Media, Democracy and Globalisation

We live in society today where the media plays an alarmingly big part in how we see the world, and how our opinions are formed, whether it is from what we watch on television to who we vote for.

The media has helped to make our society a democracy by placing emphasis on issues that at one stage in time would have been considered strictly private issues such as child birth, homosexuality, child care, domestic violence, and sexual harassment. Due to this democracy we now look differently at politics, and are more active in whom we want in office, and how we want our children to be raised.

The globalization of the media has increased our access to information about people and events around the world, but in the process it has also shifted issues on what should or should not be in the public domain.

The media performs an essential part in our democracy socially, politically, economically and culturally. It is the main source of political information and allows us to access political debate. It allows us as an audience to be informed and to participate in how we should perceive things.

Democracy needs the media to provide people with a wide range of opinions, analysis and debates on important issues. It needs the media to be able to reflect on the diversity of the audience, and it needs the media to be accountable for what is going on around them, and to be diverse and deliberate in how they communicate these issues to audiences.

The increased information given to audiences has a `democratising effect', mobilising audiences into action, which in turn has significant implications for governments and businesses.

International relations and events in our democracy are more visible and transparent, have more domesti...

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...rtisements that accompany them are dominated by the success of white, wealthy westerners and the examples of the dangers posed to them are poor, black, non-westerners. Women are also represented in the media by glamorous models, actresses and news presenters.

The problem with a globalised media in a democracy is that it can ruin the public infrastructure and that in turn means the demise of the public sector, which results in privatisation and more commercialism.

Media ownership and media concentration becomes a problem when audiences are not becoming well informed because the audience or public can not act as an authoritarian.

The danger of living in such a world means that while there is an increase in the mode of communication, new forms of identity and community there is an equal loss in political sovereignty, economic opportunity and cultural diversity.