The topic “Normative Theories of the Media” refers to the research tradition identified for the past 50 years in relation to the Four Theories of the Press by Siebert, Peterson and Schramm, published by the University of Illinois Press (1956). This book is by now outdated and has lately been challenged by books such as Hallin and Mancini’s Comparing Media Systems (Cambridge University Press 2004) and Jakubowicz’ Rude Awakening: Social and Media Change in Central and Eastern Europe (Hampton Press 2007). A forthcoming contribution by Clifford Christians, Theodore Glasser, Denis McQuail, Kaarle Nordenstreng and Robert White is Journalism in Democratic Societies: Normative Theories of the Media (Illinois University Press 2009).

The colloquium was organized by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Tampere, and sponsored by the Åkerlund Foundation in Tampere and the Finnish university network for communication sciences.