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Beyond Journalism: A Profession Between Information Society and Civil Society 181

(Neuman, 1991: 9–10) between interpersonal communication and mass
communication is gradually being closed. In other words, ‘civil society’ is also
being ‘mediatised’ (Bardoel, 1993: 57). There is, however, little or no journalistic
intervention involved in these new, direct forms of media communication.
The existing vertical communication between citizens and the state is also
expected to become easier and to bypass such traditional intermediaries as
political parties and journalists. Many observers have remarked that the modern
technological opportunities for direct interaction with citizens and direct
democracy are even a panacea for the limitations of representative democracy. [...]
The position of journalism is not only under debate as a direct result of the
trends in technology, such as the advance of (satellite) television, the surplus of
information and the advent of interactive media. These are also reflected in
wider developments in society that are equally threatening to the journalist’s
position.
This technology reinforces the tendency both to decentralization through
horizontal communication and to centralization in the form of a globalized
communication flow. As new and old media are linked in a global network, the
individual journalist is reduced to just a cog in an ever widening ‘communication
machine’. Of course, the globalization of the communication structure began
long ago with the advance of internationally operating press agencies. But the
pace of development is increasing with the advent of worldwide news stations
such as CNN, databases and expert systems. Separate media and individual
journalists are increasingly helpless in the face of this global flow of information.
Münch (1993: 276) compares the modern journalist with a disc jockey playing
their choice of music for a dancing public. The material is produced elsewhere;
the disc jockey’s job is simply to select and present.
A further threat is presented by the erosion of the nation-state, until now an
important breeding ground and source of support for the journalistic profession.
This traditional centre of political power and sovereignty is losing powers in two
directions, to more central and to more decentralized centres of power: on the
one hand to Europe, on the other to regional and local entities. During the
greater part of the 20th century, states Sandel (1992), the nation-state was
regarded as the centre of democratic self-government and as the expression of a
collective social identity. In the Western world, however, the nation-state seems
no longer able to fulfil those two historical functions – because it is too big to
allow the expression of certain feelings of local identity and too small to maintain
its hold on global economic processes. Dahlgren (1991: 12) concludes: ‘Today, the
nation-state as a political entity is in deep crisis, beset not only with fiscal
dilemmas but also with problems of legitimation. This crisis of course goes in
tandem with the transnationalization of capital and the dispersion of production
with the international economy.’
Globalization and the diminishing significance of the nation-state have
both tangible and psychological implications. The development of individual
lifestyles on the one hand and global connections on the other, leads to a socio-
cultural ‘Umwertung aller Werte’, in which politics are given a different, more
modest role to play. These changes have been defined in such terms as postmodern