Normative Media Theory Research Articles

An Experiment on the Press Coverage of Child Sexual Abuse: Can Readers Differentiate Between Good and Bad Reporting?

ABSTRACT News reporting on child sexual abuse (CSA) plays an important role in educating the public and fighting sexual violence, according to the public interest model of normative media theory. Bad reporting, however, is widespread and hinders a solution-oriented approach. Against this backdrop, the current study investigated which normative and subjective criteria are used by readers when they assess the quality of CSA newspaper reporting (RQ1). Furthermore, it was tested if readers can differentiate between good and bad CSA reporting quality (RQ2) and if their personal involvement in the topic—concerning victimization, exposure to CSA reporting, CSA knowledge—influences assessments of journalistic quality (RQ3). An experimental online study with a national quota sample of N = 2724 adults (18–65 years; M age = 44.1; 52.5% women) from Germany was conducted in 2020. The study is preregistered and further materials are shared on osf.io. It turned out that readers mostly used the normative criteria to assess CSA reporting quality that are suggested by the academic literature (RQ1). Readers were able to differentiate between CSA reporting with high versus low journalistic quality (RQ2)—irrespective of their own CSA victimization (RQ3). Readers rated bad reporting as mediocre, though, indicating potential unawareness of certain quality issues.

Normative Theories of Mass Media: PMPD Perspective

In line with Marxist notions regarding the functioning of mass media, Madan Bhandari’s notion of People’s Multiparty Democracy (PMPD) deviates from the legacy of the Soviet communist theory of the press. Although Bhandari has not extensively expounded on media operations, his writings reflect a trajectory toward the establishment of a society built on freedom of expression. As the former Spokesperson and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN [UML]), Bhandari’s ideas, thoughts, and aspirations resonated with the Nepali public following the People’s Movement of 1990. During this relatively brief period, Bhandari effectively communicated his message by incorporating elements of Marxism. Bhandari expressed himself through large-scale public gatherings, mass media interviews, and party documents, including the PMPD, which was overwhelmingly adopted by the Fifth National General Convention of the CPN (UML) in February 1993. This paper, employing qualitative and constructivist approaches, concludes that PMPD contains the seeds of a normative theory that envisions a free media environment conducive to plurality, as well as political competition that is both free and healthy in society. Bhandari consistently advocated for plurality and media.

Peran Jurnalisme Media Sosial dalam Mewujudkan Demokrasi Indonesia di Era Post Truth

Social Media is one of the public spaces for discussing and participating in politics to realize democracy. However, social media also has a weakness in disseminating hoaxes, misinformation, and exposing the Post Truth phenomenon that threatens the sustainability of democracy in Indonesia. The Normative Media Theory suggests that a media should (1) guarantee freedom of opinion, (2) convey information and know the truth, (3) be independent and reduce the interests of media owners, (4) have a variety of information available to the public, (5) reach out to the public. broadly various audiences, (6) supports a democratic political system, (7) and respects the privacy and human rights in general. This study investigates the role of KompasTV social media in realizing democracy in the post-truth era as a form of social media journalism. The research method used is descriptive qualitative with data collection in the form of observations and interviews. From the results of the research, it was found that KompasTV social media journalism upholds aspects of the Normative Media Theory perspective by prioritizing news value, verification, and fact-checking to ward off and avoid hoaxes, due to important and interesting things for the community. However, as a media that plays in the realm of social media, KompasTV in the pre-election period used SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Trending Topics, and viral issues in its journalistic production to increase views. Meanwhile, during the election period, KompasTV social media put forward the principle of balance.

Understanding Islamic Republic of Iran’s Media Policy: A Concentration on Regulations and Laws

ABSTRACT Iran’s media policy is one of the most complicated media policies around the world. The Islamic rules and ideologies and the principle of the Islamic Revolution are the foundations of Iran’s media policy. The Iranian media policy and its regulations are changed through the last two centuries and it is adapted according to the advent of new media and new political situations. There are different regulations and laws including the press, broadcasting, satellite and cyberspace. The challenges of new media have enforced the government to make new media policies. This article analyzes Iran’s media policy in the framework of the normative theories of media and uses the documentary method to show how the advent of new media and communication technologies and political situations has changed media regulations and laws in Iran. As Iran’s media policy and media regulating system is a unique model in the world, a synthesizing perspective of the six media normative theories can explain Iran’s media regulating system, while it has more similarities to the social responsibility theory.

