The information media must, of course, be thought of as contri­buting to social harmony and stability. Certain things the populace should know; other things-harmful things to society-the people should not know.

The power elite will either directly operate the mass media, or will control them or dictate their actions, leading to a monolithic journalism of conformity and harmony.

The goal is political and social equilibrium brought about by a submission to authority. Although there are some notable differences between a Communist authoritarian regime and a right-wing one in terms of organization and procedures, they are “basically alike”.

Power, as Lord Acton states, does tend to corrupt. Power is also active and insistent; it must intervene-it must direct, supervise, set standards, define responsibility, eliminate non-conformists and eccentrics, and it must generally make the society march to its unified and regular drumbeat.

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Here is what one recent writer says of Marcuse and his idea of freedom:

“Freedom of speech is not an overriding good, for to allow freedom of speech in the present society is to assist in the propaga­tion of error. The truth is carried by the revolutionary minorities, such as Marcuse and the majority have to be liberated by being re-educated into the truth by this minority, who are entitled to suppress rival and harmful opinions.”

The authoritarian maintains that people in general desire leadership; they like simple, straightforward, easy solutions and actions; they want decisions made for them Eric Hoffer points out in many of his writings that authoritarianism tries to reduce greatly the variety of aims, motives, interests, human types and, above all, “the categories and units of power”.

In a libertarian society-even in one which has compromised many of its freedoms-there is considerable stress on divorcing government from journalism as much as possible. As Franklin Littell has pointed out in his cogent little essay on social patho­logy, the “existence of strong centers of thought and discipline separate from the state” is especially important to the lover of liberty.

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This is why libertarian journalists have always-until per­haps recently-shuddered at the thought of government meddling in the affairs of the press, setting goals and standards, and the like.

Unlike authoritarianism, libertarianism is a philosophy revered by non-elitists and democrats-by those who feel that much can be learned from being exposed to ideas and opinions with which they disagree. This concept is basic in libertarian theory.

It has, of course, been well expressed by such persons as Milton, Mill. Locke and Jefferson, but here is how a contemporary writer has expressed this symbiosis of free expression and democracy.

“Democracy is based on a profound insight into human nature, the realization that all men are sinful, all are imperfect, all are prejudiced, and none knows the whole truth That is why we need liberty and why we have an obligation to hear all men. Liberty gives us a chance to learn from other people, to become aware of our own limitations, and to correct our bias. Even when we disagree with other people we like to think that they speak from good motives, and while we realize that all men are limited, we do not let ourselves imagine that any man is bad. Democracy is a political system for people who are not too sure that they are right.”

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Daniel P. Moynihan says that journalism lacks “an epistemology which is shared by all respected members of the profession” He does not maintain that this epistemology be forced on journalism by some force such as press council, but he does feel that if journalism is to be a profession, there must be basic knowledge agreed upon by all “the professionals”. Presumably, this will only occur in a system where professionalism has progressed to the extent that all journalists will be products of a common education so that a standard body of knowledge and theory of ethics has been agreed upon.

John C. Merrill defines ‘professional journalism’ programme as one which will prepare a student to be a professional journalist. It should prepare him somewhat to be a practicing journalist. The teachers of all journalism courses should try to achieve that end. It is not sufficient to believe that all that a journalist needs is simply native intelligence, curiosity, a desire to learn, imagination, basic literacy and energy.

It is necessary to have higher education to become a professional journalist. As journalism education grows and as it becomes more professional and more complex, departments of journalism gather additional ideas and techniques; yet, besides the specialised courses in journalism, there is need to widen the interests and fields of the would-be journalist.