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government affecting media
Importance of press/mass media
Importance of press/mass media
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Siebert, Peterson, and Schramm’s “Four Theories of the Press” argue that “the press always takes on the form and coloration of the social and political structures within which it operates” (p. 1). The book supports this argument by discussing authoritarian, libertarian, social responsibility, and Soviet-totalitarian theories of the press. The authoritarian theory of the press developed in 16th and 17th century England. England lived under a monarchy and the people were never to question the monarchy’s right to rule. Truth and wisdom were reserved for the few divinely appointed authorities. Under the authoritarian state, all people and privately owned operations were to serve the state and the truth as dictated by the wisdom of the monarchy. The authoritarian theory was also influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, which did not allow dissent or true independent thought from its parishioners. Mass media mirrored these societal rules. Privately owned industries were controlled by the state through a system of patents and licenses. The press was also controlled through a patent and license system, preventing it from having full freedom to question the monarchy’s right to rule, though minor dissent about independent issues was allowed. Ultimately, the press’ job was to support the state (the monarchy) without questioning the state’s right to rule, in the same manner that a citizen’s job was to support the state by working in the fields without questioning the state’s right to rule. Libertarian theory rose from the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment resulted in the belief that man was rational and able to think for himself. Society’s focus shifted to fulfilling the potential of the individual person instead of the state... ... middle of paper ... ... and as such, its job was to support the goals of the Party. The purpose of everything in Soviet Russia was to build up socialist society, and therefore the primary job of the media was the same. Outside events did not matter as much as the message from the Party and the Party’s ultimate goals. Therefore, like much of society behind the Iron Curtain, the press was tightly controlled and focused on the will of the Party to the detriment of education about the outside world. Siebert, Peterson, and Schramm argued that the press takes on the form of the society in which it exists. They support their argument by tracing the origins of authoritarian, libertarian, social responsibility, and Soviet Communist theory. Each theory’s historical background shows that the state of the press mirrored the society that it served, supporting the original premise of the book.
When discussing the media, we must search back to its primal state the News Paper. For it was the News paper and its writers that forged ahead and allowed freedoms for today’s journalism on all fronts, from the Twitter accounts to the daily gazettes all must mark a single event in the evolution of media in respects to politics and all things shaping. Moving on in media history, we began to see a rapid expansion around 1990. With more than 50% of all American homes having cable TV access, newspapers in every city and town with major newspaper centers reaching far more than ever before. Then the introduction of the Internet; nothing would ever be the same.
James Curran (Curran, 2003) Claims the reign of the press barons didn’t introduce anything that hadn’t already been incited, despite being said to be innovators; they didn’t break with tradition by infusing political propaganda into their publications but instead demoted propaganda for entertainment and detached the commercial press from political parties. The Large empires created by the press barons emerged due to three trends. Chain ownership, expanding locally and regionally meant multiple papers and proved profitable. Expanding markets, by removing tax laws and market domination.
The press sharing public opinion about the role of government influence political attitudes, aids in the development of public opinion, intermediary between people and government, questions motives and purpose of government, play important role in public agenda, less clear if they change the public opinion but then people tend to watch channels that follow their political beliefs. The press plays a central role in informing the public about what happens in the
Bonila, Denise M., and Levy, Beth, Eds. The Power of the Press. H. W. Wilson, 1999.
It could be argued that Germany is the "birthplace of European intellectual journalism"¹. However, media in Germany has had to endure frustration and trauma in achieving such high standing in the journalistic world; suffering the "fragmentation of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries"¹, restrictions born of censorship and political control of the "long period of stultifying authoritarianism and relative economic stagnation"¹ of that time. Moreover, the Bismarck period, despite the first government thereof introducing the allegedly "'liberating' [sic]" `Reichspressegesetz' (Imperial Press Law) "was hardly liberal... Above all, the limited `liberalisation' of the press law reflected the rising power and influence of the industrial and commercial middle classes"². However, it would be the effects of the dictatorship and censorship of the Third Reich that would ultimately shatter, and the Allied Occupation of Germany which would help rebuild and redevelop the media of the defeated country. In this essay, I intend to outline the fundamental principles which aided the development of the media in Western Germany, with particular emphasis on press media, during the time of the Allied occupation up until approximately 1955.
Every media group is controlled by somebody. Whoever controls it controls what is broadcast to the public. The extreme case of this is in NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR . The party controls the media and so all stories go through them. They broadcast what they think it is necessary for the people to know and that is the end of the story. The party is basically the media and everything they say is always correct. If it turns out to be incorrect they change their records so that it is correct.
In fundamentalist Marxism, ideology is 'false consciousness ', which results from the emulation of the dominant ideology by those whose interests it does not reflect. From this perspective, the mass media disseminate the dominant ideology: the values of the class which owns and controls the media. Per adherents of Marxist political economy, the mass media conceal the economic basis of class struggle; 'ideology becomes the route through which struggle is obliterated rather than the site of struggle ' (Curran et al.
