Functions of the Media - Essay Example

Student’s name Institution Course Professor Date FUNCTIONS OF THE MEDIA AND THE NEED FOR MEDIA FREEDOM Media comprises institutions of electronic broadcasting, internet, printed newspapers and magazines among other means that address mass audiences. Media plays key roles in the society that has made people to be very dependent on it for information, entertainment and other daily needs. As a key player in the daily activities of people, there is a need to ensure that there is freedom of the media in order for it to perform its functions effectively. The various different forms of media plays play a wide range of functions that include the following: It plays a watchdog role on behalf of the public. In the current world where there are various activities carried out by the government and other institutions there is high need of thorough scrutiny of those activities. Media is crucial in scrutinising these on behalf of the public. These help in holding the government into account and hence help in the promotion of good governance, transparency and upholding democracy. According to Palfrey (2011) internet is the force for democracy. It is argued that media is the fourth estate after clergy, commoners and the nobility and it is charged with the responsibility of being the guardian of public interest and watchdog on government activities. Media is an information provider. Due to the globalised world and high geographical difference in the world, the media breaks the geographical boundaries in the provision of necessary information to its audience. It provides both domestic and international news and information. It provides economic, political and social news and information to the people and thus enabling them to be informed. These might also be teaching, provision of knowledge and skills and public education. Information is power as it enables people to make informed decisions in various aspects of their lives. Media creates an interconnectivity of public sphere. Media forms and means like the internet, social media, radios, televisions, mobile phones among other modern means of communication creates forums where different individuals comes together to discuss issues affecting them. Media content flows across national borders and people deploy new communication networks to interact with others around the world, (Jenkins, 2006). Media has power to project politicians’ images, set political agenda, debate crucial issues and influence outcome of elections, Errington & Miragliotta, 2011). Thus through the creation of public sphere people are able to exchange views an able to adopt and adapt political, economic and social ways of live conducive to their needs. Media helps in agenda setting. McCombs and Shaw (1972) in their studies come up with the conclusion that agenda setting in the society is the function of the mass media. They further argue that the media is not successful in telling us what to think but successful in telling us what to think about. Mass media helps in agenda setting by highlighting certain important issues in the society. The more the media covers a story the more the public perceive the story to be more important. These as made it possible for what the public know and care most to be the by-product of media gate keeping. The media thus influence most of the people thoughts and attentions in the society. On the other hand, it also practises agenda cutting. This is where problems and issues have attention directed from them by getting little or no media coverage, Wober & Gunter (1988). These occur due to logistic constraints, outside pressure not to air or cover the issues or problems or due to prejudice of journalists and news organisations. Media provides entertainment and marketing of products and ideas. Various media sources are crucial in provision of entertainment to their audience in terms of songs, videos, plays, stories, poems among other modern entertainment modes. These help audience in spending their leisure times while enjoying themselves. They also help organisations in advertising and sales promotion of their products and ideas. These helps them in covering large geographical areas within little time and money. Critiques however notes that media has concentrated in these two roles other than their intended roles of being public servant by provision of information and being watchdog. Due to the roles of the media mainly as watchdog to the public, provider of information and facilitator of public sphere there is need for media freedom for these to achieved. Media freedom is where media is allowed to operate unhindered by excessive government regulations, Errington and Miragliotta, (2008). He further argues that media facilitate the rights and liberty of citizenry. It is the servant of the public and guardian of political independence. Liberalisation of the world has called for individual liberty and little government involvement in peoples’ day-to-day activities. It calls for the total enjoyment of freedom rights and media freedom is one of the ways of achieving liberty in the world. Liberal ideology promoted freedom of press as an integral part of the individual rights. Championing for press freedom begun way back in 19600s and 1700s and it stills continue till now. There is increased power of the media, (Hallin, 2004) but there is still harassment