Submitted by Vasti Diniz (vastijpa@hotmail.com) on 2017-09-21T12:38:54Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1627407 bytes, checksum: d523b4c6a47492019eeb8b627dafac15 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-21T12:38:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1627407 bytes, checksum: d523b4c6a47492019eeb8b627dafac15 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-16 / The research makes a relation of Public Journalism, in the mold of the movement started in the USA in the 1990s, with the experience of journalism received by the Communications Department of the Court of Justice of Paraíba, specifically, based on a study done in the project "Justice In Her Neighborhood - Woman Deserves Respect ", idealized to discuss with the communities guidelines on domestic violence against women, in the parameter of the Maria da Penha Law. It is a research of an exploratory nature, whose objective was to analyze the procedures adopted by the Board of Directors in the coverage of the project, in parallel to the traditional journalistic means. In the study we emphasize the relationship of Public Journalism with the experiences lived in our country, which in practice reveal a conception of what becomes Public Journalism. The crisis of journalism in the late twentieth century and the advent of the internet, a vector in the introduction of new media, have brought strong appeals in interactivity and in the spread of social networks. These transformations opened possibilities in the market, proximity and reflections in theories. They accelerated the day-to-day information and valued the sources. The research concluded that there are criteria of Public Journalism in the object of study, although they are self-localized, but they reveal a growing trend of professionalism of journalists working in the public sector and that these sectors need to be reorganized and structured to meet journalism expectations. / A pesquisa faz uma relação do Jornalismo Público, nos moldes do movimento iniciado nos EUA na década de 1990, com a experiência desse modo de fazer jornalismo recepcionada pela Diretoria de Comunicação do Tribunal de Justiça da Paraíba, especificamente, a partir de um estudo feito no projeto “Justiça em Seu Bairro – Mulher Merece Respeito”, idealizado para debater junto às comunidades pautas relativas à violência doméstica contra a mulher, no parâmetro da Lei Maria da Penha. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de natureza exploratória, e que teve como objetivo de estudo analisar os procedimentos adotados pela Diretoria na cobertura do projeto, num paralelo aos meios jornalísticos tradicionais. No estudo enfatizamos a relação do Jornalismo Público com as experiências vividas em nosso país, que se revelam na prática uma concepção própria do que vem a ser Jornalismo Público. A crise do jornalismo no final do século XX e o advento da internet, vetor na introdução de novas mídias, trouxeram apelos fortes na interatividade e na propagação das redes sociais. Essas transformações abriram possibilidades no mercado, proximidade e reflexões nas teorias. Aceleraram as informações do dia-a-dia e valorizaram as fontes. A pesquisa concluiu que há critérios do Jornalismo Público no objeto de estudo, embora próprios do jornalismo do Brasil, mas reveladores de uma crescente vertente de profissionalização dos jornalistas que atuam no setor público e que esses setores precisam ser reorganizados e estruturados para atender às expectativas jornalismo.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:17:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ayne Regina Goncalves Salviano.pdf: 31293657 bytes, checksum: a688eabb3fe33be30059bd222260ede9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-04-17 / This dissertation aims to analyze the adoption of civic journalism, called citizen journalism in this study, as a way to practice the regional journalism on weekly periodicals on small towns in the interior of São Paulo. Will be study this new type of journalism - which is characterized by the existence and maintenance of a social link between the communication vehicle and the readers, thematicing the problems of a community to its residents being able to resolve them - to investigate if (and in wich ways) this new formula contribute to the increase of the capacity of society to deal with collective problems and in which measure this editorial line of the periodical can be considered a communicacional strategy with the publical readers and advertisers. The justification for this work is in the need to seek other alternatives to hegemonic journalism. At the same time, find another ways for marketing outlets for small periodical businesses that is suffering competition, including the internet. This is a case study of the