Changing Roles of Broadcast Journalism: A Fresh Look at Legal Texts Concerning Broadcasting

• In Event: Regulatory, Normative and Structural Changes in Communication: Past and Contemporary "Histories"

Abstract

Starting with considerations on the ongoing transformation of broadcast journalism, the study aims at clarifying the role of community media in relation to the public and commercial sector. Taking Austria as an example and setting out from the assumption that legal documents codify social change, and hence are barometers for collectively recognized norms and of the changes they undergo, all Austrian legal texts and funding guidelines concerning broadcasting were subject to a comparative analysis with respect to their underlying perceptions of the societal role of broadcast media. The results show that there is no longer a broadcast journalism as such, but rather that several images of the role of broadcast journalism exist side by side. These role perceptions reflect the current changes in the conception of democracy. Community broadcast journalism is acquiring greater significance as it no longer treats media communication as one-directional, but rather as fundamentally participatory offerings.

Authors

• Maren Beaufort, Austrian Academy of Sciences - Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies

• Josef Seethaler, Austrian Academy of Sciences