Nothing in public journalism remo ves power from the journalists or the corporations they work for. For instance, the movement of minorities and women to promote diversity in the newsroom is a form of democratization and a serious way to empower disempowered elements of the public by representing them in person among journalists. This does not offer any direct accountability, however, of the n ews institution to the public. Local or national news councils, never very popular among journalists, afford legitimacy to community press critics. These are all ways in which a true fourth model might arrive, but this is not what public journalism proposes.
Public journalism begins inside the trustee model.
It urges that journalists themselves re-imagine their work not as informing the public but as opening up democratic deliberation and discussion. Even so, conventional journalists have responded to public journalism as a dangerous threat. Public journalists have risked ridicule and scathing criticism inside their newsroom. Although an outsider may detect the conserva tism of public journalism, many newspaper insiders experience it differently. The excerpt is taken from an upcoming book entitled The Idea of Public Journalism.