Institutions of American Government - Essay Example

In my opinion, however, it may be more accurate to say that media is a contest terrain of both the American and world politics. Out of America’s democratic tradition, American media is known as the fourth branch of government. Democratic thinkers argue that although formally, there are three branches of government (or the executive, legislative, and the judicial branches of government), media adds to the first three categories. Actually, media is outside of formal ambit of government. However, if it wishes to, the state can have effective control of the media.

State control on the media is feasible via restrictions and regulations. It is also feasible to control media via technology. The military is well known to have the capability to scramble radios, disrupt media transmission lines, and shut down electronically media’s operations. The American government and the military have even the capability to shut down or censor the internet if they want to. They can even use “ethical” hacking to bring down a website. Yet, at the same time, there is no need for America’s elite to shut down or censor the internet.

Shutting down or imposing censorship in the internet will be to the disadvantage of America’s elite because shutting down or censoring the internet can also mean crippling or slowing down business operations. Other than this, shutting down or censoring the internet too much will mean losing the political vantage that America enjoys over her enemies. Democracy and freedom are America’s fighting slogans against communist and Islamic fundamentalism. Shutting down or censoring the internet will be costly politically for American to win the political, military, and moral war over perceived enemies.

Elite dominance over the media has not been formal anyway. It is not as if government directly threatened media