Essay On Role Of Media On Public Policy

In the system of policymaking, the media, contrary to some critics, can and does play a critical role. The media is significant not merely in the beginning of the policymaking process, but throughout as well. As the main connection between the mass public and the policies that impact them, the media can positively or negatively impact people by swaying their opinions or educating them. The media’s spread of information can simultaneously provide an objective view of the action taking place in public policymaking and allow the public to form perceptions on issues. In the policy process overall, the media has a considerable power to influence how and why some issues take precedence over others, exerted through its ability to connect the action taking place to the

The connection to the public and conveyance of ideas can influence the public’s view, and therefore directly impact the public policy process. The media draws in and sustains the public’s attention to particular issues, which subsequently allows those issues to hold more weight and gain social pressure, which instigates change. The media also acts as a critical means of communication between the government and the public, informing the public about governmental actions while simultaneously informing government officials of the public’s attitudes regarding certain policies. According to G. Reddy in the Indian Journal of Political Science, media “[regulates] the flow of communication between policymakers (and therefore the policy itself) and others in the political system” (Reddy 297). This concept, being the media’s primary role, allows the policies and policymakers to be publicized and their ideas to be communicated to the public. Without this connection, the mass population would have no input or voice in the very policies that impact them. Media simultaneously establishes the scope of policy issues through its interpretation of