Normative media theories: the media in the new democracies

Abstract

The political changes which occurred in Central and Eastern Europe in the last decade of the 20th century resulted in introducing democratic systems to replace authoritarian regimes. The political transformation in the region affected also freedom of speech and leeway for the media. The transformation was of an evolutionary nature, preceded by discussions and disputes over the future form of the media. At the initial stage of the changes, strict state control was required, as the government was responsible for the success of the democratic changes. Following the overthrow of the authoritarian regimes, a need emerged for sorting out the legal and institutional basis of a free media intended to be established on the basis of state-owned media, fully controlled by the political authorities and in fact assuming a single role, namely that of a propaganda machine. Normative theories of the media have become the starting point, as a collection of ideas and postulates stating that the media’s mode of operation should facilitate socially desirable values. Discussions of the legal, institutional, functional as well as personal solutions related to the mass media in the new democracies referred to observations and agreements among researchers who came from systems with long democratic traditions. This paper revolves around the relation between the media and democracy, and argues that the theory of the media’s social responsibility and the democratic-participant theory were the major source of inspiration for the participants of the debates about the future form of the mass media in the emerging democracies. It is worth noticing that these theories represent not only slightly different opinions on the role of the media in a democracy but they also reflect the differences in understanding the essence of democracy.