Journal of Jales weekly printed that circulated on sundays in Jales city, in northwestern of São Paulo State - from three actions mediated by it: the creation of the House of Culture, a collection of 96 issues of the MEMORY Project and a series of 12 editorials entitled Wake-up, Jales! which tried to awake the readers for a need to create a spirit of colletive citizenship able to help in solving local problems. Those materials were published between October 1971, date of foundation of the newspaper, and December 2006, beginning of this research. Using conceptual keys built in works of Algirdas Julien Greimas, Cicília Maria Krohling Peruzzo, Ciro Marcondes Filho, Clóvis Rossi, José Marques de Melo and Sylvia Moretzsohn, among other researchers, it was possible to examine the actions of the Journal of Jales. The journal stablished a fiducia contract with the readers, which resulted in a pact of social responsibility, concept studied from authors such as Alzira Alves de Abreu, Antonio Hohlfeldt, Carlos Álvarez Teijeiro, Carlos Castilho, Jan Schaffer, Luiz Martins da Silva, Márcio Ronaldo Santos Fernandes, Marialva Barbosa, Murilo César Soares and Nelson Traquina, among others. The objective of this work is to analyze that set theory of actions mediated by the Journal of Jales, which feature a local society for a duty to do- to solve their problems. Will be examine how the enunciator shows such actions in specific communication contracts and will be realize a critical thematic frameworks. The fundamental thesis advocated in this research, from the case study, the Journal of Jales, is that with the citizen journalism is possible to improve the editorial line of these communication vehicles and establish new communication strategies along with the public / Esta dissertação tem por objetivo analisar a adoção do civic journalism, denominado jornalismo cidadão neste estudo, como forma de se praticar o jornalismo regional em periódicos semanais de pequenas cidades do interior de São Paulo. Estudaremos este novo modelo de jornalismo - que se caracteriza pela existência e manutenção de um vínculo social entre o veículo de comunicação e os leitores, tematizando os problemas de uma comunidade para que seus moradores sejam capazes de resolvê-los - para investigar se (e de que modos) esta nova fórmula contribui para o aumento da capacidade da sociedade de lidar com os problemas coletivos, e em que medida esta linha editorial do periódico pode ser considerada uma estratégia comunicacional junto aos públicos leitor e anunciante. A justificativa para este trabalho encontra-se na necessidade de se buscar outras alternativas ao jornalismo hegemônico. Ao mesmo tempo, busca encontrar saídas mercadológicas para pequenas empresas de comunicação que sofrem com a concorrência inclusive da internet. Este é um estudo de caso do Jornal de Jales - impresso semanal que circula aos domingos na cidade de Jales, no noroeste paulista - a partir de três ações mediadas por ele: a criação da Casa de Cultura, a coleção de 96 fascículos do Projeto MEMÓRIA e uma série de 12 editoriais intitulados Acorda, Jales!, que procurou despertar os leitores para a necessidade de criação de um espírito da cidadania coletivo capaz de ajudar na resolução dos problemas locais. Todas estas matérias foram publicadas entre outubro de 1971, data de fundação do jornal, a dezembro de 2006, início desta pesquisa. Utilizando chaves conceituais construídas em obras de Algirdas Julien Greimas, Cicília Maria Krohling Peruzzo, Ciro Marcondes Filho, Clóvis Rossi, José Marques de Melo e Sylvia Moretzsohn, entre outros pesquisadores, foi possível examinar as ações do Jornal de Jales . O destinador estabeleceu um contrato de fidúcia com os destinatários que resultou em um pacto de responsabilidade social, conceito estudado a partir de autores como Alzira Alves de Abreu, Antônio Hohlfeldt, Carlos Álvarez Teijeiro, Carlos Castilho, Jan Schaffer, Luiz Martins da Silva, Márcio Ronaldo Santos Fernandes, Marialva Barbosa, Murilo César Soares e Nelson Traquina, entre outros. O objetivo do trabalho é analisar tal conjunto de ações mediadas pelo Jornal de Jales que se propunham a modalizar a sociedade local para um dever fazer-resolver seus problemas. Examinaremos como o enunciador apresenta tais ações em contratos comunicacionais específicos e realizaremos a crítica dos enquadramentos temáticos. A tese fundamental defendida nessa pesquisa, a partir do estudo de caso do Jornal de Jales, é que com o jornalismo cidadão é possível melhorar a linha editorial desses veículos de comunicação e estabelecer novas estratégias comunicacionais junto ao público

