Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Liberal constraints on private power?: reflections on the origins and rationale of access regulation
- 2 Liberalism and free speech
- 3 Foundations and limits of freedom of the press
- 4 Why the state?
- 5 Practices of toleration
- 6 Access in a post–social responsibility age
- 7 Who decides?
- 8 Four criticisms of press ethics
- 9 Political communication systems and democratic values
- 10 Mass communications policy: where we are and where we should be going
- 11 Content regulation reconsidered
- 12 The rationale of public regulation of the media
- 13 The role of a free press in strengthening democracy
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Liberal constraints on private power?: reflections on the origins and rationale of access regulation
- 2 Liberalism and free speech
- 3 Foundations and limits of freedom of the press
- 4 Why the state?
- 5 Practices of toleration
- 6 Access in a post–social responsibility age
- 7 Who decides?
- 8 Four criticisms of press ethics
- 9 Political communication systems and democratic values
- 10 Mass communications policy: where we are and where we should be going
- 11 Content regulation reconsidered
- 12 The rationale of public regulation of the media
- 13 The role of a free press in strengthening democracy
- Index
Summary
It is hardly more than a platitude to say that the press has always played an important role in the political process. This role is, after all, a primary reason freedom of the press has been thought a necessary safeguard in a democratic society. But never before has the press been as critical to the political process as it is today, and never before has its importance been so widely and publicly recognized. Each election year renders these truths more self-evident.
The increased importance of the press in the political process brings out an ambiguity in its role. Traditionally, the press has been conceived as an observer – ideally, a neutral observer – of the political scene. On this view, the press is part of the political process but it is also not part; it stands outside. But events of the last few decades have demonstrated the inadequacy of this view. The press today – the mass media in particular – is one of the primary actors on the political scene, capable of making or breaking political careers and issues.
The seeming undeniability of the idea that the media are agents in the political process and not simply observers of it provides one important reason for rethinking the traditional prerogatives and responsibilities of the press. Is regulation of the press justified? In the American system, at least, the First Amendment grants the press a privileged place: “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, … or of the press.”
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- Chapter
- Information
- Democracy and the Mass MediaA Collection of Essays, pp. 1 - 20Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990
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