Civic Journalism

Basic Argument

Central to public journalism is the underlying argument that journalism and democracy are intrinsically linked, if not mutually dependent. While scholars and journalists acknowledge that the practice of journalism depends on certain democratic protections, most notably freedom from government intervention, they maintain that democracy depends upon journalism that is committed to promoting active citizen participation in democratic processes. Mainstream journalism's failure to encourage citizen participation, advocates argue, has contributed to widespread citizen withdrawal from voting as well as declining civic participation in community affairs. It also has contributed to declining public interest in, and perceived relevance of, political journalism, as evidenced by declining newspaper readership. Put differently, advocates perceive contemporary society as being riven by two widening (though not yet irreversible) gaps: between citizens and government and between news organizations and their audiences. To help reduce those gaps, advocates argue that journalists should inspire increased civic commitment to, and active participation in, democratic processes.

To further such democratic ideals, advocates argue that journalists must change the ways in which they have perceived the public and their own role in public life. Instead of seeing the public as passive spectators who only seek news to be entertained, or even as consumers who watch or read news to learn about government officials, experts, and other elite actors, journalists should perceive the public as engaged citizens who are [Page 303]concerned about active democratic participation. Implicit in this argument is the claim that mainstream journalism's tendency to focus election reporting on campaign-managed events, candidate strategies and image-management techniques, horse race polls, or scandal coverage positions the public as mere spectators to a political spectacle. At best, mainstream journalism's efforts to inform the public about actions by the political elite suggest that the public need not be actively involved.

Second, and equally important, advocates argue that journalists need to reconceptualize their own role in public life. Instead of perceiving themselves as disinterested or neutral observers who occupy a privileged position detached from other citizens, journalists should be political actors or fair-minded participants who care about whether public life goes well. Implicit in this argument is the claim that journalism's virtually exclusive focus on the perspective of elite actors has distanced news people from concerns of ordinary citizens.

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