by various governments in terms of media house closure, killing and harassment of journalists and prevention of publication and airing of news concerning government activities among other means. For instance, the U.S government has fought Publication of WikiLeaks since it largely shows the evil side of the U.S government operations. Prevention of freedom of press and media denies the public the freedom of getting crucial information concerning their governments and these discourages transparency, accountability, democracy, good, and openness in governance. For media freedom to be realized it is essential that there should be minimal government regulation in the media sector. The media need to be privately owned and its ownership should not be monopolised in order to enable objectivity in reporting. Critiques of media freedom argue that sometimes media is biased, subjective, provides individual views and does not work towards public interest. Private ownership of media has also resulted in monopolistic ownership and influenced the selection, quality and the choice of content. They argue that some media have concentrated in entertainment and commercial activities instead of disclosure of news and information. Media plays a wide role of functions in the society. It is a public watchdog, informer, creator of public sphere forum for individuals to interact, largest means of marketing of products and ideas, means of entertainment among other roles. The functions of the media as improved the living standards of the current generation. To effectively enjoying these services of the media, there is need for the promotion of its freedom. Media freedom is crucial in the liberalised world since it promote democracy and freedom of the citizens. Reference Errington, W.& Miragliotta, N. (2011). Politics and the Media: An Introduction. From Opposition to Government: Consolidating Power’ (2nd ed). Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Gunter, B & Wober, M. (1988). Agenda cutting: New theoretical developments in the agenda-building and agenda-setting processes . Carolina: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA . Hallin, D. & Mancini, P. (2004). Comparing media systems: Three models of media and politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York. New York University Press Palfrey, J. (2011). Internet Democracy: Statements, Retrieved 2 November 2013 from Shaw, A. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly”, Vol 35, pp. 2. MEDIA CONVERGENCE Convergence is a term that literally means coming together. Jenkins (2006) defined convergence as a word that describes technological, industrial, cultural and cultural in the way media circulates within our culture. Convergence is an ongoing process or series of intersections between the different media systems. Convergence in the media industries can be analysed in three dimensions: technological convergence, industrial convergence and cultural convergence. Technological convergence addresses multiple devices, wireless access and continuous connectivity to individually preferred networks of personal and work contracts, and leisure and entertainment resources, (Nightingale, 2007). Industrialisation has lead to the massive changes in media forms. Media has changed from the traditional old media of print and broadcasting to the modern new media of internet and social media. Emergence of the new media forms has made it easier for interconnectivity of people from different geographical locations. Internet has risen to be one of the easiest and fastest means of communication and interaction. It is considered as the fifth estate that is built on activities of networked individuals sourcing as while as distribution their own information. Despite its advantages, there exist some challenges concerning its ownership and difficult considerations to be made on who should be liable in case illegalities arise on its use. Industrial convergence involves the merging of companies across media, telecommunication and technological fields or forming strategic alliances to develop new business models to satisfy consumers and audience expectations. Consumers have continued to revolutionise and thus demanding quality content and at faster rate and these has necessitated industrial convergence in the digital media space. Industrial convergence in the media industrial has greatly contributed to the emergence of big monopolies, conglomerates and synergy in the media industry. Development of monopoly in the ownership of media in some countries arise from liberalisation and allowing of private ownership of media sector that was one way of promoting freedom of media. Monopoly in media ownership is not good in the development of objective, unbiased, public interest oriented media capable of conveying diversity of views and opinions. Monopoly hinders the performance of the media as the fourth estate. Industrial convergence is also seen in the interaction between the old and the new forms of media in conveying the intended information. Print and broadcast means collaborates with the internet and social media in conveying their information. One good example of these interactions is where WikiLeaks architects collaborate with other media partners in releasing their information to the public. Cultural convergence in media involves the rise of different media forms that has