THEORIES OF PRESS

THEORIES OF PRESS

there are four normative theories 

1: Authoritarian theory

2: liberation theory

3: Social Responsibility theory

4: Soviet media theory

1:Authoritarian Theory of Mass Communication

It is a normative theory of mass communication where mass media is influenced and overpowered by power and authority in the nations. Media must respect what authorities want and work according to the wishes of the authorities though, not under direct control of the state or ruling classes. The press and media cannot work independently and their works are suspected to censorship.

Concepts of Authoritarian Theory of Mass Communication

Authoritarian theory is taken as a theory used by the dictatorship governments, but can also be seen in democratic as well as dictatorial nations. Here, the media cannot offend or go against the majority or dominant groups. Media must remain subordinate to the authorities in authoritarian theory.

It is believed that state information, when distributed, might put security at risk and cause to be a national threat. Thus, the theory is justified by saying that state is greater than individual rights where state controls the media, especially in the time of emergencies like wars and conflicts. These situations might be internal or external.

Democratic governments also use this approach as the only option in these types of conditions. They also justify the process as to preserve social order and harmony but minority views are not censored unless the authorities do not take it as a threat to their power.



Press is taken as a weapon of the powerful. It is used to increase the power of the rulers. The authorities control media by providing rights and license to some media and not to some. Ambiguous rights are given to media and harm journalists if they do not agree to the understood censorship rules. The authorities can also cancel the license.

Sensitive issues are mostly not published or are published through press releases. There are many kinds of censorship like political censorship, military censorship, religious censorship, economic censorship, etc. Having said, the theory does not encourage homogeneous and national culture like Totalitarianism.
Major Features of Authoritarian Theory of Mass Communication
Direct control of the media by government and authorities
Power exercised to control media
Control by the powerful ruling minorities or a group of ruling majorities
Media has no power to criticize the government, its work, decisions and policies
Media can not offend the ruling parties in any way
Punishment and threats are given to the people who try to offend the government and the powerful
Licensing of media by the state and giving limited rights (registration)
Cancelation of license if the media does anything wrong to the government
Clear limits on what media can publish
Ownership is mostly private
Concept of propaganda
Control might be on all issues or just some particular issues
Media is used as a weapon or an instrument to strengthen the power of the government
Examples of Authoritarian Theory of Mass Communication

Engels and many other scholars have talked about authoritative theory. Kings used this approach in the past by granting royal charters and licenses. The whole part of Western Europe used this approach to control the middle class from starting a revolution after printing press was started.

Germany and Italy were also following it before the Second World War because of Hitler and Mussolini.


“All propaganda should be popular and should adapt its intellectual level to the receptive ability of the least intellectual of those whom it is desired to address.”
– Hitler, Mein Kampf

Taliban government practiced Authoritarian media approach in Afghanistan. Burmese media was also made to follow authoritarianism till 2011. Media who published against the government were punished and imprisoned. Today it is being applied in developing countries in the form of National Security Act and Official Secret Act.

Many writers have been imprisoned and published books have been banned like Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses due to censorship, showing Authoritarianism.

There are still several countries who follow Authoritarianism in media today which are Israel, Bahrain, Qatar, Syria, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Zimbabwe, China, North Korea, Iran, etc.
Strengths of Authoritarian Theory of Mass Communication
This approach is sometimes better for resolving social and cultural conflicts.
It is also better sometimes because it motivates people to work for the country and its people.
This theory can act as a gatekeeper and prevent the media that act irresponsibly.
The theory can be used for establishing propaganda.
Weaknesses of Authoritarian Theory of Mass Communication
Common people are taken as less intelligent and as an easy target to manipulate.
The ruling class uses the media only for their own benefits.
The freedom of expression and information of normal people is attacked.

or 

Authoritarian theory describe that all forms of communications are under the control of the governing elite or authorities or influential bureaucrats.

Authoritarians are necessary to control the media to protect and prevent the people from the national threats through any form communication (information or news). The press is an instrument to enhance the ruler’s power in the country rather than any threats. The authorities have all rights to permit any media and control it by providing license to the media and make certain censorship.