The literature on the use of public journalism suggests that it can lead to different news coverage than is traditionally provided by the news media. Specifically, these differences have been identified in story content, use of different sources and use of mobilising information. This thesis asks whether such differences can be identified in newspapers’ coverage of the 2001 Local Body Elections in New Zealand. The research involved content analysis of New Zealand’s six largest daily newspapers, three of them with experience of using public journalism and three with no such experience. Interviews were also conducted with two or three senior journalists involved in organising each paper’s election campaign in order to explore their goals for the election coverage and evaluation of it. The results mirror those of previous research by showing significant differences in the coverage of the newspapers with public journalism experience in relation to some factors, but not others. The papers with a public journalism background consistently used more non-elite sources than the traditional papers, but did not consistently use more female sources. They also included mobilising information in stories more frequently and made greater use of story features, or “elements”, associated with public journalism. However, one of the papers with no experience of public journalism also ranked highly in relation to these two factors. The interviews revealed some differences in goals among the journalists, but this was not a simple split between the journalists on papers with public journalism experience and the other journalists. For example, not all interviewees working for the papers experienced in using public journalism agreed that their goal should be to boost voter turnout. Nor was an overt commitment to supporting the democratic process expressed only by staff on the papers with public journalism experience. The interviews did, however, identify that only the three newspapers with a public journalism background used polling to identify the issues that were important to the public and proceeded to cover these issues during their election campaign

Wikileaks is using the new technical solutions to mount big leaks, consisting of secret or sensitive information from the government, institutions and business. This might profoundly change the media reality and it certainly means both new opportunities and new challenges for traditional media; the conditions for the journalists, the sources and the news reporting are changing. In this thesis the relationship between Swedish journalists and Wikileaks has been the focus; they both affect each other but the conditions for this relationship is not yet clear. Clearly there is an interdependence, but who really is dependent on the other and to which degree they are dependent on each other is still a question without a given answer. The aim of this thesis has been to discern a new journalism, and how this responds to the theories of Public Journalism and Journalistik 3.0. The main aim has been to examine what Swedish journalist thinks about Wikileaks, what their attitude towards Wikileaks are,  if and how they think that Wikileaks have affected the Swedish journalism. The aim has also been to look at journalism and Wikileaks today and see if it can be said that they are influenced by Public Journalism or Journalism 3.0. To examine this a qualitative study have been used: ten journalists from four of Sweden’s largest newspapers have answered a list of questions. The answers then have been analyzed and compared to Public Journalism and Journalistik 3.0, these theories have been chosen with the help of John Pavliks thoughts about the technical development affect on journalism, and these are aslo used in the analyze. To put the analyze in context and give a understanding for why the aim of the thesis and the questions asked are relevant the first part of the thesis gives a background to journalism, the technical development and the Internet and how they have affected each other. As said this gives context to the empiric, but it is also used in the analyze and in the results, to answer the questions asked. The conclusions that could be drawn from this study is that Swedish journalists have a generally positive attitude to Wikileaks, especially concerning Wikileaks basic idea. They think it is positive that the organization is making it easier to access information that has been secret or sensitive and could help them reveal anomalies. But there is some cautions, concerning the big mass of information published and the scrutiny and screening this material is in need of, something that is expensive. The journalists do not think that Wikileaks yet have affected the journalism in any profound way; they say that the news production and the way they work still is the same. But the organization has shed light on shortcomings in how media is handling sources with digital information. Wikileaks also have caused the launch