brought together people to interact and circulate a wide range of information in different platforms. Cultural convergence in media is taking us into a more global village like world that is more democratic and more interactive. The wide application of media in the daily lives of the people has resulted into media being the agenda setter in the society. Shaw and McCombs (1977) Argues that media has the ability of mentally ordering and organising our world for us. Agenda setting directs the public on important happenings in the society and on what to think-about. Despite wide assistance in agenda-setting, problems of moral panic, arise due to the coverage media gives during other times. Convergence of the media has enabled it to perform well their functions as a public servant and their commercial and entertainment functions. Media as a public servant is a watchdog, informer and creator of public sphere for people to interact. Convergence of the media has seen it modernised and thus becomes quick, efficient and effective in performance of these functions. It is able to reach many people in different ways and create interconnectivity between them. Convergence has also made it possible for the media to provide commercial activities like sales and marketing. Entertainment provision has been made more efficient and many forms of entertainment to gather for different people created. Media convergence has lead to the need for looking into emergent current issues. For instance, there is need for fostering freedom of the press. Neoliberal form of political economy advocates free trade and open markets, deregulation, privatisation, decrease in government regulations while increasing private participation in the market. For all the forms of media convergence to be fruitful, the media should enjoy freedom from direction by the government. Government should provide a conducive environment and help avoid the negative effects that may arise from media freedom, (Harvey, 2005). Convergence has lead to converging of all information into the internet as one superhighway, (Wu, 2010). Use of the internet has resulted into a wide range of issues concerning its ownership and its jurisdiction. Internet use has resulted into wide hacking of information in cable gates in the name of investigative journalism that has created dilemmas in whether to be considered as freedom of press or criminal. Internet security maintenance is a difficult exercise due to the ever-changing technological inventions in this sector. Media convergence has resulted into considerations on the need for digital democracy. Various nations have been forced to come up regulations and guidelines to the media convergence. For instance, in Australia, there is formulation of Media convergence and transformed media environment ALRC, 2011 ACT that guides these sectors. Despite convergence having good impacts in the media industry, it has some dangers. One of its dangers is its result in putting all the information into one degree of digital single network and a no less vital need to preserve its openness from imperial designs, (WU, 2010). Convergence in general is a good development in the media sector that has a wide range of advantages to consumers, media companies, the public and the governments. Convergence should be given support by the various stakeholders in the media sector. The governments of various states should promote freedom of the press as one way of supporting it. Regulations to cope with these changes and its impacts should be put in place to guide this processes. Reference Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York. New York University Press Shaw, D & McCombs, M. (1977). The Evolution of Agenda-Setting Research: Twenty-Five Years in the Market place of Ideas . Carolina : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Tim, W. (2010). The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. New York: Knopf WIKILEAKS WikiLeaks is a worldwide movement of massive leaking of information that is associated with Julian Assange. He formed it in 2006 and has from then gained momentum especially due to high media coverage in 2010. WikiLeaks was exposed various underneath happenings in various countries that the public members did not know. For instance, it provided information on massive looting and corruption by former Kenyan leader Daniel Arap Moi and his entourage and family, collateral murder by the USA army, war happenings in Iraq and Afghanistan, diplomatic news, shielding of USA government business from public scrutiny among other information hidden from the public by the USA government. WikiLeaks can be seen as performing the roles of public servant of being watchdog to the public and being an informer to the public on happenings in the society concerning them. After collection of the information, it works in conjunction with other selected news organisations like (Der Spiegel, The New York Times, Le Monde, The Guardian and El País) to redact, analyse and release the information in a curate manner. This form of collaboration is one way of convergence in the media. It is the collaboration of both the new and old media forms in ensuring that audience are reached and effectively satisfied. In the modern technological world, there should be freedom of speech, right to information and free access to information. WikiLeaks gives the public access