If any media violate the government policies against license, then the authority has all right to cancel the license and revoke it. The government have all right to restrict any sensitive issues from press to maintain peace and security in the nation.

Censorship:
Censorship is a suppression of any communication which may consider as harmful to the people, King, government and its nation. Especially these censorship methods are much familiar in press which against the freedom of speech and freedom of expression. In some other cases, the censorship helps to protect the rulers and authorities from sensitive issues.

There are different types of censors like

• Political censor

• Moral censor

• Religious censor

• Military censor

• Corporate censor

Examples of Authoritarian theory:

For right Nikolai Yezhov, standing near Stalin was removed from this photograph after he shot dead in 1940. These types of censors are common during Stalin’s reign.

• Here, Journalist or any media persons should not have any rights to comment, discriminate or stand against the government. Sometimes, an authority gives considerable freedom to minority thoughts and cultural issues to promote them if it doesn’t make any threats to authority or ruler.

• King – King is the authority, who has all rights to control the communication and no one can question against the king.
  “The French king Louis XIV was concentrated in his person parliamentary, law making and judicial power. He was the authority of Supreme Court as well as he can condemn a men to death penalty without any rights appeal”.

• Dictatorship – During the world war II Hitler and Mussolini are the two major authorities who controlled the press in Germany and Italy. Press was under the control of the authority and No press can’t question against or publish against these two dictators.

• Few countries blocked wiki leaks website from its country to maintain the internal security because the wiki leaks are not ready to compromise with government censorship and realising classified documents against the government.
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2:Libertarian Theory of Mass Communication

“The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
–Thomas Jefferson, the third president of United States (1787)

Libertarian theory or the Free Press Theory is one of the Normative Theories of mass communication where media or press is given absolute freedom to publish anything at any time and acts as a watchdog.


The theory came from the libertarian thoughts of Europe during the 16th century after the invention of printing press and after the press movement. It was advocated by many renowned personalities like Lao Tzu, John Locke, John Milton, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Jefferson, etc. and is still famous in England and America.

Concepts of Libertarian Theory of Mass Communication

The libertarian theory is just the opposite of the Authoritarian theory of mass media where information is controlled by the state or the authorities. In libertarian theory, media is supposed to be privately owned.

The theory believes in freedom of thought and individualism. There is no control of authority and everybody has the right to voice their opinion. There is also no censorship and government must not hold any power to control and suppress media.

There is a flow of all kinds of information. All of the people are subjected to interpret and decide which information they need and the authenticity of the information. Rationality of human beings makes them able to do so. The press should not restrict any information, even criticizing the policies. Though media has enormous power, abuse of power can be dealt legally.

Major Features of Libertarian Theory of Mass Communication

• There is absolute freedom to media, media plays the role of a watchdog.
• In libertarian theory, there is freedom of thought and expression.
• There is also freedom of information and individualism.
• No censorship of any kind is to be done.
• There is high competition among alternative ideas and thoughts.
• The government does not own the media and media is a different body in the functioning of the state.
• Media is accountable to the law of the country.
• Media must follow a code of conduct.
• Media encourages pluralist truths like both side of the same story.
• The media accepts a Laissez-faire approach in which there are not many set rules that they have to follow. They can work as they want.

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Example of Libertarian Theory of Mass Communication

Government reports of most of the countries can be found on the web nowadays. People can criticize the government policies and works through social media or any other media like newspapers.

These opinions cannot be censored unless it is against the rights of an individual. Also, the person can file a law-suit if they are defamed or their privacy is compromised.

This is a complete example of Libertarian Theory of Mass Communication where people and the media give comments or criticize the policies without any government interference. It also prevents the growing effect of corruption by making government as much transparent as possible and keeping people aware of their works.

Strengths of Libertarian Theory of Mass Communication

• Media can give true information without any control.
• There is no censorship.
• All individuals can express their opinions and thoughts in the media openly.
• The theory encourages healthy competition among the thoughts and ideas.
• Every work will be transparent to all.
• It checks the government and the state authorities and also prevents corruption.
• It functions with democracy.