of other whistleblower-sights. In the future journalists might have a more filtering and screening role, and investigative journalism might be done from behind the desk. Special workgroups might work only with material from Wikileaks and other whistleblower-sights and cooperation between these organizations and journalists might become more frequent. Because Wikileaks allows the audience access to the source material they give the audience more power to influence the news reporting, it might also result that the source material more frequently is being published with the news articles. Regarding Public Journalism and the journalists it could be said that they, at least to some extent, have a similar view at the journalism as Public Journalism. Wikileaks can be seen as an expression of Public Journalism, as they counter too many of the ideals and cornerstones in the theory. Wikileaks also counter a lot of the characteristics found in Journalistik 3.0. According to the answers provided by the journalists it also could be said that a new journalism in large measure up to the characteristics in Journalistik 3.0.  Author: Emma Lavesson  Tutor: Anne-Marie Morhed Aim: The main aim of this thesis has been to examine what Swedish journalists think about Wikileaks, what their attitude towards Wikileaks are, if and how journalists think that Wikileaks have affected the Swedish journalism. The aim has also been to look at journalism and Wikileaks today and see if it can be said that they are influenced by Public Journalism or Journalism 3.0 Method and Material: One qualitative study has been used; a list of questions has been sent to ten different journalists from Sweden’s four biggest newspapers.  The result from this list of questions then have been analyzed and compared to Public Journalism and Journalistik 3.0, theories of the public sphere and sources access or coverage also is used in the analyze. These theories have been chosen with the help of John Pavliks thoughts about how the technical development are affecting the journalism, and his thoughts are also being used in the analyze. To put the study in context a background of journalism, the technical development and the Internet is presented, and this is also used in the analyze and the result. Main results: Swedish journalists have a generally positive attitude to Wikileaks, especially concerning Wikileaks basic idea, the organisation give the journalist easier access to information that hve been bescret or sensitive and that could help them reveal anomilies. The journalists do not think that the organization have affected the journalism in any profound way. But the organisation has shed light on shortcomings in how the media is handeling sources with digital information and caused the launch of other whistleblower-sights. In the future the journalists might have a more filtering and screening role, and investigative journalism might be done from behind the desk. Special workgroups might work only with material from Wikileaks and other whistleblower-sights and cooperation between these organizations and journalists might become more frequent. Regarding Public Journalism and the journalists it could be said that they, at least to some extent, have a similar view at the journalism as Public Journalism. Wikileaks can be seen as an expression of Public Journalism, as they counter too many of the ideals and cornerstones in the theory. Wikileaks also counter a lot of the characteristics found in Journalistik 3.0.

The key approach of this thesis is to define closer discourse and importance of civic engagement in the media from the point of view of journalistic practice. This study examines trends of citizen journalism and community media that support active citizen participation and contribute to diversity of media content. The vision of traditional journalism disruption and enforcement of news agenda focusing on public interest became the key message of alternative media. The first two chapters concentrate on the origins of public interest involvement in the history of media discourse. They also highlight the alternative journalism characteristics, its current typology and the role of citizens supporting the concept of media democratization. They also specify the character of transformation of on-line professional journalism and its relationship to user-generated content in journalistic practices. Further four chapters determine specific demonstrations of citizen engagement in public media space and its concepts - public journalism, citizen journalism and community media. These chapters refer to characteristic of these phenonenons, they evaluate their contribution to the public life, concrete performance and practical applications abroad and in the Czech Republic. They also mention the key critical...

