ABSTRACT
James Curran (1991), in a seminal essay on media and democracy, calls for giving liberal conceptions “a decent funeral” because the legacy of old saws “bears little relationship to contemporary reality.” However, this would be a premature rather than decent funeral. It is widely agreed that many dominant Western assumptions in media studies lose their relevance beyond the “heartland nations” (the United States and Britain), partly on account of their failure to adequately explain either the authoritarian model in a comparative context (Schudson 1991) or media role in the process of regime change and democratic consolidation (Downing 1996a). It is my opinion that liberal conceptions will be viable to media studies for as long as authoritarian control in many Third World states remains obstinate against popular resistance.
