Old Wine in a New Bottle: Public Journalism, Developmental Journalism, and Social Responsibility

Abstract

The emerging concept of public journalism in the United States is very similar to the concept of developmental journalism that the West had denounced in the past in debates concerning the New World Information and Communication Order (KWICO). Many of the ideas of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems, as well as those regarding the social responsibility theory of the press associated with the Commission on Freedom of the Press, have appeared in the writings of those who advocate public journalism. Just as during the NWICO debates, scholars are questioning the validity of conventional news values based on what Galtung and Vincent call “occidental cosmology.” Participatory communication and cultural identity appear to be vital components of both public journalism and developmental journalism. How can one explain the philosophical similarities of these three movements—social responsibility, NWICO, and public journalism— that have influenced our thinking on journalism during the second half of the 20th century? This essay argues that all three were responses to the effects of different stages of capitalism on the press, and that their similarities are a consequence of evolutionary thinking.

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