The Impact of Media Control - Research Paper Example

? The impact of media control of unit The impact of media control The paper reviews the forms of media control and the biggest perpetrator of media control. There is a detailed analysis on the impact of media control and the different sectors of the economy that are most affected. The paper reviews literatures from scholars to explain this concept. There is a conclusion that gives possible solutions to media control. Introduction The oxford dictionary defines media as mass communication and sites examples as television, newspapers and radio (Oxford Dictionary 1136). The definition clearly states that media is a communication aimed at reaching a mass audience and when an attempt to control it is; the outcome is not beneficial to the mass audience. The media are the public watchdog informing the masses of the happenings in the country. Many a time’s hostile regimes to free media, use the government machinery at their disposal to oppress their freedom. Some countries use the legislature to introduce laws that are oppressive and ensure that the media is silent. Their best weapon of choice is punitive fines and indefinite closure of the broadcasting stations. Journalists are the most affected by this barbaric behavior. They experience punishments that equate abuse of human rights and constant threats on their lives or their immediate family. Some have even paid with their dear life or forced to go into exile. This research paper aims at bring to light the impact of media control to a country and the lives of journalists who are directly linked with media houses. The main intention of discussing this topic is to highlight the impact of media control and, to provide possible solutions to the menace. The technicality used to discuss the points is literature review on related works by renowned scholars and an interview with a journalist. Types of media control In order to understand the impact of media control it is important to know the forms of media control and the people responsible for controlling the media. Most scholars argue that the government is responsible of controlling the media industry (Sonin 3). When the media in such states try to expose their evils, these governments move with their state machinery to silence the media. The state may decide to control the media directly or indirectly. When the state controls the media directly it entails controlling the type of news media is able to air. The state determines what coverage the media gives to particular incidents and whom to focus on. Most of the time, the media are forced to focus on the president of the state and the ruling party politics. This direct control is common in countries as china and Uganda in Africa. In Uganda, a newspaper owned by the Nation Media group The Daily Monitor shutdown indefinitely for exposing the evils done by the government. The police later moved into a Television station affiliated to the newspaper Ntv Uganda offices and vandalized the broadcasting equipment arresting journalists at the same time. This is a form of direct control. Indirect control occurs when the government sweet talks privately owned media station into airing the government-preferred content. Such a case occurred in Mexico when the government offered tax incentives to privately owned media station to only air ruling party agenda and sideline the politicians (Lawson 320). The station had the freedom to air the type of advertisement they wanted and programs in return they pushed for the government agenda to the people. Many countries make decisions on the media model they want the country to operate. The different models brought out evidently by various media control scholars include libertarian and authoritarian models. By determining their print, audio and video content as they see fit in the advancement of their business through ads, libertarian model takes center stage. Contrary to freedom of choice of content is the authoritative model where the political big wigs call the shots. They determine investigations, content and news media convey to the public. They may argue to be taking care and putting into consideration national security issues. Another form of media that came into play in this digital age is the internet. The internet offers a worldwide platform for the masses to socially interact and exchange ideas. Through discussions on social platforms, citizens understand other countries way of doing things and better ways to undertake issues surmounting to political systems. This critics and appraisals may lead to a revolved from the masses against governments of the day. Some governments have put a restriction on the use of the internet to extents like denying operation licenses to foreign companies that offer such platforms. This amounts to media control (Green 43). Selected cases and Impact of media control At the forefront of this digital age is the fast growing internet. Information and communication are the talk of the day, and more dangerously is the fact that the media is spreading like bush fire infecting every continent with deadliest urge to embrace it. The internet penetrates national, regional, continental, and governmental boundaries. The platform’s single most agenda is to deliver information. The platform brings with it fruits and other goodies. Social commerce boosts business; it increases financial returns. Countries that embrace technology have had a leap forward financially. Internet freedom infringement had an occurrence