Discussion On News Freedom And Social Responsibility Of The Press

During the three decades of the Reform and Opening-up Policy, China's socialist market economy has made a distinguished accomplishment which has brought great vigor and vitality to the journalism. Meanwhile the boom of the journalism is also promoting the economic and social development effectively. However, along with the rapid progression of the globalization, different trends of thought made China's journalism be faced with unprecedented difficulties and challenges, such as, the unsoundness of interrelated legal institutions, which could not guarantee the flow of information and the right of the pubic to know; the loss of discourse power, which gradually made people become"the silent broad masses"; one-sided pursuit of high economic benefit, which let the journalism lose its credibility little by little; the non-standard competition, which turned the journalism inclined to the vulgarization; the violation of morality and professionalism of newsman, which made some journalists forget their social responsibility and report unauthentic coverage in the name of news freedom, and caused corruption deeds like the overflow of false news, news blackmail, etc.The journalists, who work on journalism and communication, are the main factors and drivers in realizing their social functions. Therefore, it is a worth and serious issue that how to realize the harmony and unity between the freedom and social responsibility of the journalists by adopting some more efficient means and forms.This thesis begins with the analysis of the press freedom and the ideas of social responsibility and then summarizes the relationship between them according to the study of literature review, historical materials and cases. Finally the thesis tries to find out efficient measures to solve the problems and make the development of journalism accompanied with our social economic situations.Since 1644 Milton first put forward the slogan of press freedom, later Locke and Mill published many works on Enlightenment thoughts, the theory of liberalism journalism gradually came into being. Until the 20th century, Hawking first proposed the theory of social responsibility in his book, he opposes the view of liberalism journalism which is under no restraint but advocates that press freedom should be guaranteed through the fulfillment of the social responsibilities. In our country, the connotations of press freedom vary in different historical periods.After analyzing the development and changes of the society's expectation towards the journalists at different historical periods, the present researcher argues that the ideal journalists should be like this: the catcher of equity, justice and conscience, the circulator of real and useful information, the witness and recorder of social and historical development process, the servant who will enrich people's life. Actually, this is to raise requirements for the journalists' social responsibility. The journalists are faced with many difficulties and problems because of market economy tide and the western liberal ideas, based on this situation, the author believes that three things need to be done and strengthened: firstly, improve the moral level and quality of the journalists, guide them to establish a right view of press freedom, enhance their sense of social responsibility and cultivate their moral conscience and self-discipline; secondly, establish and improve the mechanism of supervision and management, set up a code of conduct for the journalists, establish mechanism of mass media supervision and system of encouragement and penalties; thirdly, improve the system of rule of law for journalism, make more comprehensive laws and regulations for the news reports, raise the legal awareness of the journalists and the people in the society. Only in this way can the harmony and unity of press freedom and social responsibility be realized effectively, so as to ensure the healthy and orderly operation of the mass media in our country and to promote the development and prosperity of the socialist market economy.