NormsA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWMcQuail proff ers a set of defi ning principles
by which media performance can be judged, and
these relate to community values. He cites the
following as Public Communication Values: (1)
Freedom, acquiring its public defi nition through
the independent status of the media, public
access to channels and diversity of supply; (2)
Equality, which concerns openness, access and
objectivity (characterized by neutrality, fair-
ness and truth); and (3) Order, a classifi cation
relating to order both in the sense of solidarity
and in the sense of control (the one operating
bottom upwards, as it were, the other top down-
wards).
The principles interrelate, interact and are
obviously in constant confl ict with one another.
McQuail acknowledges ‘deep fi ssures and incon-
sistencies, depending on how they [the prin-
ciples] are interpreted’. However, the application
of these principles to the changing patterns of
media operation provide ‘the essential building
blocks for a quite comprehensive, fl exible and
changing “social theory of media”, relevant to our
times and of practical value in the ever widening
circle of public discussion of the role of mass
media in society’. See journalism: citizen
journalism; mcquail’s accountability of
media model, 1997.
▶Denis McQuail, McQuail’s Mass Communication
Th eory (Sage, 6th edition, 2010).
Norms Shared expectations or standards of
behaviour within a particular social group or
society. Any type of established group will
have norms, both peculiar to itself and shared
with the wider community. Of those norms
widely accepted in a society, some will operate
on a high, some on a low consensus. Any
individual’s perception and interpretation of
experience will be infl uenced by the norms of
the social groups and society to which he/she
belongs. Individuals generally take such norms
for granted. Communication between individu-
als likewise refl ects certain norms, such as those
of grammar and style of writing or norms of
conduct that guide social interaction.
Norms arise from such interaction between
various individuals and social groups; once
developed, they are passed on through social-
ization to new members. Norms are not static:
they are subject to renegotiation. Th ey play a
signifi cant part in maintaining the social posi-
tion of particular groups and individuals and
constitute an infl uential agent of informal social
control.
Th e media, as agents of communication and
socialization, are in a position to both reinforceor private abuse of power or corruption. Th ere
is an emphasis on neutrality and balance; most
of all, a belief in media accountability to society
(see mediapolis).
Soviet Media Theory (worth noting even
though the Soviet system has passed away)
derives from the postulates of Marx, Engels and
Lenin. Here, the media serve the interests of the
socialist state, the state being an embodiment of
all the members of a classless society. Because
the media are of the people, they belong to the
people. In practice, of course, they belonged to
the people’s leadership. Th e tasks of media are
to socialize the people into desirable norms as
defi ned in Marxist doctrine; to educate, inform,
motivate and mobilize in the aims and aspira-
tions of a socialist society. (See class.)
Development Media Th eory has arisen out of
special needs in the ‘Th ird World’ developing
nations (see macbride commission; media
imperialism). Th is theory eschews bad news
theory and favours positive reporting on the
grounds that for developing nations, often strug-
gling for economic survival in competition with
Western industrialized countries, reporting of
disasters and setbacks can substantially injure
the process of nation building.
The Democratic-Participant Media Theory
emphasizes the individual rights of access, of
citizen and minority groups, to the media, in
fact the right to communicate; to be served by
the media according to a more democratic
determination of need (see democracy and
the media). Thus the theory opposes the
concentration of ownership and rejects the role
of audience as tame receiver. Media should be
answerable, free of government or big-business
intervention, small-scale, interactive and
participative (see campaign for press and
broadcasting freedom; community radio;
right of reply).
In a later publication, ‘Mass media in the
public interest: towards a framework of norms
for media performance’ in Mass Media and
Society, edited by James Curran and Michael
Gurevitch (Edward Arnold, 1991), McQuail
re-examines the validity of normative models
because ‘attempts to formulate consistent
“theories” of the press’ become increasingly
diffi cult to sustain ‘when media technologies and
distribution systems are multiplying and when
there is less consensus about basic values than
in the past’. Th e dissolution of the Soviet Union
is a case in point, though it is arguable that the
‘Marxist’ Media Th eory continues to apply in
China and Cuba.