Political Science

Mass media has evolved to acquire a significant degree of attention over time. The implications of mass media reflect on almost all aspects of society. One of these areas is the democratic political structure. This paper shall attempt to present a discussion on the role and relevance of mass media for democracy while shedding light on how the mass media has become an integral part of modern day life and how citizens have come to rely heavily upon it as a source of information in their everyday lives.

The term mass media is a collective referral to numerous channels of information. These include publications such as newspapers, books and magazines as well as other channels such as radio networks and the like. More recently developed forms of mass media include internet based channels such as blogs, discussion forums and focus groups (Lichtenberg). The mass media serves to provide a mix of information and entertainment to the public while allowing members of the public to come forth and express their opinions if they wish to do so. It provides a formal voice to body of citizens.

It is important to realize that democracy in itself is a system of government that is riddled with different flaws. These flaws, ironically, are created by the liberalism that democracy allows. As a result, the act of institution of democracy is the prequel to the rise of countless complexities (Woods). In order to ensure that a democracy remains safe of such complexities, it is essential for it to be subjected to continuance through preservation. The Mass Media plays a crucial role in the assurance of this preservation.

Democracy, recognized as a flawed but desirable system of government, relies ultimately on trusting the people, whose views are therefore of primary importance. Their views therefore need to be well informed if democracy is to work successfully (Line).

Not only have people become accustomed to consulting the mass media when making decisions and forming opinions, but it has become the most rapid form of communication between the state and the citizens. Any action or decision taken by the state is relayed almost immediately to the citizens. The presence of multiple channels in the mass media allows them to learn about the actiondecision from differing perspectives (Davis). As a result, the mass media serves to educate the citizens about the democratic government of the state and allows them to contribute to the evolution of the state in the process.

There is next to no doubt in the fact that people have become heavily reliant on the mass media as a channel from which to acquire information (Davis). Most people rarely take out the time to cross check on the information provided to them by the mass media and generally consider news feeds and statements to be authentic and therefore credible.

In this regard, the approach that the media adopts towards the state plays a vital role in shaping the perceptions of the citizens towards the state. In the case of a democracy in particular, the state has little or no right to place restrictions or limitations on the mass media, thereby giving the media liberty to portray the democratic state as it chooses. This gives the mass media a high degree of control over the citizens, which in worst case scenarios, can be exploited to shape public opinions and outlooks. An example of such instances can be found in the cases presented in the documentary film, Manufacturing Consent Noam Chomsky and the Media (Achbar and Chomsky).

When the mass media is considered to be a mediating body between the state and the citizen, the perspective in question does more than simply inform the citizens it allows them to take part in the working of the state and to ensure that the government does not function in any manner other than for which it has been put into place. It is perhaps because of the same reason that free media is one of the few things that comes as a threat to an unstable and shady government (The Guardian).

Governments are vulnerable to the agility with which the media reports on them (Pirzada). The vulnerability of the government can be surmised from the statement given by (Garner, Ferdinand and Lawson) when they state that In constitutional theory, states are sovereign but, in reality, states have always faced challenges from within and outside their borders, thereby, in practice, limiting their autonomy. In this sense, sovereignty has always been something of a myth (Garner, Ferdinand and Lawson 26).

Hence, it can be inferred that relying on the state to serve as an adequate monitoring mechanism for its own functioning would be equivalent to leaving the state to its fate as it is subjected to internal and external factors that threaten to destabilize it. The Mass Media plays the role of a monitoring mechanism in this regard by giving citizens the power to be the jury on the performance and organization of the state (Crick). This is through the fact that the information that the Mass Media allows them to make educated decisions on the support that they give to political leaders thereby denouncing those who are incapable of facilitating just functioning of the state and giving authority to those who are adequately capable in doing so.

It is important to highlight at this point that the role of the mass media is twofold in a democratic society. Firstly, it serves to educate the citizens about areas of relevance and points of concern about the state. Secondly, it helps the state in monitoring the condition of the citizens. The mass media, as an institution, has a far more expansive and in depth scope than agencies of the state. Therefore, the reports that the mass media communicates serve to provide a picture of the form that society has taken over time (Garner, Ferdinand and Lawson). This allows the state go gauge the body of citizens that it governs in order to identify what the populace is in need of and what measures are to be taken to improve the condition of the people of the state. This way, the media serves as a mediating channel between the citizens and the state.

A factor that merits highlighting is that the mass media, in the setup of a democratic society, cannot possibly function without influencing the mindset that the citizens develop over time (Line). It is for the same reason that the mass media, much like the state and the citizens, requires regulation and establishment of perimeter in order to ensure that it does not exceed its limits of authority and does not communicate prejudices when it should in fact be communicating unadulterated information.

The mass media, on account of the power that it holds in a democratic state, also holds a considerable degree of responsibility. It is responsible for ensuring that the right information is communicated to the citizens and there are no shortfalls or misstatements in the communicated information. The mass media can serve to motivate or de-motivate the people of the state in almost any direction, but has to function without doing so (Woods). The purpose of the mass media in a democratic society is to ensure complete un-biasness and absence of any form of prejudice in its reporting so that citizens are provided with information in its purest form. Only when the information provided is pure and unaltered can citizens be expected to make educated and relevant choices.

In a democracy, the mass media enjoys a considerable degree of liberty. This liberty is partly enjoyed on grounds of elements such as the freedom of speech and the right to object which are some of the fundamental pillars of a democratic government. In this regard, the mass media takes on a very important role in society since it has the power to communicate any side of the story that it desires (Lichtenberg). It has the liberty to be influenced and to influence others in turn. While the behavioral tendencies of the mass media are a separate topic of discussion altogether, there is no doubt that the mass media plays a highly influential role in shaping the perceptions that society follows.

It is apparent from the discussion presented above that the mass media plays a crucial role in a democratic society and should be regarded as a key player in the evolution of the state. It can also be judged that the mass media, in the case of a democracy, has the power to support or denounce a democratic government (Lichtenberg). In this particular perspective, the role of the mass media can be concluded to be somewhat indefinite. However, when considered for the fact that the mass media allows the citizens to make educated decisions and allows them to consider contributing elements when choosing which political position to support.