Social responsibility theory involved the view that media ownership and operation are a form of public trust or stewardship, rather than an unlimited private franchise. For the privately-owned media,...

Social responsibility theory involved the view that media ownership and operation are a form of public trust or stewardship, rather than an unlimited private franchise. For the privately-owned media, social responsibility theory has been expressed and applied mainly in the form of codes of professional journalistic standards, ethics and conduct or in various kinds of council or tribunal for dealing with individual complaints against the press, or by way of public commissions of inquiry into particular media.