ABSTRACT
The term 'broadcasting' contrasts markedly, of course, with 'narrowcasting', one that was unkindly applied to some very early cable television experiments in the 1970s because their potential audiences were tiny compared to those of the few mainstream television channels on air then. What, then, are the implications for journalism of being broadcast? And why is the act of broadcasting any form of journalism inherently significant? To answer these questions requires a thorough examination of broadcast journalism and of the environment in which it takes place — including the ways in which it relates to the other forms of journalism with which it competes for attention. While the scarcity-of-frequencies argument inspired and supported throughout many decades and in many different countries the notion that broadcasting should be regulated, this has never been applied to the printed press, nor to exclusively online media.
