Page 191 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

180 COMMUNICATION AND CITIZENSHIP

Government/state
The specific roles of government, or—in a European terminology —the
state, may be understood in terms of either oneself or various political
or social institutions being in control to varying degrees. In the Danish
sample, the state is particularly conceived of as a rather distant yet
powerful force, whether for better or for worse, regulating
environmental protection, business practices, education and the
economy. For example, in several stories the state comes across to the
interviewees as a source of (creating) employment, and it is singled out
for criticism because it (the National Bank) lays off people from coin
production and moves the Royal Mint to West Germany:

…it’s terrible. They are closing down a place of work, you know,
and moving because they want it to be cheaper, you know, and
leaving a lot of people unemployed, and that seems crazy—that
people who have been happy with their job for many years
suddenly haven’t got anything.
(My translation, passim, K.B.J.)

In the American sample, a lack of personal control was expressed and
often followed by mentions of others who could exercise some control
or power. Government is one source of control having power over
people: sometimes, it was personified in ‘Ronald Reagan’, other times it
was seen as a more amorphous force, against which it would be difficult
or impossible to fight. ‘You can’t fight city hall,’ offered one woman.
Another interviewee focused on Reagan and his power to place SDI on
the national agenda:

I think it’s just an idea that Reagan has planned up in his head and
I think he’s gonna go ahead on it, and the public be damned, just
like Bork… I don’t think Reagan can accept a position from the
American people, or anything. I think he’s gotta have it. We’re
gonna have it, because he wants it. He’s gonna ram it right down
our throats.

Government as powerful other is not restricted to American
government. When talking about apartheid in South Africa, one female
respondent said: