Journalism and Corporate Agendas of the Media

“To seek the truth and do no harm” is the rudimentary ethical consideration that journalists aim to follow in today’s democratic society, while fulfilling their fundamental role of providing citizens with truthful information. The very concept of journalism evolved from the philosophical theories attributed to John Milton, an English philosopher, who outlined the Self-Righting Theory – to access unlimited information by allowing all ideas to be discussed in the hopes that the right one will surface – and John Locke, a First Political Scientist, who developed the Social Contract – citizens should elect other citizens to rule, as opposed to authority – an early form of democracy. It is the Social Contract, in association with the Libertarian Theory of the Press, which allowed the concept of journalists as “watchdogs” to ensue. The “watchdog” concept outlined the idea that citizens must overlook actions taken by politicians – and the term “journalist” was coined. The Anglo-American seminal concept of “freedom of speech” and “freedom of the press” was later developed during the Renaissance, and challenged authorities by means of the printing press providing mass dissemination of information. As democratic of a concept as this seemed, a wave of corporate domination led by the likes of William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer and Roy Thompson surfaced in North America, threatening the fundamental role of journalism in a democratic society. By focusing more on profits gathered from advertisements and yellow journalism, rather than on context published in news stories, corporate greed caused a concentration of media ownership, and monopolization of the industry. Since the North American commercial mass media is still experiencing an era of corporate domination, it is argued that the fundamental role of journalism in a democratic society – to search for the unbiased truth - is blurred by the drive to maximize profits.

The seminal concept of “freedom of the press” was largely developed with the help of a legal precedent involving John Peter Zenger and Joseph Howe who were both charged with seditious libel, but then acquitted on accounts of “truth as a defense” – truth is better than libel, and their accusations contained elements of truth. The elastic concept of “journalist,” which is a term that can be attributed to the likes of an internet blogger, as well as reporters who are involved in the conventional media, is a concept that has helped define “freedom of the press”. Anyone and everyone has the right to publish what is considered journalistic information with no regulations or restrictions beyond the legal ones. With this growing power of journalism aided by “freedom of the press” and increasing value of information, comes a paradoxical controversy; “freedom of the press” resulted in unfettered economic freedom, rather than free speech. This economic growth propelled by