Democracy and the Media

Democracy is prized in America, and a number of institutions assert that they are dedicated to preserving democracy by practicing and protecting certain specific freedoms. One of the institutions that promotes itself as a protector of democracy is the media (once known as the press because it was almost entirely oriented toward print, and now called the media with the addition of radio and television). The media delivers the news to the American people; it works through, and jealously protects, the First Amendment values of a Free Press and Freedom of Speech. The special role accorded the media derives from the view that the media serves as a stand-in for the public at large. Reporters go where the majority of people cannot and find information the average person cannot. The media sees to it that the government and other public institutions fulfill their duties and live up to the ideals of this society, then informing the public of that fact or of lapses. However, the media has been blamed more and more in recent years as an institution that damages democracy in a variety of ways ranging from increasing the costs of democracy to focusing on inconsequentials and failing to cover issues completely, fairly, or at all. Such criticisms have mounted over the past two decades since the Watergate era. The media today is much criticized for its failings and purported damaging of democracy by political leaders, candidates, pundits, and in movies and books like th

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is discussed and what is not. These account for why the media acts in the interests of the corporate and governing elite. Only stories with a strong orientation to elite interests can pass through the five filters unobstructed and receive ample media attention. The model also explains how the media can conscientiously function when even a superficial analysis of the evidence would indicate the preposterous nature of many of the stories that receive ample publicity in the press and on the network news broadcasts (McChesney 671). The first filter is the fact that ownership of the media is highly concentrated among a few dozen of the largest forprofit corporations in the world, and many of these have extensive holdings in other industries and nations. Their desire for profit severely influences the news operations and overall content of the media. The second filter is advertising, which is responsible for most of the media's income and which shapes what is discussed by proscribing certain issues on threat of withdrawal of support. The third filter is the need for souring, whereby "the mass media are drawn into a symbiotic relationship with powerful sources of information by economic necessity and reciprocity of interest" (Herm

Category: Government - D