Weaknesses of Libertarian Theory of Mass Communication

• Media might not always act responsibly.
• Individuals might not always have good intentions and ethics.
• People can not always make rational judgments.
• Freedom of different type of people, their ideas, opinions, school of thoughts, and group objectives can be in a conflict.
• Media can misuse its power and harm other people’s privacy and dignity.
• Media might defame, cause sedition, libel or slander, be immodest, publish obscenity and cause trouble.

• Media might challenge the security of the state.

Introduction:

The Libertarian theory is one of the “Normative theories of press”. The theory which is originally came from libertarian thoughts from 16th century in Europe. The libertarian theorists are against the authoritarian thoughts. International trade and urbanization undermine the power of a rural aristocracy which leads various social movements raise includes the Protestants reformation, that demands individual’s freedom and their own lives and free thoughts. Liberalism means information is knowledge and knowledge is power. Libertarianism is free from any authority or any control or censorship. The libertarianism is an idea of individualism and limited government which is not harmful to another.

Libertarian theory:

Libertarian theory sees people are more enough to find and judge good ideas from bad. The theory says people are rational and their rational thoughts lead them to find out what are good and bad. The press should not restrict anything even a negative content may give knowledge and can make better decision whilst worst situation. The libertarian thoughts are exactly against or opposite to the authoritarian theory which means the authoritarian theory says “all forms of communication works under the control of government or elite like king”.

Strength and Weakness:

1. Freedom of press will give more freedom to media to reveal the real thing happening in the society without any censorship or any authority blockades.
2. Is reliable with U.S media traditions.
3. It gives more values for individuals to express their thoughts in media.
4. Theory excessively positive about media’s willing to meet responsibilities which may leads people into negative aspects.
5. Is too positive about individual ethics and rationality.
6. Ignores need for reasonable control of media.
7. Ignores dilemmas posed by conflicting freedoms.

Example:

Wiki leaks website published all sorts of confidential or restricted files in public space and especially classified documents. These articles are providing brief knowledge about the government and its activities which helps people to identify what is happening in the society and its gives great choices to elect a better president in future.

Sometimes these documents may work against the government and its authority that is why most of the country is not willing to allow libertarian thoughts because it may affect their power and kingdom.

3:Social Responsibility Theory

Social responsibility is ethics that guide any action, be it in media or other organizations, that put an obligation towards environment, society, culture and economy. The media like any other sector should not harm, but should promote environment and socio-cultural aspects in relation to the economy of the place.

Social Responsibility Theory Concepts

“Freedom of expression under the social responsibility theory is not an absolute right, as under pure libertarian theory. One’s right to free expression must be balanced against the private rights of others and against vital society interest.
– Siebert, Peterson, and Schramm

The social responsibility theory of mass media changed the way press published news from objective reporting to interpretative reporting. Before this theory, facts were presented without any interpretation.

IN Social Responsibility Theory, the press is taken to be for the people and society. The tasks of the press is to make a code of conduct and follow it, to develop a standard in journalism, to make journalism better, to protect journalists and to have penalties if any journalist violates the code of conduct.

This way, the facts provided by the press are analyzed and interpreted so that the people get true information and understandable news. This helps maintain social harmony by revealing social evils like corruption and discouraging other bad conducts.

The media is taken as a place for the voiceless to have a voice and develop public opinions where each and every person has the right to speak, express and publish. . It is considered not an end but a tool for social development. Therefore, the objectives of media are stated to inform, document, analyze, interpret, mediate and mobilize by creating and finding solutions.

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Major Features of Social Responsibility Theory

