Role of Media in Enhancing Democracy - Essay Example

Role of Media in Enhancing Democracy The media plays a critical communication role in the modern democratic societies (Mcnair, 2011. p.18). The media plays the role of informing the public, facilitating public discourse, it acts as the citizen’s watchdog that checks the power structures that ought to be at par with the public’s well being and it represents the public (Mcnair, 2011. p. 19). In most democratic societies today, many citizens believe in the media and the media remains to be a basic source of information that links the citizens with their leaders. This paper seeks to examine the extent to which the media plays its democratic role in its public representation capacity and as a tool for social unity and public discourse. With the accurate interpretation of most theoretical discussions and other general ideals concerning media and the public sphere, it is apparent that the current media structure and its nature act as force triggering democratic governments to act in the best interests of its citizens. Freedom of speech is pivotal to attaining democracy in any state. The media plays the crucial role of representing people within a particular state. The diverse voices of various people within a society is heard and directed to our leaders through the media. It acts as a platform through which the citizen’s grievances can be directed to their leaders hence facilitating freedom of speech (Comstock, 2005. p.162). The media also acts as a platform, through which leaders can address their subjects (Comstock, 2005. P. 162). By representing the citizens, the media has a crucial role through acts to ensure that our leaders act within the required and accepted norms to meet the expectations of their subjects. In democratic societies, the media remains to be the public’s watchdog (Mcnair, 2011. p. 20). This implies the fact that the media has a responsibility to protect its people. People in democratic societies support and view the media as a system for monitoring the checks and balances in power structures. It acts to query the rights of its citizens and make the citizens aware whenever heir rights are infringed. For instance, the media is in a position to note and alert citizens of any form of corruption taking place in the government. This is crucial to both the leaders and citizens. Leaders are able to act swiftly to curb further occurrences of illegal and corrupt acts in the government at the benefit of their subjects. The media also plays a crucial role of informing the public (Mcnair, 2011. p. 19). In any given democracy, the citizens will always be responsible for coming up with accurate and appropriate collective decisions for the benefit of their nation (McChesney, 2000. p.18). Sharing knowledge is also essential in ensuring that a stable democratic society is maintained. Sharing of knowledge facilitates informed and intelligent decision-making strategies that act to benefit the society as a whole. In most states, the media facilitate this sharing of knowledge. The media informs the public about contemporary issues that are crucial to the development of a democratic state. The media gives both the citizens and leaders a highlight of what is happening in their world hence helping them understand the society in which they live (Comstock, 2005. p.162). Sharing of knowledge also ensures that leaders are updated with the dynamic leadership trends to help them adapt to changes easily at the benefit of their citizens. The media also acts to boost social unity that is crucial to the development of a democratic society (Bruce, 2011, p. 28). When a society remains united, its members are guided by common values, principles, and beliefs that facilitate the creation of democratic states. In such a state, leaders are tied up to act in accordance with these principles while citizens are able to note when leaders violate and act contrary to these principles. Citizens are able to act uniformly to eliminate leaders who violate the values agreed upon as was the case in Egypt in the year 2011 when citizens had to unite and query the legitimacy of President Mubarak. While leaders are able to realize their mistakes and learn what their subjects expect of them and hence act in accordance with their subjects’ desires. Therefore, media plays an important role in helping distribute the culture of shared values within a population by giving a shared experience (Rozell, 2003, p. 58). The media has been able to attain its roles of establishing democratic societies and making leaders directly answerable to their subjects by facilitating universal access to the media (Tamar, 1998, p. 211). The media has put into consideration the various ideologies, cultures, backgrounds and needs of the people it represents in order to attain a democratic society. Therefore, the media represents a diversity of perspectives. To attain this diversity, all public members ought to get access to the media and give contributions. In most modernized states today, the media is universally accessible to everyone, and citizens are allowed to contribute to important issues such as leadership and their rights as citizens. Through the media, they are able to evaluate performance of their leaders and give stipulations as to what they expect from their leaders. This ensures that leaders keep and obey their office oaths and that