Democratic Media

February 9, 2009 cindymendes
Tags: commercial media, democracy, government subvention, public media

Our society is often fooled by the pretense of freedom. Despite being given a choice, the general population has no sovereignty but rather only the freedom to choose among a restricted selection. This continues to be the case with dominant media which is owned by powerful elite who are primarily concerned with their own self interests. To make matters worse, mass media is in the powerful position that helps protect themselves from public debate that threaten their own interests, predominantly those of the elite, which demonstrate how profoundly undemocratic the media truly is.

Democratic media would be atypical from the dominant media in two ways: structurally and functionally. Firstly, ordinary citizens would be the ones to organize and control the media which is naturally guaranteed to reflect the demands of the population. Secondly, democratic media’s aim would be to serve informational, cultural and other communications needs of the public. It would recognize and encourage diversity.

Current mainstream media attempts to assert that they are democratic, and do so by offering the public with a variety of talk shows that hold the façade of democracy. However, what many members of the audience do not realize is how controlled talk shows are, through screening and restricted discussion with public. I personally have witnessed this on shows like The Tyra Banks Show, who’s host often cuts guests off and regurgitates the message with an entirely different idea. In many of the talk shows, such as Dr. Phil, The Tyra Banks Show and even The View, there are several issues that are addressed, however, each of the particular topics are discussed within an acceptable framework and controlled by each host. If ever an audience member steps out of bounds, producers will merely edit and remove specific scenes.

In order to create a democratic media, one has the choice between two options. One can attempt to persuade or force current media to provide excluded groups and ideas a forum or private organization can take popular action through legislative action. The first seems unlikely, and is filled with flaws as a non democratic media cannot ultimately produce a democratic media. Since the commercial media sector is self serving, in majority due to advertisement, the public and civic sector must attempt to find its own finding. The democratization of the media should first attempt to enlarge the civic field, strengthen its sector through autonomy and funding and attempt to decrease the commercial sector. Government subvention is required for democratic media.

I personally do not believe that it is possible to have a truly democratic media. Just as it seems impossible and unlikely to ever have an honest and sincerely democratic government, the media cannot be contained and restricted to democracy. The first attempt to make the media democratic is structural, which in essence is the beginning of the problem. How can one expect a group of individuals to remain true to their society without allowing the power overtake them? This discrepancy would eventually leak to the function of media democracy, being that those in positions of power would dominate and change the aim to serve their own interests.

I also do not believe that the media can be democratic if government subvention is required. With any government contribution, one can expect media abuse. This may sound cynical, however, it is merely a fact.

The media is currently being abused by individuals in elite positions of power who are self serving. While I do agree that the media can be more democratic, I also believe that it is like reaching an asymptote. The media can never truly be one hundred percent democratic, however, we can always attempt to reach that level.

Entry Filed under: Lies Through Media

One Comment Add your own

• 1. Nicole  |  February 19, 2009 at 4:46 pm

  hey cindy, these look a lot like wiki entries… if you added them here just to add to your blog, thats great (they’re really good). but since shakib is marking your wikis and i’m marking your blogs, i hope you’ve included these entries in the class wiki too!

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