At a time when diplomacy weighs so heavily in the relationship
between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), it
might at first seem premature to argue that a vigorously free,
competent and responsible press deserves a truly central place on
the public agenda on both sides of the Green Line. Yet in the
closing decade of the 20th century, few linkages appear more
frequently or urgently in political dialogue of the post-Cold War
era than the dependence of democracy on a free and capable
press.
That's true whether the press system in question is part of the
world's oldest constitutional democracy (the USA), plagued by
rising levels of press sensationalism;1 or post-World War II
democracy such as Israel, anguished over journalistic credibility
and governmental intrusiveness into publishing and public
broadcasting;2 or an occupied land and ancient culture such as
Palestine, where the seeds of press freedom are young and
governmental constraints on journalists can be severe.3
These three significantly different contexts of news media
development do not exhaust the range of possibilities. Thus,
history, culture, and economics combine to put the
journalism/democracy equation to work in distinctive ways in newly
emerging free-press systems in Eastern and Central Europe, South
Africa, Asia and Latin America.4
This article puts forward three arguments. First, that the
relationship between journalism and democracy needs more explicit
attention across the spectrum of press systems, whether they be
developing, highly developed, or those in mid-passage; second, that
not only journalists but citizens and future policy-makers need a
richer understanding of the free press/democracy dynamic; and
third, that colleges and universities, if they are non-partisan
anchors of a free society, are a good place to begin this education
effort. They can do so by teaching future journalists, by applied
research, and by outreach activities to print electronic news
media. They also can work with non-profit, non-governmental
organizations to create knowledge relevant to public policy-making
and honest government administration.5
Journalism's Grave Problems
As the millennium approaches, American journalism - although widely
admired for its freedom and vitality - is facing serious problems.
There is increasing complexity in public affairs requiring higher
levels of journalistic skills and competence. Increasing
international economic competition accentuates an already lagging
American ability in languages and cross-cultural knowledge.
Government bureaucrats seem to be perfecting their pernicious habit
of "disinformation" and manipulation of news. So pervasive is this
practice that journalists must find new reporting and
freedom-of-information strategies. Increased competition between
media heightens an already acute problem of excessive
commercialism. That bottom-line mentality has alienated many
working journalists. The perceived credibility of the news media
among citizens continues to decline, necessitating a careful
rethinking of how journalists think and report about public
life.
In response, my faculty colleagues at the University of Missouri
School of Journalism, the oldest such school in the USA (founded in
1908), began rethinking the school's undergraduate curriculum. In
essence, the current problems facing journalists create a more
demanding context for the practice of the craft. They also have a
major bearing on the kind of capstone educational experience that
we, at Missouri, want our news-editorial majors to have.
A new Journalism and Democracy course, taught to graduating
seniors, will try to link critical thinking skills more closely to
the practice of journalism at the higher levels of performance that
society and the craft are beginning to require. The titles of the
course's weekly topics suggest the kind of experience we believe
can help provide that link:
1. Journalism as Craft, Business and Democratic Practice; 2. The
First Amendment and the Uses of Freedom; 3. Journalism and Public
Knowledge; 4. Democracy, Journalistic Performance, and the Impact
of the News Media; 5. Democracy and the Changing Economics of Mass
Communication; 6. Democratic Journalism and New Media Technology;
7. Pragmatic Liberalism and the Critical Tradition in Journalism;
8. The News Media and the Citizenry in the Policy-Making Process;
9. Cultivating Ethical Decision Making in the Newsroom; 10. The
Journalist and Privacy; 11. Individualism, Commitment, and
Community; and 12. Journalism, Democracy and the Planet.
Journalism as a Democratic Practice
In keeping with the Missouri tradition of integrating practical
skills instruction with a liberal arts education, students in
Journalism and Democracy will be asked to respond to these new
challenges to the news media by completing one of four
research/action projects. They can: 1. write an article of media
criticism assessing coverage of a key public affairs story; 2.
design and write an extended case study of an episode in journalism
ethics; 3. write a reflective essay on democratic journalism for a
specific professional magazine or scholarly journal; 4. propose,
explain and justify an investigative series of public affairs
documentary, or a new management practice, or an applied research
project.
Each of the options must be done with a particular news media
outlet or publication in mind and must be clearly related to the
theme of the course - journalism and democracy. When possible, the
students will be encouraged to place their work in the daily
community newspaper, public radio, or commercial TV station
affiliated with the Missouri journalism school.
In these assignments, special emphasis will be placed on what
social scientists and editors have learned about how citizens
assimilate the news and the ways reporting can be more useful to
readers, viewers, and listeners. They also will be exposed to
investigative reporters and database editors with backgrounds in
in-depth reporting and powerful computer search techniques.
Emphasis will be placed on the relevance of such skills to
journalism as a democratic practice.
However critical citizens are of the news media, the more
conscientious of them, nonetheless, depend on journalists for the
information they need to pass judgment on elected officials and
public policies. Thus, knowing the strengths, weaknesses and
potential of news media is critically important to the exercise of
intelligent civic judgment. Not least, citizens need guidance in
the significant role they can play in giving both critical and
supportive feedback to news media organizations. A Journalism and
Democracy course - adapted for non-journalism majors - could be an
important contribution as well in the post-secondary education of
many students. With such a course, future policy-makers might also
enter their careers better equipped to contribute to a healthy
relationship between press and public officials.