Governance and participatory democracy theory suggest that strong policy can stem from the inclusion of all societal voices in discussion of options, and that the public must have a strong base of information in order to participate fully in democracy. The news media can be an important vehicle for these voices and a central source of information. However, academic literature has recorded that “elite” sources, such as government, dominate news coverage to the disadvantage of “non-elite” sources, such as civil society groups and citizens, a situation that results in imbalanced information in the news. This thesis examines patterns of civil society inclusion in Winnipeg Free Press coverage of Lake Winnipeg water quality, and discusses the implications of findings for good governance. Three methods of inquiry are used: 1) a literature review, 2) a quantitative content analysis of newspaper articles published in the Winnipeg Free Press from August 1991 through December 2008, and 3) interviews with civil society members with an interest in Lake Winnipeg water quality. Content analysis findings indicate that civil society sources generally received less coverage than “elite” sources, were used less frequently, were given lower prominence within articles, had fewer chances to “define” coverage and were less often used in “hard” news compared to opinion sections. Interview findings challenge the dominant view within media literature that journalists are fully responsible for “elite” source dominance due to journalist bias in source selection, the “beat system” of journalism that focuses on governmental institutions, decisions made by editors and corporate or political preferences of news entities. While journalism practices are undoubtedly a factor, this study finds that there are also shortcomings within civil society organizations and the framework within which they operate that limit their engagement with the media. Four key factors are identified. Registered charities are often hesitant to speak with the media due to real and perceived legal restraints on their communications activities under Canada’s Income Tax Act. Many organizations are apprehensive about voicing concerns in the media for fear of losing funding. Few organizations have communications staff, or even staff members trained in media outreach, resulting in a passive approach to communications. And few organizations have the capacity to deal with media requests for information within journalism deadlines. In addition, the interview data indicate that those organizations actively pursuing media coverage are focusing attention on smaller newspapers, alternative media and self-published pieces, which suggests that the mainstream news media are perhaps of less importance to such organizations than in the past. Alternatively, it is possible that organizations are finding access to the mainstream media effectively cut off. Finally, recommendations are made to civil society organizations on how they can increase their prominence in the news and conquer their reluctance to deal with the media, and to the media on how to improve attention to civil society voices. For the latter, ideas are drawn from public journalism, a journalism movement which emphasizes citizens as sources.

Governance and participatory democracy theory suggest that strong policy can stem from the inclusion of all societal voices in discussion of options, and that the public must have a strong base of information in order to participate fully in democracy. The news media can be an important vehicle for these voices and a central source of information. However, academic literature has recorded that “elite” sources, such as government, dominate news coverage to the disadvantage of “non-elite” sources, such as civil society groups and citizens, a situation that results in imbalanced information in the news. This thesis examines patterns of civil society inclusion in Winnipeg Free Press coverage of Lake Winnipeg water quality, and discusses the implications of findings for good governance. Three methods of inquiry are used: 1) a literature review, 2) a quantitative content analysis of newspaper articles published in the Winnipeg Free Press from August 1991 through December 2008, and 3) interviews with civil society members with an interest in Lake Winnipeg water quality. Content analysis findings indicate that civil society sources generally received less coverage than “elite” sources, were used less frequently, were given lower prominence within articles, had fewer chances to “define” coverage and were less often used in “hard” news compared to opinion sections. Interview findings challenge the dominant view within media literature that journalists are fully responsible for “elite” source dominance due to journalist bias in source selection, the “beat system” of journalism that focuses on governmental institutions, decisions made by editors and corporate or political preferences of news entities. While journalism practices are undoubtedly a factor, this study finds that there are also shortcomings within civil society organizations and the framework within which they operate that limit their engagement with the media. Four key factors are identified. Registered charities are often hesitant to speak with the media due to real and perceived legal restraints on their communications activities under Canada’s Income Tax Act. Many organizations are apprehensive about voicing concerns in the media for fear of losing funding. Few organizations have communications staff, or even staff members trained in media outreach, resulting in a passive approach to communications. And few organizations have the capacity to deal with media requests for information within journalism deadlines. In addition, the interview data indicate that those organizations actively pursuing media coverage are focusing attention on smaller newspapers, alternative media and self-published pieces, which suggests that the mainstream news media are perhaps of less importance to such organizations than in the past. Alternatively, it is possible that organizations are finding access to the mainstream media effectively cut off. Finally, recommendations are made to civil society organizations on how they can increase their prominence in the news and conquer their reluctance to deal with the media, and to the media on how to improve attention to civil society voices. For the latter, ideas are drawn from public journalism, a journalism movement which emphasizes citizens as sources.

