ABSTRACT
The conventional story of journalism and democracy is taken from classical liberal theory. The liberal story of journalism’s contributions to democracy goes something like this: journalism is an occupation assigned the duty of producing fact-based, impartial political news. The vocabulary around journalism and democracy, which has grown up over a century, remains a constitutive background against which people understand the practice. Since the early 20th century, a group-based conception of politics has existed as a residual theory alongside the dominant liberal model. A group-centered account of digital journalism’s contributions to public life may help resuscitate the tradition of journalism and democracy studies. On a group-centered perspective, new terms like representation, voice, power, and, equality come to the fore. In a group-centered world, journalists may have less interest in providing impartial information and more in ensuring that all relevant social groups are represented in the political process.