• Private press ownership
  Press is supposed to be owned privately. The government does not own the press. The private owners should publish within the ethical guidelines and in a responsible way.
• Helps democracy prosper
  Media helps in maintaining democracy and does not encourage authoritarianism or communism.
• Media as a democratic institution
  Media is not a part of the government and it must work on its own. It has the freedom to do anything they want, just not work out of the ethical standards.
• Public participation
  Public must get to participate through comments, response, write and get involved in all aspects of media’s work.
• Emphasis on social responsibility
  The media must be responsible towards the society.
• Self-regulation in media
  The media must have some boundaries within itself to be ethical. The regulations are to be followed by all the media professionals involved in the particular institution.
• Code of ethics
  All the media institutions must have a written or unwritten code of ethics which should be the standard followed by all.
• Professional standards
  The quality of the publishing should be maintained, false interpretation of any information should be avoided.
• Media role of criticizing government
  Media is allowed to criticize the government roles, works and policies. It is done to help the government get better.
• Helping eradicate social problems
  Media must speak against and aware people about social problems as it is media’s responsibility to work for the betterment of the society.
• Pluralistic media (including ideas and people from different groups)
  Media must write the views of different groups of people and not only about a single group. It must never be biased.
• Social benefit
  Media must work for the society and only do the things that are beneficial to the society. It should not write about the things that are ambiguous or contradictory as those message might cause conflict in the society.

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Examples of Social Responsibility Theory

Reports of health news in the media can be taken as media acting socially responsible. The media gives information and awareness on health problems. It also provides awareness on some basic health problems like diarrhea and how to cure them.

The media gives information about epidemics and health hazards. Here, acting responsibly is by not spreading wrong news and panic.

There have been instances of mass panic among the people because of some misunderstood news on health published by various media. Also, advertisements of harmful substances like cigarettes and alcohol are considered to be wrong according to the social responsibility theory.

Reporting on the performance of government institutions and unveil tyranny and corruption by the media is also an example of socially responsible media as Media acts like a critic of the government.

But, there are times when the media has severely damaged the reputation of some politicians and political parties through irresponsible journalism, leading to major conflicts in the society.

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Strengths of Social Responsibility Theory

• It helps in avoiding conflicts during wars and conflicts.
• It accepts public opinion and works for the citizens.
• Press and media houses do not have monopoly as rules and ethics guide them.
• The media publishes truth due to regulatory activities and their moral obligation to do so .
• Yellow journalism decreases as media can be questioned by the law and public.
• There is pluralism and diversification on news and people involved.
• The voiceless and marginalized people are able to raise their voice.

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Weaknesses of Social Responsibility Theory

• Ethics are always vague, ambiguous and differs from case to case.
• It is difficult to determine who sets clear principles and standards.
• Social responsibility and ethics are morally obligatory things. Any form of legal limitations should not be imposed if media is just working in the principle of responsibility. Laws are authoritative and not democratic concepts.

OR 

Social Responsibility Theory:

Social responsibility theory allows free press without any censorship but at the same time the content of the press should be discussed in public panel and media should accept any obligation from public interference or professional self regulations or both. The theory lies between both authoritarian theory and libertarian theory because it gives total media freedom in one hand but the external controls in other hand. Here, the press ownership is private.  The social responsibility theory moves beyond the simple “Objective” reporting (facts reporting) to “Interpretative” reporting (investigative reporting).  The total news is complete facts and truthful but the commission of the freedom press stated that “No longer giving facts truthfully rather than give a necessary analysed or interpretative report on facts with clear explanations”.

The theory helped in creating professionalism in media by setting up a high level of accuracy, truth, and information. The commission of press council also included some tasks based on social responsibility of media, which are as follows:

1. Formulate the code of conduct for the press.
2. Improve the standards of journalism.
3. Safeguarding the interests of journalism and journalist.
4. Criticise and make some penalty for violating the code of conduct.

The theory allows

1. Everyone to say something or express their opinion about the media.
2. Community opinion, Consumer action and professional ethics.
3. Serious invasion of recognized private rights and vital social interests.
4. Private ownership in media may give better public service unless government has to take over to assure the public to provide better media service.
5. Media must take care of social responsibility and if they do not, government or other organisation will do.

Critics of Social Responsibility Theory:

1. Avoids the conflict situation during war or emergency by accepting the public opinion.
2. Media will not play monopoly because the audience and media scholars will rise questions if media published or broadcast anything wrongly or manipulate any story.
3. Media Standards will improve.
4. Media will concern all class audience rather than focus on higher classes in the society.
5. Media may work autonomously but certain thing is controlled by the government and other public organisation.

4: Soviet Theory of Mass Communication.

The communist and Marxist government rule and communist theory of mass communication was practically used by the then Soviet Union (Russia) in 1917. Thus, the theory is also known as Soviet Theory of Mass Communication.