Missouri's capstone course includes a module on what we call
"cross-cultural journalism." To stress its importance, the Missouri
school, in fact, has adopted a separate course under that title. It
is a required one, which all students must take. The Cross-Cultural
Journalism course explores the challenges of working, as a
professional, with those who come from a different background -
ethnic, religious, nationality, age, gender, sexual orientation -
than our own. The last third of the course is devoted specifically
to the importance of, and approaches to, covering people from other
countries. This section emphasizes how linguistic, social and other
barriers can distort one's understanding of, and reporting from,
cultures different from one's own and how some of those obstacles
can be overcome.
Journalism in a 'Shrinking Planet'
Journalism and Democracy is a theme that also could well be useful
in stimulating the kind of critical international dialogue among
journalism and mass communication educators that the "shrinking
planet," so widely acknowledged, would seem to require. It would be
a natural at the conventions of the Association for Education in
Journalism and Mass Communication, the European Journalists
Association, the International Association for Mass Communication
Research, and the International Communications Association.
Another way to prepare for democracy is to build the skills of
working journalists. Already, journalism programs within the
Palestinian National Authority are gaining assistance available
from sister overseas outreach organizations. The Journalism Diploma
Program at Bir Zeit University has tapped the Swedish International
Development Agency and Bertelesman, the German book publisher.6 It
also has just completed a three-year working relationship with the
University of Missouri School of Journalism in which Missouri
faculty visited and worked at the journalism program in Ramallah.
At Al-Quds University, its president, Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, is
encouraging development of the Institute of Modern Media, whose
director, Daoud Kuttab, an active journalist, teaches as he
develops children's and public affairs programs for Palestinian
educational TV.
High-quality, non-partisan outreach by local universities is
especially important in lands such as Palestine. Although now
struggling economically, many Palestinians are highly educated and
quite capable of both innovation and effective leadership. However,
the middle class in Palestine is smaller than needed in a
democracy. Disparities in wealth are painfully wide, and
educational initiatives are needed to expand opportunities for the
young people who are the future source of stability, creativity and
civic energy.7
In fact, democracies large and small, young and old, require
journalists who understand such critical public needs and are
committed to reporting them in ways that help the public and
policy-makers act wisely. For, as political scientists have long
noted, no democracy is more than one generation away from
extinction.
Endnotes
1. See, for example, Leo Bogart, Commercial Culture, the Media
System and the Public Interest (New York and Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1995); Jules Witcover, "Where We Went Wrong,"
Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1998, pp. 19-28; and
Florence George Graves, "Is Ken Starr Undermining the First
Amendment?" American Journalism Review, April 1998, pp.
18-29.
2. Ze'ev Schiff, "The Censorship Conundrum," Ha'aretz English
Edition, May 17, 1998, p. 6; "Journalistic Credibility," The
Jerusalem Post, May 28, 1998, p. 6; and "Fear and Reckoning at the
IBA," Ha'aretz English Edition, May 28, 1998, p. 6.
3. See Judith Miller, "At Palestinian Papers, Money Is As Elusive
As Freedom," The New York Times, July 28, 1997, p. D-1, 7; and Imad
Musa, "The Palestinian Press since Autonomy: New Era or More of the
Same? A Status Report, 1994-1996," unpublished mass media seminar
research paper, University of Missouri School of Journalism, Dec.
10, 1996.
4. See John Merrill, editor, Global Journalism, Survey of
International Communications, 3rd edition (New York: Longman,
1995), especially, Owen V. Johnson, Chapter 10, East Central and
Southeastern Europe, Russia and the Newly Independent States, pp.
153-187; Arnold S. de Beer, Francis P. Kasoma, Eronini R. Megwa,
and Elaine Steyn, Chapter 12, Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 209-268; Anju
Grovery Chaudhary and Anne Cooper Chen, Chapter 13, Asia and the
Pacific, pp. 269-328; and, Gonzalo Soruco and Leonard Ferreira,
Chapter 14, Latin America and the Caribbean, pp. 329-354.
5. The special role and need for the expertise of universities is
evident in such books as Anne Wells Branscomb Who Owns Information?
From Privacy to Public Access (New York: HarperCollins, 1994);
Leonard R. Sussman, Power, the Press and the Technology of Freedom
(New York: Freedom House, 1989); Slavko Slichal and Janet Wasko,
Communication and Democracy (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1993); and Doris
A. Graber, Mass Media and American Politics (Washington, D.C.:
Congressional Quarterly Press).
6. Peter Dickie and Suzanne Ruggi, "Aiming for a Quality
Palestinian Press," The Jerusalem Times, Jan. 17, 1997, p. 7.
7. For alternative perspectives on the future of democracy in
Palestine, see Foreign Affairs, July/August 1994, with articles by
William B. Quandt, Amos Perlmutter and Shlomo Avineri, pp.
2-12.