ABSTRACT
Public journalism, according to Sirianni and Friedland (2001), began as a series of experiments in local newspapers in the United States, and later spread to public and commercial television and public radio in America and further afi eld:
[Public journalism] arose in response to a perceived failure of the press to constitute a public sphere in which citizens could understand and engage productively with public problems, rather than simply respond to election soundbites, horserace coverage [of elections] and polarized framing of issues (Sirianni and Friedland 2001: 186).
