Page 198 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Sabine Lang

with civic or public journalism initiatives, aimed at a more engaging
and activating media culture that presents options for citizens to get
involved. These initiatives rely in part on older ideas about community
journalism, but they also bear some resemblance to media activation
initiatives in less developed countries. If these experiments seem to be
a passing trend, what other formats may be rising to fill this need for
more active community reporting? Again, we need comparative research
that addresses the conditions for success and the sustainability of such
initiatives in different societal settings.

Strengthening Local Publics
What are the conditions for strengthening local publics, which in
some ways seem as media-driven and fractured as national publics? Are
strong media systems, media competition, media differentiation, access
to information from the local government, and participatory venues
sufficiently encompassing variables to assess the viability of local publics
across cultures and political systems? Some researchers argue that the
sublocalization of publics does not harbor positive effects as much as
it appears to be a surrogate for “the lacking orientation function of the
media” (Jonscher 1995, 51 [transl. S. L.]). Whereas these new subpublics
enable communication and exchange among the diverse partial worlds
of the locals, critics argue that they destroy the “integrity of the local
public sphere by segmenting it and ultimately result in the dualization of
society into groups that are oriented towards the larger issues and those
thatforminpartiallifeworldssuchasselfhelpgroupsandneighborhood
initiatives” (Jonscher 1995, 52 [transl. S. L.]). As a result, such being the
critique, the segmented local public could hardly offer “a base for joint
discussion and opinion formation” (Jonscher 1995, 52 [transl. S. L.]).
We need to ask empirically and comparatively, therefore, whether the
sublocalization of publics, that is, using alternative neighborhood media
or multiculturally oriented programming, results in weakening the local
public or whether it contributes to its strengthening.
The integration of local publics is ultimately a governance process.
Studies are needed to show how specific regime types allow various civic
actors such as NGOs into the public, how much credibility and accep-
tance they are being awarded, and whether they take part in confronta-
tional or – to the other extreme – in rather co-opted settings. We need
research on who is being portrayed as being a legitimate actor within the
local governance regime, who is linked to the official Web sites – and who
is being excluded from the network of local initiatives. Because the most

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