

Corporate pressures on media: the case of a Chilean sports outlet

“…These two risks underlying development journalism imply an inherent contradiction: instead of contributing to a national and independent agenda, media is engaged with economic growth and CORPORATE PRESSURES ON MEDIA goals of power, as was the case in some African countries (XIAOGE, 2009;SHAH, 1996). In the Latin American case, this type of journalism was shaped by the dependence theory developed during the '60s and '70s.…”