The old proverb “the Pen is mightier than the sword” (Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy) still holds significance in protecting of public rights. Words such as freedom, and liberty engendered the idea for democracy. Such words formed into sentences and paragraphs enlightened the public to take action against tyranny and corruption. Freedom of the press is what ensured the general masses of their public rights. The exemplary case in which the freedom of the press played a role was the endeavors of Woodward and Bernstein to unravel the corrupted politics behind the Watergate Scandal. The movie All the President’s Men depicts the proceedings of the Watergate scandal, the scheme to attack the crux of democracy: “ the open election”. Also how the two journalists of the Washington Post progressed to unveil the relationship between the Watergate Burglary and the White House. On one hand, the movie represents the role of the media in its obligation to convey the truth to the masses. On the other hand, the movie reflects political corruption and conspiracy. The accomplishment of Woodward and Bernstein presents the importance of the interaction between the media, the government, and the general masses of society. The role of the media is not only to intervene between the State and the public, but also to take account of public ideas and to apply those ideas to new policies. Also, the media acts as a safeguard to prevent the corruption of the State. Thus, the Watergate scandal signifies the significance of the media as an intermediary between the government and the public mass.
One of the fundamental roles of the media in a liberal democracy is to critically scrutinise governmental affairs: that is to act as a watchdog of government to ensure that the government can be held accountable by the public. However, the systematic deregulation of media systems worldwide is diminishing the ability of citizens to meaningfully participate in policymaking process governing the media (McChesney, 2003, p. 126). The relaxation of ownership rules and control, has resulted in a move away from diversity of production to a situation where media ownership is becoming increasing concentrated by just a few predominantly western global conglomerates (M...
From this definition of media, it has certain wide effect and impact upon the audience to which it is addressed. The impact upon audience can be positive or negative. The positive impact can include educational information and knowledge on certain ideas, policies, laws, or even the current events. The negative impact can impair or damage the refutation of a person, or institution or an organization based on impression. Since the impact of the media can be dictated by the content it is aired or published, this was utilized during the cold war to enhance the campaign of socialism or communism and capitalism or democracy. Further, this essay will investigate into the effects of media during the cold war with the use of television, newspapers and radio broadcast in Russia and America.
In order to understand new media, one must first have a solid background of the old media. The old media traces its origins back to the “elite or partisan press [that] dominated American journalism in the early days of the republic” (Davis 29). With the advent of the penny press around 1833, the press changed its basic purpose and function from obtaining voters for its affiliated political party to making profit (Davis 29). With more available papers, individual companies competed with each other with “muckraking journalism”—investigative journalism exposing corruption—and “yellow journalism”—sensationalist journalism that completely disregarded the facts (Davis 30). The press continued to evolve its journalistic approaches and next shifted to “lapdog journalism,” r...
“The hidden power of media discourse and the capacity of the capitalist class and other power-holders to exercise this power depend on systematic tendencies in news reporting and other media activities” (Page 25). Explain and exemplify.
Whereas “unlimited freedom of the press” is guaranteed as a consequence of the right of man to individual liberty, freedom of the press is totally destroyed, because “freedom of the press should not be permitted when it endangers public liberty.” That is to say, therefore: The right of man to liberty ceases to be a right as soon as it comes into conflict with political life, whereas in theory political life is only the guarantee of human rights, the rights of the individual, and therefore must be abandoned as soon as it comes into contradiction with its aim, with these rights of man.” (Marx & Lederer, 1958)
This essay will show, unfortunately, that our democracy is not as healthy as it potentially could be because of television and print’s inadequate coverage of politics and the public’s resultant frustration and lack of knowledge. The reason this occurs is not because the media is trying to restrict our role in the government, but because it has other agendas to consider, such as producing maximum profits. Also, the media can take its obligatory role, often referred to as the “fourth estate,” to an extreme. John McManus, a former newspaper reporter and current professor at Santa Clara University researching the social responsibility of news media, specifically uses this term in his book Market-Driven Journalism: Let the Citizen Beware? to explain the media’s ideal role as the fourth branch of the government. The media is meant to participate in our system of checks and balances and check the government to ensure that it does not withhold too much power from the people. However, this can pose a problem if the media tries too hard to keep a check on the government and ends up transcending its role as the fourth estate and becoming cynical of the government. These market-driven characteristics and overzealous tendencies are conveyed in the media’s choice and presentation of language.
"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." This quote by A.J. Liebling illustrates the reality of where the media stands in today's society. Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in power throughout the media with regard to politics. The media's original purpose was to inform the public of the relevant events that occurred around the world. The job of the media is to search out the truth and relay that news to the people. The media has the power to inform the people but often times the stories given to the public are distorted for one reason or another. Using slant and sensationalism, the media has begun to shape our views in society and the process by which we choose our leaders. There was once a time when the government used the media as a medium to influence voters, committees, communities etc. Recently, it has been the presidents of major media outlets that have not only exercised power over the public but also made their presences felt in government and in the halls of congress. When the word democracy is thrown about it usually has to do with the rights or original intentions for a group or organization. The first group intended to be influenced by the media was the informed voter. Political parties along with the government used a variety of media resources to persuade the voter or in effect receive a vote for their cause. Returning to the thought of ?democracy? the question is, what was the original intention of the media with relation to the theme of democracy and the informed voter? To analyze this thought thoroughly one must first grasp an understanding of the basic definition of democracy.