Media Influence On Politics

Examining effect that media have on politics and vice versa, scholars point out two approaches: the structural and actor-oriented (Aelst et al. 2008, p.496; Oates 2008). The structural approach implies the fictional power of media, which serves state by maintaining ideological line and supporting all political decisions of the dominant group. The state-controlled media acts as a political agent and not the ‘watchdog’. In many cases there are no legal means to execute such oppression, however, fear of being punished make it impossible for media to be unbiased. These cases would be excluded from the discussion, while the focus of attention will be put on countries where the fourth estate is in power – actor-oriented approach, respectively.
The rise of technologies resulted in the growing importance of informative and objective news reporting. News producers faced the challenge of competitiveness in gaining public preference; thus, the commercial interest actually determined priority of being independent from political pressure. Moreover, the concept of free press perfectly suited ideals of popular representation of government. In democratic societies there is a separation of power into three pillars: judicial, executive, and legislative. The legislative accounts for creation of laws, executive takes decisions on laws implementation, while judicial reviews legitimacy of both of them. In liberal democracies, people are always regarded as sovereign, ‘entering into a social contract with a governing establishment that will serve popular interests’ (Kirkpatrick 1998, p.85). Even though, press does not have legal force over three official branches of power; it has provided citizenry with their right to observe the implementation...

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...r of countries. Organizations like Reporters Without Borders, in particular, monitor progress of media freedom around the world. Wikileaks wages the war of information freedom leaving no chance for political machinations and secrets. The diversity of media actors obviously creates a healthy environment of transparent, powerful, and free media. In all liberal democracies press is still an independent powerful actor. Newspapers in the UK like Guardian or Independent, for instance, have long-term ‘tradition for editorial independence’ and open criticism to government (Schneider 2014). Same ideals are praised in France, Germany, Scandinavian countries, the USA etc. Even though there are contradictory opinions of scholars on the future of the fourth estate, the most probable states that media will act as the powerful branch, coexisting with new technological innovations.