Media Organizations in Direct-Democratic Campaigns

Abstract

Media are a crucial actor in direct-democratic societies. In the political communication process, as we saw in Chapter 1 (see also Buchanan 2001), media basically transport political messages from political actors to citizens. Media thus serve democracy as an important and indispensable instrument. However, commercialization of the media, a shift from the dominance of journalistic values to the dominance of financial considerations, and a shift from citizen orientation to consumer orientation, puts in danger the democratic functions of the media.