NORMATIVE THEORIES OF MEDIA PERFORMANCE

Media Society linkages

The media are both a product and also a reflection of the history of their own society and have played a part in it. Normative Theory deals with ideas of how media ought to, or a re expected to operate. Structure concerns such matters as freedom from the state or the multiplicity of independent channels Performance refers to the manner in which the media carry out their chosen informative or entertaining tasks.

The status of normative Theory

Normative Media Theory still has a rather uncertain and contested position within the field of communication science, partly because it leads inevitably into questions of ideology, politics, law or ethics, which are not easy to deal with a scientific way, according to dominant paradigm Normative issues are often dealt with descriptively under such headings as communication policy, media law, or professional ethics, wich allow some distancing from value Judgments.

Social Responsibility theory

The media have obligations to society, and media ownership is a public trust News Media should be truthful, accurate, fair, objective and relevant The media should provide a forum for ideas Media should follow agreed codes of ethics and professional standards Under some circumstances, society may need to intervene in the public interest

Media codes of conduct

Journalistic ethics truth and accuracy Impartiality and fairness Respect for individual Privacy Independence from Vested Interest Responsibility to society and the public good Respect for law Moral decency and good taste

The public broadcasting idea

Universal service Diversity Editorial independence Social responsibility and accountability Cultural quality and identity Public financing and or non profit operation

Freedom of expression and freedom of property

In many contexts, press freedom has become identified with property rights and has been taken to mean the right to own and use means of publication without restraint or interference from government. Freedom to publish is, accordingly, seen as property right that will safeguard as much diversity as exists and is expressed by free consumers bringing their demands to the market place. The dilemma has been expressed as a conflict between a negative and a positive or affirmative concept of press freedom. The first sees press freedom as simply absence of restraint, the second endows it with some purposes and benefits beyond those that accrue to owners of the Press.

Glasser writes : From the perspective of negative conception of freedom, the press is under no obligation to extend its liberty or to accommodate the liberty of others. Press freedom and press responsibility, it follows, stand on opposite ends of a continuum, because responsibility ordinarily involves accountability, and because the essence of libertarianism is the denial of obligation, a responsible press is regarded as a contradiction in terms. Further the tyranny of private transactions poses as much of a threat to individual liberty as the tyranny of government regulation

 In most countries, in any case, the media do not constitute any single system, with a single purpose or philosophy, but are composed of many separate, overlapping, often inconsistent elements, with appropriate differences of normative expectation and actual regulation.

Issues for social theory of the media

The main different issues on which controversy has centred, as follows: Concentration and monopoly, if nothing else, concentration seemed to spell a loss of political choice for the reader, reduced opportunities for access to media channels and generally, reduced media diversity (Picard) News quality : The press is often accused of sensationalism and superficiality, of omission, in accuracy and even falsification and lying Security and social order : the media are often thought to have a responsibility not to undermine the social order in any fundamental or violent way Morals and decency : There has been a continued debate in many countries over another issues of control that concerning morals, decency and portrayals of matters to do with pornographic sex, crime and violence.

 Commercialism : Commercialization has been associated with manipulation, consumerism, lack of integrity and lack of originality and creativity Cultural autonomies and integrity The problem of cultural dependency is most acute for poorest, less developed countries, which are under the influence of a foreign media flow for other reasons

 Media freedom : Connection between structural conditions (Legal freedom to transmit / publish, operating conditions (real independence from economic and political pressures and relative autonomy for journalists and other communicators within media organizations, opportunities for voices in society to gain access to channels, and benefits of quality of provision for receivers, according to criteria of relevance, diversity, reliability, interests, originality, and personalsatisfaction

Principles of structure and performance : an interpretative overview

Freedom requirements
(very clearly) absence of censorship, licensing or other controls by government so that there is an unhindered right to publish and disseminate news and opinions and no obligation to publish what one does not wish to (Also clearly) the equal right and possibility for citizens of free reception of and access to) news, views, education and culture ( this is part of what has come to be known as a right to communicate (less clearly) absence of concealed influence from media owners or advertisers on news selection and on opinions expressed (desirable but optional) an active and critical editorial policy in presenting news and opinion and creative, innovative, and independent publishing policy in respect of art and culture.

potential conflicts and inconsistencies

There are several embedded potential conflicts and inconsistencies in these requirements : freedom of public communication can never be absolute but has to recognize limits sometimes set by the private interests of others or by the higher collective good of a society conflict of interests between owners or controllers of media channels and those who might want access the channels but have no power (or legal right) to secure it (either as senders or receivers) there may be an imbalance between what communicators want to say and what others want to hear : the freedom of another to choose. it may be necessary for government or public power to intervene to secure some freedoms which are not, in practice, delivered by the unfettered systems

Benefits of media freedom

Press independence is also a precondition of the exercise of the watchdog role free media will be prepared, when necessary, to offend the powerful, express controversial views and deviate from convention and from the commonplace