Media system, communication ethics and society - Assignment Example

The Role of History in Shaping Media Systems Media serves as one of the strongest pillars for any nation. There are countries that have vast and overwhelmingly established media structures whereas there are some countries that are still in the development phase of their media systems. Mass communication is highly influenced by the social, cultural and political trends of a society (DeFleur, 2010).Historically, political system in Middle Eastern countries has been a great factor on how media system has structured in Arab society.

Media system in Arab has seen all transitions just because of its policies and commercial imperatives primarily. For the past 40 years, the development of media has highly been influenced by the authoritarian policies regimes where the media has been controlled very finely by the strict laws and regulations imposed by the government. It has been very cleverly used by their governments as a tool to publicize their own social, cultural and economic programs. In Saudi Arabia, till 1990’s most of the television channels were government owned but with time, private channels also entered in the market and introduced by more professional and independent approach to media management.

Al-Jazeera, Al-Manar, Al-Arabiya are few of the pioneers in satellite television industry.The history and trends of the Saudi Arab region and other Arabian countries has never let them deviate from their cores and roots thus they also avoided adoption of westernization in their media system like rest of the countries. However, the historical dominance of political system has been the primary force in shaping the media structure in most of its parts. The history in Arab has largely been influenced by political system that shaped the media structure.

ReferenceDeFleur, M. L. (2010). Mass communication theories: Explaining origins, processes, and effects. Allyn & Bacon.