Media Coverage of Child Sexual Abuse: A Framework of Issue-Specific Quality Criteria

ABSTRACTSensationalist, stereotyping or otherwise biased media coverage of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) can harm survivors and is detrimental to rational, solution-oriented public debates on the issue. While the Public Interest Model (PIM) of normative media theory promotes generic quality dimensions, there currently is no framework of issue-specific media quality for reporting about CSA. This paper aims at developing such a framework, working deductively with PIM and inductively with different expert sources regarding quality criteria (QC) for CSA reporting. Our data collection covered four types of expert sources: journalistic guidelines, scientific publications, surveys with survivors and with counseling centers. All sources were content analyzed using reliable codebooks (κ = .79–1.00). Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were run. We present a framework comprised of 10 QC. Eight inductively generated QC for CSA media coverage are (1) thematic framing, (2) non-sensational reporting, (3) use of appropriate terms, (4) inclusion of stakeholders, (5) non-stereotypical reporting, (6) inclusion of prevention/intervention, (7) ethical treatment of survivors in interviews and (8) lawful reporting. Two deductively generated QC are (9) balance of survivors’ and alleged perpetrators’ interests and (10) disclosure and reflection of official sources. Limitations and implications for future media research and journalistic practice are discussed.

Considering the Marginalisation of Majority Groups: Injecting Subaltern Studies Insights into Normative Media Theory

ABSTRACTIn 2014, the failure of South African mainstream media to anticipate the African National Congress retaining its electoral majority despite numerous scandals inspired a brief period of soul-searching. Two years later, failure by American and British mainstream media to discern the loyalties of their respective majorities prompted a similar reaction when both groups failed to track Donald Trump winning the US election and the Brexit vote. The surprise electoral gains made by the unfancied Labour Party a year later provided another major example of the gap between the media and the general populace. These events gave strong evidence of the disconnect between the media, its current normative models, and ordinary citizens. This paper furthers a radical critique of the mainstream media that argues the sector is out of touch. In order to reverse the current trajectory, the argument advanced is that a discussion of roles of the media or normative theory needs to be cognisant of the missing voice of subaltern groups. Using a combination of subaltern and postcolonial theory, the article recommends that in order to comprehend the role the media should play in the future of the country; the context lived by silent majority must be factored in.

Normative media theory in the digital media landscape: from media ethics to ethical communication

ABSTRACTIn this article it is postulated that normative media theory has lost its heuristic value in the new digital media landscape with its ensuing mediatisation of life, society and the world. The reason for this is that normative media theory is based on the principles of media ethics which are mainly concerned with journalism. In the new media landscape the media involves far more than journalism and journalism as the cognitive paradigm for current thinking about media. The media has infiltrated almost every aspect of human communication, it is omnipresent and pervasive. For this reason the principles of ethical communication instead of media ethics are proposed as being more appropriate for normative media theory. This proposition is expanded in the rest of the article with a discussion of “traditional” normative theory as a yardstick for the measurement of ethical media practice and performance against the appropriateness and applicability of “traditional” normative theory in the digital media landscape. Outstanding features of the new media landscape, including the move from mass communication to network communication, and the emphasis on interactivity and interconnectivity contributing to the conversion of the media user into a media producer, are discussed, and presented as a motivation for the proposition to move from media ethics to communication ethics as the epistemological foundation of “new” normative theory.

Linking normative theory to media policy-making: A case study of Kenya

Abstract The Kenyan media landscape has transformed considerably in the period starting in the early part of the 1990s. This change is largely attributed to liberalization of the social economic and political context. This period of expansion has at the same time seen various efforts by the government and its agencies to control and regulate the media landscape. The electronic media sector has been the most affected, with laws being proposed and passed by parliament to enable greater control by government of the expanding communication sector. However, these efforts have always been met with opposition from owners of media institutions in the country, academics and civil society. It is against this backdrop of change and transformation that this article seeks to argue the role of normative media theory in shaping and guiding the policy debate in Kenya. This is done against the background of acknowledging the general flux that characterizes normative media theory in a postmodern, globalized and new media landscape such as Kenya’s.

Kommunikasiekunde in Suid-Afrika: die begin, die hede en uitdagings vir die toekoms

Communication science in South Africa: the beginnings, the present and challenges for the future This article is based on the Gert Pienaar Commemorative Lec-ture given by the author of this article on 27 August 2009 at the North-West University, Potchefstroom. The late Professor Gert Pienaar founded communication science (then Press Science) in South Africa, fifty years ago. Apart from acknowledging his contribution, the purpose of the lecture and of this article is to briefly outline the main research paradigms which have guided South African mass communication research the past fifty years, namely the positivist (or managerial) paradigm and the critical paradigm. It is argued that normative questions about the role and functions of the media in society underlie these paradigms. Against the background of new paradigms such as the postmodern and postcolonial paradigms (of which the basic tenets are also outlined) the applicability and relevance of old normative media theory in a new society and in a new media landscape (briefly described) are questioned and the Western prejudice of “old” normative theory is highlighted. With this in mind, four research areas for future South African mass com-munication research are emphasised, namely fundamental new media research, development communication research from an African perspective, communications policy research, and the indigenisation of mass communication theory.