The government controlled all the media according to this theory and had absolute power. The theory was implemented to help in achieving the communist objectives for the benefits of the people.

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Concepts of Communist Theory of Mass Communication

Media is taken as a part of the state in Communist Theory. The ownership of media is with the state and the country runs the media as per their wishes to fulfill their propaganda of control. The communist party owns all the media of the country.

Media is supposed to work for the betterment of the state, communism and whatever the elite of the communist party tells them to do. Deterring the growth of communism is taken as a crime.

Criticism of small parts of the government work is accepted but criticizing the state as a whole is prohibited in communist theory of mass media. Citizens are taken to be irrational and stupid and masses are kept away from the government.

They are just provided with propaganda and basic knowledge. Government activities are not to be known to general public. Whatever rulers said becomes the ruling idea.

The difference between Authoritarian theory and the communist theory is that in authoritarian, there is private ownership of media but in soviet communist theory, the control lies in very small number of leaders in soviet communist theory. Government is taken as the most superior, powerful and important than all including media.

In Soviet Union, media was used to educate the workers to their develop skills and tried to show the problems of the working class to the leaders by taking feedbacks from the citizens.

New technologies of mass media were controlled to control the mass. The theory took other theories of mass media as having bourgeois features where they followed Marxist, Leninist and Stalinist ideologies.

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Features of Communist Theory of Mass Communication

• Media followed communist ideology of governance and political system
• Media was used to transmit propaganda and for transmission of social policies
• Media was taken as government instrument
• Media was owned by the state
• Criticism of communist ideology was taken as a crime
• It helped the working class to work better and highlighting their problems and it made people aware about communism
• The theory was a positive one as it tried to ensure truthful information and not let the information get manipulated by private media houses
• Feedback was accepted

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Example of Communist Theory of Mass Communication

The then Soviet Union controlled the media totally by publishing all the good things about their country and governance while not showing anything that could make the people feel agitated about their own nation. They promoted their own culture and traditions as the best. They also did not give out news about disasters and accidents.

On the other hand, they showed every bad aspect of culture and social systems of other democratic countries like US. They also told their government system was better than democracy. That is how propaganda was bestowed upon all. These techniques were solely based on their communist ideologies representing the Communist Theory in full.

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Criticisms of Communist Theory of Mass Communication

• Propaganda based information is only delivered. The information might be false.
• No media can criticize the government and the government will not get the chance to improve.
• Authoritative obstruction can be found for every type of media.
• There can be many restrictions and there is a concept of punishment.
• Leader is taken as the greatest and citizens are not given importance.
• The media can not play the role of the watchdog.
• The development of the nation depends on the characteristics of the leader.

• Soviet media theory is imitative of Leninist principles which based on the Carl Marx and Engel’s ideology. The government undertake or controls the total media and communication to serve working classes and their interest.  Theory says the state have absolute power to control any media for the benefits of people. They put end to the private ownership of the press and other media. The government media provide positive thoughts to create a strong socialized society as well as providing information, education, entertainment, motivation and mobilization.  The theory describe the whole purpose of the mass media is to educate the greater masses of working class or workers. Here, the public was encouraged to give feedback which would able to create interests towards the media.
  According to authoritarian theory, the media controlled and censored by the ministries in the country but libertarian is fully free without any intervention of any authority or government, Social responsibility theory – press freedom in one hand but other hand they controlled the press by raising question and Soviet media theory, the whole control of the media is under the leader of the nation.
  Critics of  Soviet Media Theory:
  1. Soviet media theory looks similar like authoritarian theory but the core part is different from each other. In authoritarian theory is a one way communication, there is no feedback allowed from the public but in Soviet media theory is a two way communication at the same time the whole media is controlled or works under the leadership.
  2. Private ownership is not allowed which leads the press without any restriction and it can serve people without any authoritative blockades.
  3. Soviet media theory allows some restriction based on the nation interest rather than personal.
  4. Under communist theories like soviet media theory, the journalist or press should support the leadership rather than a watchdog.
  5. If the leadership is wrong the whole nation will suffer a lot.