in china the year 2008 during Olympics. Google a giant internet service provider had a blackout from the government of the day. China government was out to protect and safeguard information about the economic progress as at hand then. The government had a feeling that it’s’ plans were at risk of exposure and more even sabotage from their economic competitors. They imposed a censorship agenda of the worlds’ giant. This move attracted critics who had a feeling that china was acting cowardly and oppressing its citizen’s right to information. The censorship had lots of effect to the public. An article posted in The Atlanta Magazine by Beibei Bao highlights a case that involved a student from Stanford University suspended his studies to go and start an online business in online marketing. His dream never was due to the censorship of Google hindering innovation (Bao 24). The effect of this form of media control is that it is killing innovation in china at the time. Studying Iran as a country is an interesting story altogether. However, with regard to media control, it is worth noting that such countries where the supreme leader has more powers in comparison to the president have press freedom at risk. The supreme leader is the head and owns almost the entire media fraternity. As such, they have no brains; they only speak. The supreme leader appoints whom he wishes to head the communication docket and further his political agenda. This media houses no doubt sings the leaders’ tune and nothing else. Contrary to which, vandalism and licenses are revoked without fair tribunal resolution (Ward 45). One thousand Malaysian journalists made a petition against the government move to infringe press freedom. The journalists had a solid backing from the citizens the target audience of the information (Nie 4). This union made the government weak and in return complied to the journalist plea to the joy of its citizen. The Malaysian incident sends a clear message and example to other nation of what could really happen when media control is imposed; it leads to revolution, demonstration and destroy the image of the ruling party (Nie 4). In the ancient days of war where countries had, conflict among each other saw the censorship of individual media houses. This idea brought about increased inter-state security and improved chances of combat with the enemy leading to winning battles. However, the media houses were used to peddle propaganda campaigns during the World War II. In Germany, Joseph Goebbels, who was minister in German opted for propaganda. This move to date he is referred to as a master propagandist. It is noted that he not only orchestrated the most controversial campaigns, but also successfully gained support from the seemingly competitive Nazi Party, which existed in a divided nation (The Belgian War Press). Internet service provider in the world have for the better part of their existence had a substantial shape up on the business across the countries, the exact result has been manifested in improved business practices around the globe. A case at hand is the ever-growing China economy. In cases where the government has tried to pull strings on media, they have faced numerous rebellions from the masses and more embarrassing, is the ever-rising new global digital age. Across many countries, domestic and foreign Internet services providers seem to play ago slow fashion when it comes to advertising and spearheading political agendas. This however, does not amount to media freedom, especially when a choice is made on whether to keep on upholding government policy by cooperating with them and consultation or play the confrontation and criticism part of the game. Some governments have, and others may decide to come up with propaganda websites. This will drive apparent fear to the evergreen ICT. Media have one key agenda, and that is to deliver information nothing more or less. Through personal computers, the internet, television sets, radios and daily newspapers, people become informed. People have become creative and more significantly they have improved economically. Education seems to be taking place from and through every other channel of communication. The world needs literate and aware citizens to further the agenda of development without which they lack behind forever. The press should relay unbiased information without any sort of interference. By infringing on media freedom, negate their entire paragraph because it spells doom for any country (Fadel 18). From the selected cases above, it is quite clear that the possibilities of a countries media to be totally free, is in a distant far. Most political systems in different countries opt to trade a little of controlled media and libertarian media or commercial media. This according to them provides a percentage of cushioning from attacks or the so-called matters of national security. This provides a glimpse into the heinous agenda many government of the day seek to achieve through mischief and sending caution to countries that are seeking to promote media freedom. Total media freedom devoid of government control and frequent interference is the bench for any government of the day to consider. Investigators, reporters, anchors, bloggers, analysts, columnist, cartoonists just to name a few envision working in a system that enables them to reach out, seek for information, and report or publish content without exiling themselves from fear of arrest, torture, and death threats. Moreover, citizens also dream of days that