To What Extent Is the Contemporary Media Referred to as a Free - Term Paper Example

The Running Head: To What extent is the co temporally media referred as a free Market of ideas. (Your Name) (University) Introduction The chief objective of the media is to inform the public about the past, present and future issues that are of interest to them. The media also plays other duties such as advisements of products and services and also act as a major form of entertainment to many. This entertainment is in form of music or programmes. These programmes may be in form of a play or they can be cartoons. These programmes of late have become very common method of entertaining the children. The children also learn a lot of things from these cartoons. Therefore parents should control the kind of programmes their children watch. They should encourage their children to watch those programmes that inspire them to have good ethics. O other had parents should discourage their children programmes that that are violent or those that can impart bad morals to them. The media should also scrutinise the activities of the government and leaders in particular. It should ensure that those in authority give account of their doings to the public. This can be done by inviting them into the media houses and giving them an opportunity to explain what they have done to the citizens. The people should also use this opportunity to ask their leaders to explain some issues they need some clarification from them. Through this method the media will help to create a chance for the public to participate to air their views and opinions. Through this process the media will successfully meet its objective as a free fair market of ideas. (Altscull, Herbert1990) The extent of media freedom The issue of press freedom has been a concern all over the world. This is because the press is very important organ of any country as it plays an important role in a country. The media can influence the public to vote for or against certain government policies. This is because of the trust that the public have on the press. The public believes that the press is always right and believes in everything that the press reports. This is not always correct. The media these days have not been able to play its role as to the expectation of the public. The media has been highly manipulated by those in the authority and the economic giant. They have influenced the media to report the information that will boost them politically or economically but not the truth of the matter. That is why a body is supposed to be established to help in controlling the freedom of the press to enable it report what is true. Regulation of the press will also help to ensure that the journalists are accountable to the public. On the other hand it is also vital for the media to have some freedom to enable it exercise its duties effectively so that to appropriately serve the public. It should therefore be given some freedom to express itself without any state intervention. This is the case in many states since press freedom is taken as a universal phenomenon all over the world. The press freedom has been empowered by its embossment by article 19 of the universal declaration of human right. The article 19 of the Universal declaration says that: “Every one has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinion without interference and to seek, receive and impact information and ideas through any media regardless of fortress.” From this article the press enjoys a lot of freedom that is guaranteed by this article. This is because the world ‘Every one’ assures the Journalist that this article also protects them. This gives them confidence in their process of reporting because they are aware they are protected. ‘Has the right’ These worlds ensure the news agencies realize that the universal expression is their birthright, but it is not something given to them by the government. The words ‘freedom of expression’ enables the media to have a free press of any form which can either be through news reports or allows the publishers to express their feelings through poems. ‘Seek and receive’ these are very strong words in this article. This is because they give the journalist the right to access any information in their process of gathering information. These words enable the media reporters to ask questions, dig for information by opening government books and records to clarify certain things. ‘Regardless of frontiers’ This ensures that the media is at liberty to transmit information across the borders. (Ang, Len 1991) Therefore this article is very important to the medias as it guarantees the press freedom to enable it became a free market of ideas for the public. The article protects the media and helps it to enjoy absolute freedom in its expression in all the social political system present all over the world regardless of the differences of their ideologies. In early 16th century the press did not enjoy press freedom. This is because the state had total control of all activities of the media. The idea to grant the press freedom originated in Britain in 1662 when Britain evolved from the authoritarian governance to libertarian governance and Sweden become the first country to offer its media freedom. (Ang, Len 1991) During the early times under the authoritarian system the truth was believed to be with a few people. These people ware considered as the wise and were mostly those in the leadership position. During this era the press operated from top to down. The leaders used the press to relay information to people. The information they passed to the people was what the leaders valued important for the people to know. The leaders also used the media to inform people the policies they want them to support. At those times the government had absolute power and control over the media. The media could not criticize the people in the leadership. This is because the media was supposed to support and advance the policies of the government but not to question what the government was doing even if their conduct was affecting the lives of the people negatively. Therefore at that period the press did not posses any freedom to express its opinions and hence its operations were guided by the instructions given to it by the state. (Keane1991) The overthrow of the authoritarian government by the libertarian government in 1688 in Britain was the first step towards the liberty of the press. This is because the libertarian believed that man is a thinking being who could differentiate between good and bad or true and false. Therefore truth was not any longer considered, as the property of those in power but the libertarian believed that it is the nature of man to search for the truth. In their process of seeking for the truth the libertarian government considered the press as a partner of the man in the process of searching the truth. This was the origin of the freedom of the press that is enjoyed by the media these days. The media of today do not act as the instrument of the government to report what the government