Journalists as Democratic Agents & Keepers of Meaning (The Dewey-Lippmann Debate)
“The majority is never right! Never, I say!
That’s one of the social lies a free, thinking man is bound to rebel against.
Who make up the majority in any given country? Is it the wise men, or the fools? ….” (Ibsen, 1882)
The above question was posed by Dr. Stark, the protagonist in a popular Norwegian play by Henrik Ibsen. It not only reflects the mood of people in the end 19th – early 20th century, but can also be called the basic conceptual question that spurred the debate between Walter Lippmann, a journalist in his 20’s and the philosopher John Dewey, in the early 1920s. Dewey believed that human beings had the potential to make intelligent judgment. …show more content…
He supported the establishment of an elite body of experts who would help people see the real, accurate pictures of the world. Lippmann argued that people’s exposure to the world is limited. The information people receive through other sources, media, opinions, educations, and beliefs create “picture in their heads” or a “pseudo-environment” which affect their judgments. Hence, to know what the real world is like, people often resort to maps of the world. Again, Lippmann points out that maps (or guidance) provided by random sources can be tools of propaganda. In other words, the creator of the maps can affect the public’s decisions as well. Further, Lippmann in his book ‘The Phantom Public’ expressed his doubts about the very existence of ‘public’ capable to cause social change. Thus, at the level of the nation, public opinion is either manufactured or phantom (McAllister, …show more content…
They claim to provide their audience with the ‘real’ picture of the world. But an interesting question is “What’s really real” (Babbie, 2004)? A postmodern view says that all that’s “real” are the images that are derived through some point of view. A country having a single media channel (i.e. a single elite body disseminating synthesized information) has often been an indicator of propaganda/ suppression of right to information of people. History has showed us that most dictatorial regimes have at first tried to censor, then take over media. As Sir John Dalberg-Actonhad said “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Thus the power of being the single source of information in a country can lead the public to be
“The majority is never right! Never, I say!
That’s one of the social lies a free, thinking man is bound to rebel against.
Who make up the majority in any given country? Is it the wise men, or the fools? ….” (Ibsen, 1882)
The above question was posed by Dr. Stark, the protagonist in a popular Norwegian play by Henrik Ibsen. It not only reflects the mood of people in the end 19th – early 20th century, but can also be called the basic conceptual question that spurred the debate between Walter Lippmann, a journalist in his 20’s and the philosopher John Dewey, in the early 1920s. Dewey believed that human beings had the potential to make intelligent judgment. …show more content…
He supported the establishment of an elite body of experts who would help people see the real, accurate pictures of the world. Lippmann argued that people’s exposure to the world is limited. The information people receive through other sources, media, opinions, educations, and beliefs create “picture in their heads” or a “pseudo-environment” which affect their judgments. Hence, to know what the real world is like, people often resort to maps of the world. Again, Lippmann points out that maps (or guidance) provided by random sources can be tools of propaganda. In other words, the creator of the maps can affect the public’s decisions as well. Further, Lippmann in his book ‘The Phantom Public’ expressed his doubts about the very existence of ‘public’ capable to cause social change. Thus, at the level of the nation, public opinion is either manufactured or phantom (McAllister, …show more content…
They claim to provide their audience with the ‘real’ picture of the world. But an interesting question is “What’s really real” (Babbie, 2004)? A postmodern view says that all that’s “real” are the images that are derived through some point of view. A country having a single media channel (i.e. a single elite body disseminating synthesized information) has often been an indicator of propaganda/ suppression of right to information of people. History has showed us that most dictatorial regimes have at first tried to censor, then take over media. As Sir John Dalberg-Actonhad said “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Thus the power of being the single source of information in a country can lead the public to be