Abstract

Media exist and act within a symbolic environment. At the same time, they influence and modify that environment. Focusing on the structure of the life-world - here considered as the fundamental place for production of sense and as the abiding basis of communicative relationships - we examine the crucial relationship between life-world and media. Such research approach is not easy since philosophy and social sciences have developed many different patterns to understand the communicative relationship and the production/circulation of meaning: a) Communication is developed within the framework of a common horizon of sense; b) Communication is the place of the unending and continuous intertwining, composing and discomposing of meanings; c) Communication expresses the irreducibility and the radical diversity of communicative subjects; d) Communication implies, and establishes itself in, a dialogical relationship. This paper shows that different ways to conceive and practice journalism, as well as different definitions of the role of informative media in building up a public democratic sphere, stem from each of these perspectives.