Journalism for Democratic Attitudes

Journalism plays a crucial role in democracy. Unfortunately, democracy is in decline around the world. I argue for a normative-democratic ideal journalists can follow to promote attitudes that are crucial for democracy. My analysis runs through what Susanna Siegel calls salience principles: norms that determine what journalistic mass media puts forward as worthy of and demanding our attention. I begin by justifying three kinds of democratic attitude that are crucial for democracy from a variety of perspectives in democratic theory: knowledge of public affairs, the recognition of being part of a larger public, and mutual toleration. I then elaborate a normative ideal of salience principles that journalists should adhere to such that they facilitate these democratic attitudes. In addition to the Importance Principle and Public-as-Protagonist Principle suggested by Siegel, I propose that we should add one other salience principle (the Mutual Toleration Facilitation Principle) and an ancillary principle (the Democratic Motivation Principle). Throughout the paper, I give practical guidance to journalists as to how to adhere to the principles. Finally, I deal with the objection that adhering to the normative-democratic ideal I propose is financially infeasible for journalists.