The Reciprocity of Journalism's Social Contract

This article traces the political-philosophical background of journalism's social contract metaphor. The social contract of the press finds its professional ideal in the intersection between republican and liberal philosophies originating with the classical philosophies of Rousseau, Locke and Hobbes. From these origins, the mechanism of contractual reciprocity is appropriated to the relationship between journalism and its audiences to expose hidden ideological traits within the profession. The concepts of rights and obligations found within a contractarian perspective thus offer a new way of conceptualising the role of journalism in democracy and the function of journalistic ideology. The press' social contract ideology entails a professional world-view that establishes journalism as a separate contractual partner with a mission to sustain the democratic order as it is expressed in the original political-philosophical social contract. This theoretical investigation of the ideological link between the two contractual metaphors reveals how journalism functions according to the contractual reciprocity principle, particularly with regard to its expectations of balanced rights and obligations within the democratic order.