to a wide range of information and it is a way of giving people freedom to information and access to internet. U.S has been one of the countries that has been actively advocating for the freedom in journalism field and it is funny for them to come out and discourage use of WikiLeaks especially after pushing China to offer freedom in internet use, (Sabbagh, 2011). Various governments and mainly the U.S should realise the importance of WikiLeaks and give it the support it requires in order for the public to enjoy the globalised advantages of different forms of media reporting in the sphere WikiLeaks discourages authoritarian and conspiracy governance. By leaking information about secret information about authoritarian or conspiracy in governments will make them to change into open forms of leadership. This is because such leaks expose their secret information that shows their true nature of leadership and diplomatic relationship with other countries. Encouraging WikiLeaks will thus discourage government members from exchanging secret information that can be of negative effect if the public or the diplomatic nations get. WikiLeaks encourages and promotes transparency in leadership and governance. Transparency is of much importance to the public since it promotes good public resource use, (Fenster, 2012:772). Assange leaks for instance exposed corruption deals in various countries including some departments in the USA. WikiLeaks is like a form of very deep scrutiny in the society to expose deep happenings that normal media cannot publish or broadcast since they are less independent or fear asking information from the government, corporations or other relevant institutions. Presence of massive form of WikiLeaks in the world will be able to expose corruption and lack of accountability of public funds and resources. This will help in fostering transparency since corrective measures and reforms will be implemented while the corrupt leaders brought to book. According to Lovink and Riemens (2010), WikiLeaks has promoted transparency, good governance and openness in the society. WikiLeaks exposes abuse of human rights by the various arms of the state. In his leaked documents and videos, Julian Assange exposed how the U.S army abused human rights in various countries that they had been deployed to fight corruption. For instance, soldiers in Guantanamo Bay mistreated prisoners, USA and U.K soldiers brutally abused prison inmates at Abu Ghraid prison, merciless killings of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Baghdad among other abuses of human rights. The worst happenings in these countries are the scenes aired in the video entitled collateral murders where various innocent people are brutally murdered by the U.S army in the Middle East. The public, human rights bodies and governments are able to know the happenings in the society and may jointly come up with measures of dealing with such kind of abuses. Despite WikiLeaks having the above advantages its critics have however come up with some reasons as to why it should be discouraged. Flew and Liu (2011) states that WikiLeaks presents the world with both the opportunities and limitations arising from computer hackers taking the role of investigative journalism and stepping into the networked space. Its critiques note that WikiLeaks is disastrous since it breaks laws by releasing confidential and secret government documents to the public. They argue that those government documents are solely for the functioning of the government and it is of much importance if only the government officials and not the entire public know them. They also argue that the release of some sensitive information to the public may endanger the lives of individuals in a certain state or country. WikiLeaks released sensitive information concerning the USA army troops in various countries in which they operate. This release may put the troops, spies and informants in danger. They argue that they may jeopardise terrorism fighting in the world. McFarland (2010) for instance argues that Julian Assange is anti-war protector intending to end an unpopular war by waging cyber war on USA and thus should be prosecuted. Informants like U.S. Army intelligence analyst PFC Bradley Manning was arrested in May 2010. This can be analysed as one way of discouraging freedom of the press. WikiLeaks as a media form achieved the role of mass media of agenda setting. Most of its information received much debate in the society and was able to be used to shape the daily lives of the people. Internet and social media played a major role in the disclosure and circulation of this information. Internet as the fifth estate perfectly performed its duties. Problems on who is liable for liability created by the WikiLeaks arose and courts roles that Assange is not liable and this leads to the question on who is liable for internet control. References Fenster, M. (2012). Disclosure’s Effects: WikiLeaks and Transparency. Iowa law review, Vol 97: 772. Terry, F. & Bonnie, R.(2011). Globally networked public spheres? The Australian media reaction to WikiLeaks. Global Media Journal: Australian Edition, 5(1): 1-13. Lovink, G. & Riemens,P. (2010, 7th December 10). Theses on wikileaks. Sam Han , Eportfolio, pp. 66-56 Sabbagh, D. (2011, Tuesday 15th Feb). Shades of hypocrisy on internet freedom. The Guardian,pp. 13-15. Read More