Professor, Department of Speech Communication Arts & Sciences, The City University of New York – Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York, United States Email id: thaas@brooklyn.cuny.edu
This article discusses public journalism's past influences. Following an overview of public journalism's basic tenets, the article proceeds to trace their historical roots from the famous Lippmann–Dewey debate in the 1920s, through the reports of the Hutchins Commission on Freedom of the Press in the 1940s and 1950s, to a number of theoretical and empirical works on deliberative democracy in the 1990s. It concludes by summarising the most important conclusions drawn.
Public journalism, Elections, Freedom of press, Deliberative democracy, Participation, Lippmann-Dewey debate, Hutchins Commission
