Arrange the following normative media theories in chronological order: (A)…

Concept

Normative media theories describe how the press ought to operate in relation to political authority and society.

For chronological questions, compare the historical setting in which each theory emerged, not the order in which the labels appear in the stem.

Application

1. Authoritarian theory is the earliest: it reflects the controlled press systems of early modern absolute monarchies.

2. Libertarian theory developed later with Enlightenment ideas of individual liberty and freedom of the press.

3. Soviet Media theory followed the 1917 Russian Revolution and placed media under the communist state and party.

4. Social Responsibility theory emerged after the Second World War and was crystallized by the Hutchins Commission report in 1947.

Cross-check

The time markers—absolute monarchy, Enlightenment, 1917, and the post-war 1947 report—give the same sequence independently.

Contrast

• Libertarian → Authoritarian → Social Responsibility → Soviet reverses the first historical transition and places the post-war model before the Soviet model.

• Authoritarian → Libertarian → Social Responsibility → Soviet exchanges the two twentieth-century models.

• Libertarian → Soviet → Authoritarian → Social Responsibility places the earliest model after two later models.

Therefore, the chronological order is Authoritarian → Libertarian → Soviet Media → Social Responsibility, corresponding to (C), (A), (B), (D).