believes is the truth but the current media is taken as a device that provides the evidence and arguments to the people. It criticizes those in powers and also enlightens the public about the government policies. Through this process it helps to educate the public. This hence helps the people to make informed decision whether to support these government policies or reject them. (Ang1991) There is a belief that for the truth to emerge, there should exist a fair hearing from all the parties. There should be a fair and free market of ideas and information. This means that the press should be accessible by the strong and weak, the majority and the minority. Through this way the truth will be guaranteed to all groups. There should be multiplicity of voices reaching the public. This means that all people who have something to say should be allowed to say irrespective of whether this information is true or false. This is because it is believed that the truth has the power to drive away the falsehood when it prevails. Thus the decision to determine whether the information given is true or false should be left to the public. To reinforce the freedom of the current media the government is not allowed to interfere with the operations of the media. The media organizations are then independent from the influence of the government and big business. This is very important to because it have enabled the media to have the liberty to criticize the evils in the government. These evils range from corruption or bad leadership where one group of people is oppressed. The media also helps to criticize the day-to-day activities of some of the companies whose operations have adverse effects on the lives of the residents. In this way it helps to create awareness and sensitise the public of what is happening around them. Through the access of this information the public is then able to make the right decision to address the prevalent issues either in the government or to such companies whose operations is a threat to their lives. (Ang1991) The current governments in most countries in the world have guaranteed private ownership of media organizations. This process has greatly helped to perpetuate the truth to the public. Most governments do not restrict individuals to own media organizations. They do not also interfere with the media operations by trying to eliminate or compete with them in their day-to-day activities. Thus the media is free to offer their opinions to the public without any interference from any group. This makes it very easier for the media to questions the government policies without intimidation or threat from the government (Keane1991) The publication and distribution is open to any person or group. There is no license that is required by the government for individuals or groups that want to publish anything. This makes it very easy for those that are interested in making their publications to do so. On the other hand individuals or groups should not be forced by any organization or the government to publish anything. Their publication should be out of their free will to do so but not out of compulsion. The government does not limit the exchange of information across the border. The people are at liberty to communicate with people within their states or across the border without any state interventions. There has been an increase in communication across the border due to the high rise in advancement in information technology. Nowadays people can exchange information across the border through the use of radio, television or Internet. In most States there are no measures that the governments of today have put into place to refute people import or export information across the borders. In Asian countries there is a lot of restriction in media industry on how and what to transmit. The Asian countries do not allow the media to scrutinize those people in the power. In China the use of Internet is highly discouraged. Unless in these few cases many people all over the world are free to share messages all over the world either by the use of the television, radio or Internet. (Doyle1997) The major aim of the media is to alert the public about the past, present and future issues that is of interest to them. The current media is offering the public an opportunity to express themselves and debate on issues concerning them. The broadcasting media has been inviting various peoples in their media studios and air them out to explain certain issues that are of concern to the public. The public gets a chance to get answers to most of their questions and also gets an opportunity to air out their grievances and views related to issue being discussed. This has boosted greatly the media in its mission of serving the public. Guidelines to direct the Journalist who are under training were put into place. These guidelines are meant to help the Journalist to be more competent in their field. These guild lines were established by the Journalist themselves without any influences from the government or any interested party. These criteria have enabled the current media to be very successive in providing free and fair information to the public. The government have greatly helped media organizations to ensure that the public bodies cooperates with the private media to help them access information, materials and other facilities just like the way they do assist the official media. The government also has played a major role to upgrade the media houses. This has been done by helping them to improve their content, method of production and presentation through its provision of the modern technologies to these media organizations. The provision of digital transmission to the media organizations by the government in many countries has greatly enhanced the television transmission. The News agencies have been given the rights to import or export all relevant professional materials and equipments that will help them in the process of colleting and sending information. This has enabled the private media organizations to be able to gather the relevant information and transmit it to the public. The government in addition has made it easier for the Journalist to access visas so that to facilitate their processes of collecting information. (Doyle1997) On the other hand the media has been seen as not adequately met its objective for being a free market of ideas for the public. This has been brought about by various factors as described below. Media limitations The press has failed as a free market of ideas. This is because of the increased power of the state and the economic power of the private capital. This has resulted to the media organization be owned by the power elite who are mostly the top political, economic or the military people. Therefore the current media cannot effectively play its role of alerting the public about the evils in the government due to its manipulation by the economic elites and those in power. Hence in many countries the media do not report corruption cases in the government. The press does not also criticize the economic