Repositioning the newsroom

‘Public’ or ‘civic’ journalism denotes a loosely organised reform movement aimed at getting the American press to rethink its commitment to the ideals of democratic participation. It offers an arguably new approach to political journalism, an informal set of policies and plans animated by what Rosen (1995b: 2), one of its chief architects, views as a key but neglected proposition: ‘journalism cannot remain valuable if public life does not remain viable.’ Rooted in a concern for what any number of commentators in the United States regard as ‘the disreputable state of contemporary democratic dialogue’ (Post 1993: 654), public journalism rests on the simple but apparently controversial premise that the purpose of the press is to promote and indeed improve, and not merely report on and complain about, the quality of public or civic life. ¹