[ecrea] Closing the gap in representation: public service and activism for the democratization of the media

*International Congress: **Closing the gap in representation: public 
service and activism for the democratization of the media*
*16-17 March 2017. Faculty of Communication. Seville University*

Organized by R+D Project “Relationship dynamics in the face of social 
change: contexts, content, producers, audiences, and produsers in the 
news programmes of TVE and YLE”. Main Researchers: M. Á. Vázquez Medel 
and M. Lamuedra Graván

*CALL FOR PAPERS*

Our system of representation of the popular will – political and media – 
is currently undergoing movements, recalling the shift of tectonic 
plates, which are generating earthquakes and rifts. Specifically, the 
value of journalism as a space for mediation between citizens and their 
representatives – and for highlighting agreements and disagreements – is 
called into question when the media distance themselves from the general 
public interest. This telling divide has grown wider, leading to a 
deluge of cases of disjunction between the popular will ‘represented’ in 
the media and that evinced afterwards in the ballot box. The profound 
changes in the political consensuses that have predominated for decades 
and the resulting tendency towards polarization ought to be understood 
as part of the very process of crisis of the current model of social 
organization and representation.

Taking countries like Spain and the USA as examples, it can be observed 
that the credibility of their media systems has plummeted over the last 
few decades (see Kovack & Rosenstiel, 2003; Informes Digital News, 2016; 
and Valera, 2016). In the case of the USA, the support that Hillary 
Clinton was lent by the media – regarded as the champions of the status 
quo – seems to have scuttled her election campaign. In the UK, a country 
in which the phone-hacking scandal involving The News of the World and 
the subsequent parliamentary investigation into the issue have raised 
public awareness about the need to democratize media power, the aversion 
shown by most of the media to Brexit was incapable of tipping the 
balance. As to Spain, a recent study (Mateos & Lamuedra, 2016) has 
revealed a greater and more qualified demand by citizens for quality 
journalism, who, after the 2011 protests, focused their demands for 
change directly on the political, media, and trade union divide. In the 
three aforementioned countries, there are social agents, such as 
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), the Media Reform Coalition, 
Foro de Asociaciones de Periodistas, REMC, and Teledetodos, which have 
redoubled their efforts to reform the media system; in all three cases, 
political and media polarization is a burgeoning or deep-rooted problem.

Social, political, academic, and journalistic awareness of the strategic 
role played in democracy by the mass media, in general, and journalism, 
in particular, has been heightened over the past few years. In such 
processes, those associations or platforms that could be called 
‘Activists for the Democratization of the Media’ have stepped up their 
efforts, calling for a reform of the media system in order that it may 
serve the purposes of democracy. In this context, the public media 
appear, as a fundamental variable, as part and parcel of the problem 
and/or solution: on the one hand, they are the focus of attention of 
activists; and, on the other, a powerful tool for dealing with the 
contradictions confronting our political systems. In those countries 
where public service journalism is well established current affairs 
receive better coverage, there are higher turnout rates at elections, 
and a greater involvement in politics, as well as a lesser degree of 
far-right extremism (Nielsen et al, 2016: 21-54) and, therefore, social 
polarization.

The aim of this CFP is to put the spotlight on the relationship existing 
between several factors:

(1) The current state of affairs as regards the mass media and the 
credibility/legitimacy crisis affecting them.
(2) The relationship between the mass media and the socio-political 
changes occurring on an international level: the rejection of the 
neoliberal status quo, channelled through social protests since 2011, 
and now increasing more through movements for regeneration emerging from 
the left and the xenophobic right.
(3) The relationship between: the (a) political divide, (b) media 
divide, (c) enhanced public awareness of the mass media’s role, and (d) 
activism for media democratization of the media.
(4) The way in which these factors of change are generating a more 
polarized media system (Hallin & Mancini, 2004).
(5) The role played by public media companies in producing, bridging, or 
reformulating the aforementioned gap between political and media 
representation.

Within the proposed framework of this CFP, the following issues are of 
special interest:

• The discourses of citizens and media professionals, above all those 
working in the public media sector, on what journalism is and should 
strive to be and on its credibility and capacity to influence democracy.
• The role, challenges, and case studies of the ‘Activists for the 
Democratization of the Media’.
• The role, challenges, and case studies of public media systems as 
regards the gap in representation.
• Aspects that allow us to revise the theses of Hallin and Mancini on 
the characteristics of the different media systems and the place the 
public media ought to occupy within them.
• The list of variables inherent to the mass media, such as their 
ownership structure, values, and work routines.
• The notion of public service held by professional journalists in their 
training, work culture, and institutional framework.
• The impact of the digital environment on the demand for social, 
political, and legislative change.
• The origin – or origins – of the transfers and mergers between the 
political, economic, and media powers.
• The role of public service journalism in the face of increasing 
information consumption on social networks, with the renewed relevance 
of both the documentary genres with a journalistic approach or video 
activism and the spreading of rumours and simulations.
• The evolution of public awareness of the need for public service 
journalism and a democracy-centric media design: the influence of 
educommunication.

*References*

Negredo S., Vara-Miguel, A. & Amoedo, A. (2016) Digital News Report ES. 
Available at 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2eyawMqcpTyLVpGR0NLQzAtcmc/view
Newman, N., with Fletcher, R., Levy D. & Nielsen, R.K. (2016) Digital 
News Report USA. Reuters, Institute for Study of Journalism. Available 
at 
http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Digital-News-Report-2016.pdf?utm_source=digitalnewsreport.org&utm_medium=referral 

Nielsen, R.K., Fletcher, R. Seehl, A. & Levi, D. (2016) “Analysis of the 
Relation Between and Impact of Public Service Media and Private Media”. 
Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism.
Hallin, D. & Mancini, P. (2004) “Comparing Media Systems”. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press MacIntyre. Alasdair (1981), After Virtue: a 
study in moral theory. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd.
Kovach, B. & Rosenstiel, T. Los elementos del Periodismo. Madrid: 
Santillana, 2003.
Mateos, C. & Lamuedra, M. (2016) “La televisión pública desde el 
imaginario social”. Congreso Iberoamericano de Comunicación. 
“Comunicación, Cultura y Cooperación”. Madrid 4-8 July 2016. Madrid.
Valera, S. (2016) “Quiebra total del sistema de medios español: 
requisitos para sobrevivir en el nuevo ecosistema”. Cuadernos de 
Periodistas”. Available at 
http://www.cuadernosdeperiodistas.com/quiebra-total-del-sistema-medios-espanol-requisitos-sobrevivir-nuevo-ecosistema/

*/The authors of the selected papers will be invited to publish them in 
the 2017 monographic number of IC, Revista Científica de Información y 
Comunicación. IC is indexed in SCOPUS and in Thomson Reuters’ “Emerging 
Sources Citation Index”. If you would like to participate, please send a 
titled abstract (max. 700 words), with the name of the author and five 
keywords to: (mlamuedra /at/ us.es)./*


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