7 - Testing the Ideal

Summary

‘A newspaper has two sides to it. It is a business like any other … but it is much more than a business, it has a moral as well as a material existence and its character and influence are determined by the balance of these two forces.’

C.R Scott, 1921

The Australian journalists surveyed express considerable personal faith in the ideal of the Fourth Estate and their responses indicate that this faith influences approaches to their work. They demonstrated a readiness to distinguish between the commercial objectives of the organisations that employ them and the editorial principles they value. Recognition of the tension between these competing elements is important. It is not sufficient, however, to establish that the Australian journalists surveyed fully accept the obligations imposed by the principles that underpin the ideal of the Fourth Estate.

In this chapter I test the validity of the journalists' assertions about the idealised Fourth Estate using the information gathered from the survey. The five contests to the Fourth Estate examined in relation to the corporate news media – political purpose and independence; commercial priorities; understanding of public opinion; diversity and accountability – are evaluated on the basis of the information gathered from the two groups of Australian journalists.

Political Purpose and Independence

The political purpose and independence of the news media are important elements of the Fourth Estate. This principle implies that the news media will fulfil a political function and accept a serious purpose. Those advocating an institutional role for the press in the very different political and economic environment of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries argued that the news media would demonstrate political independence.