The evolution of the paradigm of protecting the welfare of media audiences

Abstract

In the 20th century, also known as the period of ‘supreme modernism in journalism’, the normative paradigm of media audience protection was formed. The normative media theory formulated at that time provides knowledge of how the media should function and be organised in order to act in the general interest or for the good of society as a whole. A major influence on the development of normative theory was the doctrine of the social responsibility of the press, proclaimed in the USA in 1947. According to its tenets: the media should be free, but they must also be institutions of public trust, having duties to society and being morally and legally accountable to the society. The duties of the media have been laid down in legal acts as well as codes of ethics, which the journalistic community has upheld. The aim of this article is to answer the question: how has the replacement of broadcast, allocative (one-to-many) communication with universal (many-to-many) communication contributed to a paradigm shift in the normative protection of the media audience? The evolution of the paradigm consists of a shift from a normative paradigm towards a social control paradigm, where the role of the journalistic community protecting ethical norms in communication is taken over by actors (organisations, fact-checking associations) and recipients themselves undertaking information verification. In terms of the methodology adopted, the assumptions of normative theory and the theory of social responsibility of the media were applied, as well as the method of analysis and criticism of the literature. The result of the research reflection undertaken is the identification of tools to protect the welfare of media audiences in the digital age.