Ubuntuism as a framework for South African media practice and performance: Can it work?

In South Africa the African moral philosophy ubuntuism is periodically raised as a framework for African normative media theory. At this stage, the ubuntu discourse cannot be described as a focused effort to develop a comprehensive theory on the basis of which media performance could be measured from ‘an African perspective’. It should rather be seen as an intellectual quest to rediscover and re-establish idealised values of traditional African culture(s) and traditional African communities. Yet, given South Africa's history of apartheid in which Christian nationalism was misused as a moral philosophy to mobilise a patriotic media in the service of volk (nationhood) and vaderland (fatherland), it is not too early to ask critical questions about ubuntuism as a possible framework for normative media theory. Such questioning is the purpose of this article. Against the background of postmodern and postcolonial perspectives on normative theory, questions related to the following are raised: the expediency of ubuntuism in the context of changed African cultural values, the distinctiveness of ubuntuism as an African moral philosophy, the vulnerability of moral philosophy to political misuse, ubuntuism in the context of the future of normative theory in a globalised world and changed media environment, and the implications of ubuntuism for journalism practice. It is concluded that ubuntuism may pose a threat to freedom of expression. Given the nature of contemporary South African society and its media system, the postmodern emphasis on diversity and pluralism as the cornerstone of future normative theory, is supported.

Moral philosophy as the foundation of normative media theory: The case of African Ubuntuism

Abstract In the South African debate about the role of the media in the new (post-apartheid) South African society, the African moral philosophy ubuntuism is from time to time raised as a framework for African normative media theory. Up till now, the possibility of using ubuntuism as a normative framework can, however, not yet be described as a focused effort to develop a comprehensive theory on the basis of which media performance could be measured from ‘an African perspective’. Rather, the topic of ubuntuism as normative media theory should be seen in the context of the African Renaissance as part of an intellectual quest to rediscover and re-establish idealized values of traditional African culture(s) and communities and to apply it to contemporary phenomena such as the media. However, given South Africa's history of apartheid in which Christian nationalism was misused as a moral philosophy to mobilize a patriotic media in the service of volk and vaderland, it is not too early to ask critical questions about ubuntuism as a possible framework for normative media theory. Such questioning is the purpose of this article. Against the background of a postmodern and a postcolonial perspective on normative theory, questions related to the following are raised: the expediency of ubuntuism in the context of changed African cultural values, the distinctiveness of ubuntuism as an African moral philosophy, the vulnerability of moral philosophy to political misuse, ubuntuism in the context of the future of normative theory in a globalized world and changed media environment, and, the implications of ubuntuism for journalism practice. It is concluded that ubuntuism may pose a threat to freedom of expression. Given the nature of contemporary South African society and its media system, a postmodern emphasis on diversity and pluralism as the cornerstone of future normative theory is supported.

Towards linking normative theory, communication policy and audiences in South African communication research

In this article the need to revisit South African normative media theory and communication policy against the background of fundamental audience research is emphasised. This is done in view of the postmodemist argument that ‘classic’ normative media theory is no longer suitable as a yardstick for the measurement of media performance, quality and ethics in postmodern societies, in a changing media landscape. Bearing in mind that South Africa cannot be fully characterised as a postmodernist and advanced capitalist society, but based on the nature of its First World media system functioning in a multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic society, the tendency to see ubuntuism as a point of departure for such revision is questioned. This is done in favour of an approach in which difference and diversity are acknowledged, including the different roles the media can play and the different forms in which it can (and do) contribute to social responsibility. As far as policy research is concerned, it is emphasised that such research should be based on normative theory about the role of the media in South African society. If not, South African communication policy will continue to be fragmented and responsive to mainly technological developments and opportunities, instead of being based on communicative goals and needs. This article concludes by emphasising that both normative theory and policy should be based on fundamental audience research, which is argued to be neglected in South African communication research.

The Role of News Media in European Integration : A Framework of Analysis for Political Science

The pbenomenon of European integration has received a great deal ofattention from political scientists in the wake of the mid-1980s 'relaunch' ofthe European Union (EU). However, political science's theoretical consideration of West European integration has from the outset failed to include news media as a factor in EU politics. This oversight is linked to the general dismissal of the public and public debate as irrelevant to the integration project. Yet because media have several critical functions in politics - as an information-source, agendasetter, and legitimator - political science treatment of the EU now needs to account for the role of news media. Turning to concepts in normative media theory, the article proposes a framework within which to consider media and suggests empirical analysis of media coverage of the European Union. Such analysis would complement political science study of the democratisation and legitimation of the EU, while acknowledging public discourse as an element crucial to the future course of European integration.