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Beyond Journalism: A Profession Between Information Society and Civil Society 189

necessary to create new guarantees or to develop new media ethics (Dennis, 1994;
Harwood Group, 1995). It goes without saying that training and education
should play an important role here.
At the end of the 20th century, journalism must once again seek its place in a
changing society. A society that is secular, open, more dependent on media,
transnational and whose members are relatively well educated. This implies that
the profession can be bypassed more easily, but it makes journalism more valuable
at the same time. The concerns outlined in the introduction are legitimate. There is
ever more direct, unmediated television reporting – both worldwide and local.
There are ever more interactive communication media. The social dissemination of
information is increasingly individual and it is increasingly difficult to organize
getting together and debate. ‘Journalism’ – if it ever existed as such – is falling
apart. On the one hand, there is a need for information brokers, on the other, for
directors and conductors of the public debate.
The function of classical journalism will probably shift to the latter position,
also because the profession is one of the last strongholds of generalism in an
increasingly specialized and fragmented society (Bardoel, 1988: 157). Greater
individual freedom for citizens produces, more than ever, the need for common
orientation. This might be the most important mission for journalists in the
future – a mission that calls for responsibilities and skills beyond the present
journalistic practice.

References

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