Denis McQuail’s research while affiliated with Ghent University and other places

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Using Fred S. Siebert, Theodore Peterson, and Wilbur Schramm's classic Four Theories of the Press as their point of departure, the authors consider what the role of journalism ought to be in a democratic society. They examine the philosophical underpinnings and political realities of journalism, thereby identifying four distinct yet overlapping roles for the media: "monitorial," "facilitative," "radical," and "collaborative." Ultimately they show how these competing paradigms can affect the laws, policies, and public attitudes of a liberal society. © 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. All rights reserved.

Whether or not we are truly experiencing a communications revolution or entering a new ‘information age’, there are certainly major changes under way that are disturbing settled institutions of the press and media...

As public broadcasting in Europe has declined in relative terms in the overall supply of television broadcasting, its activities have become more subject to scrutiny, both by regulatory authorities and by its competitors. The result is a threat of greater control and less genuine independence. In some countries, the price exacted for continuing financial support is increased accountability according to more narrowly defined criteria of performance. The central argument of this article is that public broadcasting should in principle enjoy the same freedom to publish as other media, within the limits of its special legal and constitutional position. Further, freedom should not be an obstacle to meeting social responsibilities and may even contribute to this goal. This view is supported by a closer look at the nature of media accountability, which has to be clearly differentiated from regulation and control.

This article deals with communications and media policy paradigms. In the US and Western Europe three paradigmatic phases of communications and media policy may be distinguished: the paradigm of emerging communications industry policy (until the Second World War); the paradigm of public service media policy (1945-1980/90); and the current phase (from 1980/90 onwards) in which a new policy paradigm is searched for. In Phase I, communications and media policy primarily referred to the emerging technologies of telegraph, telephony and wireless. Communications policy in that era was mainly pursued for reasons of state interest and financial corporate benefits. After the Second World War, media policy was dominated by sociopolitical rather than economic or national strategic concerns. In this paradigmatic phase, lasting until 1980/90, the ideal of public service broadcasting was at its height, notably in Western Europe. From 1980 onwards, however, technological, economic and social trends fundamentally changed the context of media policy. In many countries, governments opted for policies of breaking monopolies in media and communications and privatizing as much as possible. The old normative media policies have been challenged and policy-makers are searching for a new communications policy paradigm. In this new paradigm, there seems to be a shift in the balance of component political, social and economic values that shape the definition of the public interest that media and communications supposedly serve. The authors conclude by sketching the core principles of the new communications policy paradigm that currently seems to be emerging.