4.2, The social responsibility model
Chapter 6: Conclusion
This treatise is mainly a descriptive study, and it lacks a closer theoretical analysis of the identified press models. In particular, the libertarian ideals need to be analysed further within the South African context. It is an open question why these ideals are guarded so tightly by the press and the NGOs in South Africa. Is it because of the country's past and its experiences with heavy restrictions on press freedom? Also, the relationship between a robust media and freedom of expression needs to be eroblematized. It is all too often taken for granted that freedom of expression and other libertarian 'necessities' inevitably leads to a more open and healthy democracy (cf. chapter 4). A closer study would reveal that the complexities of a modern
democracy go far beyond freedom of expression and similar libertarian virtues.
Finally, communitarianism and public journalism opens up for an array of studies within the South African context. This 'people-driven' media ideology originated under certain conditions in the USA, but it is not unlikely that it corresponds with African community philosophies as well. Foremost,
communitarianism is an ideology of practice, and it cannot be studied in the academic institution alone.
6.3. Limitations of theory and analysis
While the method used in this treatise was adopted (or constructed) with a view to avoiding the limitations of pragmatics, it nonetheless shares some of the limitations of discourse analysis; which it also attempted as far as possible not to emulate.
There are inherent fallacies within much discourse theory which need to be addressed in terms of ontology, epistemology and methodology.
Firstly, with regard to ontology, i.e. the view of the nature of reality, discourse theory struggles particularly with two fallacies: idealism and relativism.
Social construction ism veers dangerously close to elevating language to the primary component of reality. The world is a construction of the words and expressions we choose, as it were. Such a view can lead to idealism, which tends to reduce the world to the ideas we have of it. A possible result is the triviaJization of social phenomena -- such as hunger and oppression - which hardly can be thoroughly researched through the analysis of language. Needless to say, an ontology which downplays the reality which exists beyond language mediation runs the danger of belittling social and natural misfortunes. A human tragedy is not only a matter of unfortunate discourse. Some Marxists scholars have been particularly hard on this
critique, as they uphold that the world is defined by economic forces rather than by discourses (Terre Blanche & Durrheim 1999: 168). It would be detrimental to let discourse theory slip into idealism.
Another potential fallacy of discourse theory, which also belongs to the ontological criticism, is the tendency to subscribe to some sort of relativism.
Relativism is a philosophical conviction which grows out of an empirical social fact:
pluralism. Since there are so many 'truths' coexisting, and since each of them seem to be the result of a personal conviction, it appears impossible to decide which one is better. It is easy to see that discourse theory, which is concerned with the
construction of discourses rather than establishing their truth, can easily be trapped in reducing the world to merely accounts and constructions with no moral
obligations.
Furthermore, if our interpretation of the text material is as relative as the texts themselves, then we are rendered morally indifferent to our research as well.
To avoid this misuse of discourse theory, the researcher needs to clarify her perception of language as the chief component of reality. Perhaps a more fruitful ontology would rest on the notion that one's preferred view of reality hardly has any impact on other coexisting realities. Such an ontological view would not come in conflict with discourse theory.
Secondly, with regard to epistemology, Le. the theory of how we achieve knowledge, discourse theory is troubled with its privilege of discourse mediation over other social activity. The external world cannot be accessed independently of
language, and our knowledge of the world comes through the active use of language. However, although language is more than a passive reflection of the external world, it does not follow that all knowledge is purely a refiection of linguistic mediation alone.
This fallacy of some social constructionists is what Baerveldt and Verheggen (1997: 5) call 'aboutism', i.e. the phenomenon that social constructionism tends to limit itself "to what is said about human feeling, thinking and acting." To avoid this pitfall, we must be clear on the difference between knowledge, truth and discourse.
We must not mesh truth and discourse, and assume that an analysis such as this treatise (or even discourse analysis proper) is the only method to study
epistemology.
We must rather acknowledge that there are both individual and social
epistemologies, i.e. epistemologies that are both concerned with single and multiple
agents, and that analysis is mainly concerned with the study of social practices of multiple agents (social epistemology). We therefore maintain that what we do in media analysis is to study the dominating discourses of larger social groups, and our epistemological preference is not based on a belief that discourse is a reproduction of individual or social truth. We will keep the measures of truth outside of this study, yet - and this is the main point of this epistemological clarification - we are not consequently discarding truth as a meaningful standard in other types of research.
Thus, this study maintains that veritistic epistemology (the epistemological tradition which puts a heavy emphasis on truth analysis (Gold man, 1999) is not necessarily contradictory to discourse theory.
Another weakness in an analysis of news discourse is the selection of appropriate texts, and a selection of the right cues which are paid attention to in each article. How can the reader know that the selected articles are not included on purpose to back the researcher's argument' Unfortunately, there is no practical way to examine this, since as many as 6000 articles were surveyed in the selection process. One must to a large extent trust the integrity of the researcher.
In the analysis of each article, however, it is easy to read through the article to inspect whether the selected - and omitted - phrases and discourses are relevant for analysis. Nevertheless, because the method lacks a tradition of systematic
academic practice, it can easily be exploited to carry out the researcher's political or personal agenda.
Because this analysis relies on the subjective identification of the link between words and discourses, it is easy to confuse the confirmation for one's own views with actual analysis. The discourses which can be identified under one subject heading (say, normative press theories) can be numerous and contradictory, but the study is not invaluable for that matter. The researcher must be open for contradictory
findings, and that principle is particularly important to retain when applying subjective approaches such as social constructionism.
This treatise does have its limitations, and these are perhaps more evident than what the holistic approach of SOCial constructionism seems to be. Perhaps a full- blown discourse analysis would have produced a different result; or perhaps the same result. This treatise pretends by no means to provide the last word on this subject. Hopefully it opens a way for many more detailed analyses by future students.