THE DEMOCRATIC ROLE OF CAMPAIGN JOURNALISM

Abstract

Campaign journalism is a distinctive but under-researched form of editorialised news reporting that aims to influence politicians rather than inform voters. In this it diverges from liberal norms of social responsibility, but instead campaigning newspapers make claims to represent the interests or opinions of publics such as their readers or groups affected by the issue. This could be understood as democratically valid in relation to alternative models such as participatory or corporatist democracy. This essay examines journalists' understanding of the identity and views of these publics, and how their professional norms are operationalised in their journalistic practice in relation to five case studies in the Scottish press. The campaigns are analysed in terms of four normative criteria associated with corporatist and participatory democracy: firstly, the extent to which subjective advocacy is combined with objectivity and accuracy; secondly, the extent to which civic society organisations are accorded access; thirdly, whether the disadvantage of resource-poor groups in society is compensated for; and finally, to what extent the mobilisation of public support for the campaigns aims to encourage an active citizenry.

Keywords:

• campaigns
• democracy
• partisanship
• political participation
• professional practice
• public

Notes

1. Member of the Scottish Parliament.

2. The sample period was between January 2000 and December 2005, delineated by the availability of electronic archives and the limits of journalists' memories, and the number of newspapers was constrained by the limits of available resources.

3. For instance, The Scotsman only ran one serious political campaign—against the Scottish regiments merging (2002), and otherwise ran campaigns for a Scottish national anthem (2004), for the Golden Eagle to be named as Scotland's national bird (2004), and for St Andrew's Day to be a national holiday (2002). Edinburgh's city newspaper, The Evening News, ran a number of spirited short campaigns, especially opposition to parking fines (2002) and a new traffic management scheme (2005), but nothing as sustained or political as the Evening Times's “Hands Off Yorkhill” campaign, which was also recognised at the Scottish Press Awards in 2005. The Aberdeen Press and Journal only engaged in fundraising campaigns, consistent with its less partisan approach.

4. For instance, the opening line of the article that launched the campaign read: “A RECOMMENDATION to close the Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital and ultimately Yorkhill Sick Kids has provoked a furious reaction” (Evening Times, 9 October 2003).

5. For example, “Yet bizarrely, board executives have even claimed a new hospital had been their idea all the time” (Evening Times, 1 October 2004).

6. For instance, “The case for the campaign against hard drugs is irrefutable. It is so obvious it does not even have to be stated” (leader column, Daily Record, 3 March 2001).

7. For example, “The Inspectorate of Education staff visited Dungavel in October 2002 and found ‘serious shortfalls’ in education facilities” (The Herald, 15 August 2003).