Original scientific paper
News for the public good: What civic journalism proponents can learn from Karl Marx
Lee Anne Peck
Abstract
Merritt (1995) said civic journalism “moves beyond only describing
what is “going wrong” (in society) to also imagining what “going right”
would be like. What would “going right” be for Marx? It would be
awakening society to what is possible.
A goal worth striving for, according to Marx, is a society in which
everyone has the freedom to become a whole, or complete, person—a
person who works at something in which he or she feels ownership, a
person who lives comfortably, a person who uses both his or her mental
and physical capabilities; therefore, there would be no more alienation due
to what Marx considers capitalistic corruption. Merrill said that modern
Marxist journalists want social harmony, cooperation, and group solidarity
(1994, p. 100). Although Merrill does not connect this definition to civic
journalists, it seems to fit.
Keywords
media; public journalism; communication; Karl Marx
Hrčak ID:
41454
URI
Publication date:
4.11.2007.
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