news and information in all forms will be available at their doorstep each morning they wake up. That they are able without intimidation to make a wise informed vote in all elections held in the country. It is evident that people end up making wrong choices when they blindly go ahead and subject themselves to a voting system. Such indecision weakens countries chances of development. The media are a key tool in a country’s successful governance, successful development and citizens that are more so informed to make the right choices. Conclusion This study has at a broader view given an insight into the extent to which media control retards citizen information, education, and a nation development. It is worth mentioning that for any country to achieve media freedom in totality, and free of the political system or government control and interference, proper legislation is required. In many democratic countries, the bill passes through the national assembly and then signed by the president of the day. All the media players also need proper training of the various ways, content that is good of passing sensitive information and still achieve required results without incitement. Many a times inexperienced journalists have plunged citizens into chaos unknowingly, this calls for stringent measures. In doing so, a country is assured of peaceful and responsible journalists enjoying a totally free media platform to further their agenda rightfully. Works Cited Bao, Beibei. "How Internet Censorship Is Curbing Innovation in China." The Atlantic 22 April 2013: 24-25. Fadel, Charles. Multimodal Learning Through Media: What the Research Says. Reserch. New York: Cisco Systems, Inc., 2008. Green, Leila. The Internet: An Introduction to New Media. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Lawson, Chappell. "Building the Fourth Estate." Democratization and the Rise of a Free (2000): 315-329. Nie, Yong Yen. "Malaysian journos, lawyers pressure government." Asian Correspondant 19 May 2012: 4. Oxford Dictionary. Oxford Dictionary of English. London: Oxford university press, 2010. Sonin, Scott Gehlbach and Konstantin. Government Control of the Media. Research paper. Madison: University of Wisconsin{Madison, 2008. The Belgian War Press. The Press under German Censorship during the Second World War. 12 May 2013. 11 December 2013 . Ward, Will. Arab Media & Sociaty. New York: Routledge, 2007. APPENDIX Interview with a veteran journalist Gillian Joseph Me: Good morning Mrs. Gillian Joseph. Kindly give a brief preview of your journalism career. Mrs. Gillian Joseph: Thank you very much. I started my career in journalism in 1992 as a radio reporter for Radio Merseyside. In the year 1994, I moved to BBC Radio 1. In 1998, I joined Newsroom South East, latter BBC London News and then to sky News, now I am working at Sky News at Ten. Me: What is media control in your own words? Mrs. Gillian Joseph: Media control is the use of state machinery to influence the type of news broadcasted and the way journalist report. Me: Have you personally encountered media control in your career? Mrs. Gillian Joseph: Yes, many times we as journalist get orders from the government not to air some developing stories in certain ways due to what they term as National Security. Me: In your experience, are these allegations true? Mrs. Gillian Joseph: Most of the time the allegations are true. However, sometimes it is normally politics and the directives are aimed at protecting the image of the government. Me: Can you site one directive that was political? Mrs. Gillian Joseph: Well I do not want to comment on that since it is against the policy of the company I am working for at the time. Me: What are some of the implications of Media control? Mrs. Gillian Joseph: When the media are controlled, the public summer the most. The public never get the right information, and they lose the most. The society remains behind in events that occur in the world only get what the government wants them to know. Me: How does control of the media affect the journalists? Mrs. Gillian Joseph: when the media is controlled, it reflects that the government is fighting an enemy the journalists. This leads to imprisonment and killing of journalists. It is a sad reality, but it is happening even at the moment in Somalia. Me: What would you want changed in the media if you had the powers to make changes? Mrs. Gillian Joseph: My dream is to have a media worldwide that is free and has a mandate to report without restrictions. If I had power, I would change the punitive laws that infringe on journalist human rights like imprisonment without a fair trial in a constitutional court. Me: What do you like most in the current media laws in your country? Mrs. Gillian Joseph: The current media law that allows journalist a fair trial is what encourages me the most. The country courts are fair and democratic in terms of giving judgment. Me: what do you personally despise in the field of journalism? Mrs. Gillian Joseph: Journalism is a powerful tool that when used badly can lead to huge life lose. I personally despise unprofessional irresponsible journalism that has lead to huge life lose like in the Rwanda genocide. Me: what can you advice as a parting shot on media control? Mrs. Gillian Joseph: media control is a disease that is killing the society. Governments should allow media to report freely for information shared is huge gains in development. Me Thank you for talking to me through Skype. Mrs. Gillian Joseph: You are most welcome. Read More