While journalistic ethics exists in the Untied States today, it works primarily to address dilemmas in the profession, as opposed to working to comprehensively understand journalism in relation to its public duties. This role in United States journalism is not only misunderstood by the majority of journalists working in the media industry, it is also misunderstood by the public. This misinterpretation is directly linked to the concepts of cultural separation between the 'natural' laws that run the market place and those things in society that influence everything else. In this sense, journalism has become an industry working in the market place. Essentially, the product of completely corporatising the media industry has created a gap between the role of journalism in a democratic society and the current state of journalism in the United States. That said, the relationship between the media and democracy can be traced back through the history of United States democracy and the subsequent history of journalism as a profession that was an essential part to keeping the public sphere of democratic debate healthy. A section of journalists, public journalists, currently attempt to heed the public responsibility needed to create this space for democratic debate. However, these journalists, though earnest in their pursuit to rebuild the type of journalism needed to create this democratic sphere, cannot reach the masses effectively without more funding and more autonomy. Likewise, the public broadcast station (PBS) in the United States could be enhanced in many ways with more funding and more autonomy. Such funding and autonomy for media in the United States could come from a tax-payer funded public broadcast station. And though not all media need to bear the responsibility of journalism focused on public life and politics, a section of the mass media should commit itself to creating a sphere to enhance democratic debate. This thesis explores the necessity of a government funded mass media source in the United States. Given that United States media and democracy are inherently linked, as I will aim to show through the development of democratic history and the development of liberal democracy in the United States today, the ethical need for a media source that can fulfil its democratic duties.

Thesis (MPhil (Journalism))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / 131 p. / This thesis explores how six commercial local newspapers based in the towns of Swellendam, Bredasdorp, Caledon and Gansbaai are reporting on gender and HIV/AIDS in ways that may help to shift specific attitudes as well as to generate appropriate community responses. The overall aim of the study is to advance theories around the location of commercial news media in the development context. It also aims to inform and empower development workers and activists on the opportunities or pitfalls in engaging with rural local media to advance their development goals. In most prior studies into the nature of gender or HIV/AIDS reporting in the media in South Africa, the focus has been exclusively on mainstream corporate and/or urbanbased media titles and very little investigation has been done into the performance of small ruralbased media. The study employs two methods of data collection namely, a quantitative content analysis of newspapers and structured interviews with the editors of the papers, and a sample group of government employees and community activists in the respective towns. The structured interviews provide a qualitative dimension to the content analysis, bearing in mind the dangers of quantifying media content and making isolated judgements on the actual context of journalistic practice. Through the interviews, the researcher has been able to explore the extent to which the perceptions of the media editors visavis a public interest role with respect to gender and HIV/AIDS actually differs from the quantitative evidence of their performance and the perceptions of key informants in their communities. The findings of the study suggest that local rural media hold out great hope with respect to the advancement of development communication goals through commercial media platforms. The editors in the four towns have established organic connections with their community, albeit tenuous, but which extend into the ranks of development workers in their towns. The data from the content analysis suggests that women enjoy high visibility in the pages of their local papers, and they are most likely to be portrayed as positive achievers than as women encountering violence. The tenuous nature of the connections between editor and community are most starkly evident around the issue of HIV/AIDS, with coverage of this being very low despite much work being undertaken in the community to deal with the pandemic. With respect to the issue of gender, there was demonstrable evidence from actual examples of content, that showed on the one hand the capacity to motivate for change in women's lives, but also on the other hand a danger of reinforcing attitudes that compound women's oppression. The study offers recommendations to a range of roleplayers to ensure, firstly, the continued survival of local rural newspapers, and also support in building capacity to see these papers mature into journalism products that are integrative and transformative. / Ford Foundation and the Media Development and Diversity Agency

