The press has historically hoisted accountability upon the people in power; it spread new ideas that allowed the repressed and controlled to realize freedom, and has continually been a bringer of transparency in government. American democracy was a direct result of the press; printers used the press to unify the country under propaganda of a single enemy. Yet, the traditional press is being commercialized, corporatized, and increasingly bent to the will of a select few. Meanwhile, a new press is rising from the disparity and demand of the citizenry. In the first chapter of Legal Principles and Analytic Framework, Dr. Mark Cooper, a specialist in how telecommunications shape social issues, discusses how media ownership influences the press in American democracy. Primarily, he makes a case for why diversification of players is necessary for a functional democracy, and why concentrated media leads to concentrated points of view, which is inherently miasmal to democratic function. More specifically, he focuses on the Supreme Court's opinion of media ownership, which has consistently found media outlets to be a service of the democracy by way of its citizenry. For example, Cooper quotes Supreme Court Justice, Hugo Black, as saying that the First Amendment, and its inherent protection for the press' ability to spread information quickly, especially dissentient views, was necessary for the commonweal (Cooper 34). In this context, it stands to reason that having a decentralized press mirrors this country's self-limiting of political power through branches of government that abstract political control to the local level (state's rights). Therefore, just as dispersed government control facilitates localized accountability, fractured me... ... middle of paper ... ...e at which public discourse is already occurring, through online communities and wikis, will only grow. That is, the worst fears of people like Cooper and Radford will never be realized, because the sentiments of people like Cooper and Radford have found their way into the consciousness of a large enough subset of the citizenry. Works Cited Cooper, Mark. "A Bold Aspiration For the First Amendment." Media Ownership and Democracy in the Digital Age. Palo Alto: Center for Internet & Society, Stanford Law School, 2003. "Guantanamo operating manual posted on Internet," Reuters 17 Nov 2007. 10 Mar 2009 News War: What's Happening to the News. Prods. Stephen Talbod and Cowell Bergman. PBS. Frontline. WGBH Educationsal Foundation, 2007. Radford, Benjamin. Media Mythmakers. New York: Prometheus Books, 2003.
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.
In “Reporting the News” by George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry, the main idea is how the media determines what to air, where to get said stories that will air, how the media presents the news, and the medias effect on the general public. “Reporting The News” is a very strong and detailed article. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers of what goes on in the news media. This can be inferred by the authors’ tone. The authors’ overall tone is critical of the topics that are covered. The tone can be determined by the authors’ strong use of transitions, specific examples, and phrases or words that indicate analysis. To summarize, first, the authors’ indicate that the media chooses its stories that will air
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.
Media finds its central role in the democratic debate in providing information, analysis, and a diversity of perspectives to the public. In recent years, with what is known as a media revolution, the amount of telecommunication outlets has increased dramatically. Often called “a product of healthy market competition,” the media revolution has theoretically expanded the public’s access to a multitude of facts, opinions, and general information (Miroff, et al. 2015). However, with a
The majority of media in the United States, are owned in operated by wealthy individuals and corporations. Media also helps portray “big business” good or bad, depending on their influence, mostly due to contributions. Due to these contributions, select few have been able to manipulate and create a bias towards the contributor. Eventually free media and press evolved into the oligarchy that now “runs” our country.
It is imperative that people understand the concentration of media ownership also referred to as media consolidation. This term refers to a course of action whereby a few individuals or organizations control an increasing share of the mass media. Research reveals increasing levels of consolidation with many media industries that are already highly dominated by a very small number of organizations. Media consolidation is closely related to issues of editorial liberation, media bias, and freedom of the press (Common Cause 2007), which are usually discussed by those who view it as dangerous to society. This paper will argue that media consolidation via the Internet is disadvantageous to society, and the federal government should not keep the door open for the continuing consolidation of the electronic media. I will dispute this through discussions of the implications and effects of media consolidation on businesses and citizens, through a closer look at some proposed media consolidations of large organizations, and how we might negotiate a difference between the economic freedom of large media businesses, which may be necessary to keep them viable, and the needs of citizens for media access at a fair price.
The news media rejects the fact that they are biased. They claim that they are the “middle of the road,” and are neutral on the stories that they cover. Publishers also claim that they are the watchdog for the political system, and they make sure that the system is free of any corruption, or wrongdoing. Th...
The phrase “the power of the press” is used often, but what exactly is the power of the press? Since the beginning of news reporting, it’s been known that what actually gets into the news reports is monitored and carefully picked by higher authorities. What isn’t widely known, however, is that the media can use specific wording and phrases that, on the surface, look like normal news coverage, but are actually a technique of the media to control the images people see and the words they hear and read. From this, people then form their ideals, but are these actually ideals of those people if the media from which they based them off of was controlled to begin with? It is the power of the press to control and manipulate the public’s ideals by what is released in the media.
Mass Mmedia is made up of several communications systems that reach millions of people every day. But who owns the media? Actually, through the long history of mergers and acquisitions, few big companies have been controlling what we see, hear, and read by maintaining the ownership of mass media. However, the issue of media conglomeration has produced a significant amount of controversy. Since the media’s power and the control of the communications system have been dominated by a few corporations, media conglomeration has been viewed as an obstruction and limitations ?? of diversified contents. While opponents believe there is a crisis impending due to the perception of increased concentrated ownership and convergence of the media industry that interfere with message pluralism, supporters argue the media system has increased diversity more than before and large companies offer advantages that a small company can never afford . This paper examines the history of media ownership and the current FCC regulations, and discusses the effects of media conglomeration on our society.
power of the mass media is an asset to the government in some instances and
There are three main ideas relating to questions of ownership and control of the mass media. Firstly, leading-on from the outline of technological development, we need to consider the extent to which ownership allows powerful individuals and groups to explo...
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.
Malcolm X, a human rights activist, once said, “The media´s the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent, and that´s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Through numerous studies and considerable amount of research, it has become clear that the media has a significant effect on society and its perception. This applies to all topics, but mostly to issues that are difficult for the mass to experience for themselves. For example, our views of government and social institutions are largely based on the medium’s reports, not our own experiences.
Democracy is commonly defined as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Freedom and democracy walk hand in hand. Democracy is only compatible with a free economy. It is completely incompatible with a system that provides for a governing authority with coercive power. We live in a society today where the media plays a pivotal role in how we see the world, and how our opinions are formed, whether it is from what we watch on television or what we gather from newspapers or internet. Media acts as an interface between the common man and the Government. It is a very powerful tool with the ability to make and break the opinion of people. If media tells the public that this picture is being demanded as one