they do what the citizens expect of them hence promoting a democratic society (Bruce, 2011). The media has also endorsed the value of universal access to the media reception.. According to Bruce (2011), the media is valuable depending on its ability to effectively communicate with the citizens. Therefore, the more the people the media can reach, the more the successful it becomes in attaining its role of promoting democracy. By being ready to listen to the citizen’s complains, opinions, ideologies and critics regardless of his origin and background, the media has created a platform where leaders can be openly criticized for poor performance and forced to deliver quality work as expected by their citizens. For instance in Kenya, the media has been at the forefront in recognizing, reporting, and criticizing abuse of human rights. This has kept the government on toes to ensure that the rights of its citizens are fully protected. Media has the ability of thoroughly debating contentious issues and accurate prudence and appropriate intelligence to help citizens know what they expect from their government leaders (Curran, 1997). Before citizens can come up with effective decisions, they ought to understand and accurately interpret all arguments presented to them by their leaders. Every argument ought to be accorded an opportunity to explicitly state its case and relevantly defend itself against other counter arguments that may ensue. The media serves this crucial role of interpreting our leaders arguments and enabling the citizens understand the sort of leadership skills exhibited by their leaders. If citizens are allowed to just pick any piece of information from the media and argue in a manner that satisfies their personal interests without putting into consideration fellow citizen’s rights, this will culminate into strong arguments which have no logic and reason in them hence hindering the development of democracy in a state (Bruce, 2011, p. 33.). For the media to attain its role of being a watchdog to the citizens and stay away from political manipulations that may ruin the state of democracy in a country, the media has to be independent from all other power structures and have no political leanings in it while carrying out its functions. According to Curran (1997, p. 68), in order for the media to be critical about power structures, it ought to be independent from other political manipulations. With the media being granted such freedom, it is in a position to criticize the government for wrong undertakings that have negative repercussions on the lives of its citizens such criticize corruption in governments, misuse of funds, development of poor management strategies and projects which exploit the taxpayer and many others. This makes the governments to ensure that it works diligently and in accordance with the citizens’ expectations so as to accord them a chance in parliament when it comes to the voting period. It also helps the government develop good leadership strategies to help improve the country and meet the citizen’s expectations. To efficiently represent the public, the media is accurately responsive to public interests and concerns (Curran, 1997. Pp.98). This means that the priorities held by the public are the same priorities presented by the media. The media has developed a close response to public interest in order to meet this criterion. The media should serve the purpose of facilitating appropriate exchange of ideas without discrimination. In most states, the media is has endorsed a procedure that fully recognizes the citizen’s interests and represents them as they are. Most media houses are moving away from political leanings and are working to ensure that the citizens’ grievances are fully attended to by leaders and hold leaders accountable whenever they are not acting in accordance with their office oaths. As observed above, media plays a critical role in maintaining quality leadership and effective development of democracy within a state. It works to ensure that leaders are held accountable for their expected roles and that they respect the expectations of those who elected them. In order to enhance the roles played by the media and boost its accuracy in carrying out these roles, the media should be completely independent from political leaning, manupilations, and threats. It should be left to act as an independent arm without any form of dictation. The media should also not be allowed to misuse this freedom by presenting its own ideas and opinions and terming them as those of the citizens. It has to appropriately manage this freedom. References Bruce, E. D. 2011. The Ethics of Emerging Media: Information, Social Norms and New Responsibilities. Pp. 23-34. New York: Oxyford University Press. Curran, J. 1997. Mass Media and Society.pp. 64-240. New York: St. Martin's Press. Comstock, A. G. & Scharrer, E. 2005. The Psychology of Media and Politics. Pp. 162. New York: Academic Press. McChesney, R. W. 2000. Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times. P. 18. New York: New Press. Mcnair, Brian. 2011. An Introduction to Political Communication.pp. 18-20. New York: Taylor & Francis. Rozell, M (ed) (2003) Media Power, Media Politics. Pp. 58. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Tamar, L. & Elihu, K. 1998. Media, Ritual, and Identity. Pp. 211. 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