Thesis (MPhil (Journalism))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / Bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT:In a system of representative government, the media is assumed as an important institution to reflect public concerns and holding government accountable for the way in which it addresses these public concerns. Not only is this role imposed by a paradigm which views the media as one of the institutions that sustain and consolidate liberal democracy – the so-called fourth estate alongside the legislative, executive and judicial pillars – but the media itself has conceptualised its identity around the notion that journalists are a “vital part of political life” (Sparks, 1991:58). This study explores the validity of this authority. It suggests that the authority of the media to frame public concerns in a way that is useful for ordinary citizens to “bridge the gap between the private, domestic world and the concerns and activities of the wider society (McQuail, 2005:432)” has been eroded because citizens feel that their concerns and priorities have become secondary to the priorities of powerful state, economic and other “experts” who determine the news agenda. At the same time, there is a general sense that representative government or what is generally known as liberal democracy is losing its currency because citizens have developed a “habit of seeing the political system as indifferent and unresponsive” to their problems and their circumstances (Mathews, 1999:33). This study explores the potential of a more productive relationship between the media and citizens to rekindle and energise the role of citizens to contribute to the public work of solving common problems that face the wider society. This study proposes three theoretical frameworks – democratic professionalism, public journalism and deliberative democracy – with the potential to re-conceptualise the way journalists consider their professional role. This re-conceptualisation raises the possibility for reassessing the political work of journalists and the political work of citizens and build new habits of participation and discussion in the political process of communities. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In 'n stelsel van verteenwoordigende regering, word die media veronderstel as 'n belangrike instelling om publieke kwessies te weërspieël en die regering verantwoordelik te hou vir die wyse waarop dit hierdie publieke kwessies aanspreek. Hierdie rol word veronderstel in 'n denkraamwerk wat die media beskou as een van die instellings wat liberale demokrasie konsolideer as die sogenaamde “vierde pilaar” neffens die wetgewende, uitvoerende en geregtelike gesag. Die role word verder deur die media self gekonseptualiseer as ‘n identiteit rondom die idee dat joernaliste 'n "belangrike deel is van die politieke lewe" (Sparks, 1991:58). Hierdie studie ondersoek die geldigheid van hierdie gesag. Die studie dui daarop dat die media gesag het wat die moontlikheid bied om publieke kwessies aan te spreek op 'n manier wat van nut kan wees vir gewone burgers om die kloof tussen die private, huishoudelike wêreld en die sorg en die aktiwiteite van die breër gemeenskap te oorbrug (McQuail, 2005:432). Die gesag word ondermyn omdat gewone burgers voel hulle belange en prioriteite word sekondêr geag aan die magsbelang van die staat en ander "kenners" wat die nuus agenda bepaal. Terselfdertyd is daar 'n algemene persepsie dat verteenwoordigende die regering, of wat algemeen bekend staan as liberale demokrasie, geldigheid verloor omdat burgers voel dat die politieke stelsel onverskillig reageer op die probleme wat hulle ervaar. Hierdie studie ondersoek die potensiaal van 'n meer werkbare verhouding tussen die media en die burgery om die energie wat burgers in die openbare sfeer kan bydra te ontgin. Hierdie studie stel drie teoretiese raamwerke voor – demokratiese professionaliteit, openbare joernalistiek en beraadslagende demokrasie – wat moontlikhede bied om opnuut oor die professionele rol van joernaliste te besin. Hierdie “besinning” bied weer nuwe moontlikhede vir die politieke werk van joernaliste en die politieke werk van die burgery. Dit veronderstel nuwe gewoontes van deelname en gesprek in openbare politieke proses.