giants who have business that adversely affect the lives of the public. This is mostly common in Asian countries. . (Faintuck1999) Therefore the media in these countries is seen by the public to have failed in its mission of serving the public with the right information to help them make informed decisions. This has mainly been caused by the alliance of the media with the power elites who controls the media for selfish interest. (Keane1991) The increased power of the private ownership of property does not emphasize for the need for individual liberties beyond the freedom for enterprises. As a result the freedom for expression, and publication as an individual right has been greatly neglected on the account of the freedom of press that has greatly failed in its mission of establishing a fair and free market of ideas. This is due to the concept of profit maximization in the private media capital. The free market does not allow free access to the deregulated market place. The media concentration and conglomeration tends to suppress less profitable voices. This is done in order to maintain standardization of programmes supply in the media and especially in the television sector. Therefore the supply is left to a few that have enough resources to meet the high cost associated with production of quality programmes. This then limits the free flow of information, as it is required in a free market of ideas. (Keane1991) The concept of the media as a free market of ideas is hence fundamentally flawed. This is because the kind of flow of information that is present in media is not fair to all parties and hence should be reconsidered to ensure a free and fair market to all groups of people. The freedom of media from the government control is not enough to guarantee a free and fair market. This is because of the existences of the market forces, which need also to be regulated. These forces includes the high cost needed to enter into the media market and the impact of the advertisement on the content of the media where private media emphasize so much on these advertisements at the expense of informing the public on other prevalent issues affecting them such as corruptions in the government. Hence the media should also be subjected to freedom from economic interest. This will ensure that the media supply is not limited to a few but to all to give every one an opportunity to express their opinions. Through this process there will be a free flow of information between nations and democratisation of communication in the media will be realized. In the modern world there have been a drastic advancement in the level of technology. This has resulted to an improvement in the method of communication. . (Faintuck1999) These technologies have helped to boost communications within and across-border. These new communications technologies include Internet, faxes and cross-border radio and television communications. However the poor countries are hard pressed and therefore cannot afford such technologies. Hence in these countries there is limitation of free flow of information due to their poor economical status. (Collins1998) The media as a free market of ideas has failed to fulfil its promise of the press freedom to public expectation. The technological and commercial evolvements of the media sector are to blame for this. The development of media technology has limited the access of the media to just a few individuals. There has been also a decline in its standards of performance due to its undue influence of advertisers as a result of the media sensation for profit motive. This has contributed to its low participation in meeting the social and moral needs of the public. The freedom associated with the press has lead to concentration of the media power to the media owners who are mostly the power elites. Therefore the media cannot be able to sufficiently address its objectives appropriately due to its manipulation by the power elites who are mostly the top politician and economic giants in the society. The development of the new media technologies was accompanied with establishments of some control and accountability in the media. This is because the freedom of the media gave the media related obligations that made it necessary for it to assume social responsibilities. The media therefore was required to emphasize on its role in enlightening the people, promoting democracy and safe guarding the right of individuals. Afterwards it can address its other duties such as entertainment and advertisement. (Ang1991) The media is required to service the public with good entertainment that does not debase the norms and values of society for profit motive. Establishment of governments’ policies that helps to ensure that the media meets its social obligations effectively ensures this. There have been high professional standards for informative, truth, accuracy, objectivity and balance that have been set as the platform for on which the media should operate. Through this process the media is regarded as self-regulating within a certain framework of law. The media is then required to avoid whatever that may lead to crime, violence or give offence to the minority. Instead the media is required to be pluralist and reflect the diversity of the society. In this manner the media makes the journalists to be accountable both to their employers and the public. (Doyle1997) Conclusion The media plays an important role in the society. This is because it helps to enlighten the public on certain things that affects their day-to-day lives. The media helps to inform the public of any corruption in the government. The media also helps to educate the people about certain government policies to enable people to make informed decisions. Therefore the media should be allowed to enjoy some freedom to enable it serve the public effectively. On the other hand a body that regulates the activities of the media should be put into place. This body should ensure that the media transmits only that information that is true (Keane1991). It should also ensure that some people for selfish reasons do not use the media wrongly. This body should also make sure that media plays its role effectively. This is by certifying that it plays its most important duty of promoting democracy, informing them and protecting their rights. Then after that it can participates in its other duties such as entertaining people with music or programmes that do not demean peoples norms and ethics. (Ang, Len 1991) References. Altscull, Herbert. From Milton to McLuhan. The Ideas behind American Journalism. New York: Longman, 1990. Ang, Len (1991) Desperate seeking the Audience. London: Routledge. Collins, Richard (1998). New York Communication Technology and European public service Television. London: Routledge. Doyle, Gillian (1997) From pluralism to Ownership Journal information, law and Techology.1997 (3) Faintuck, mike (1999) Media Regulation, public interest and law. Edinburgh University Press. Keane, John. The Media and Democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991. Read More