Media in Shaping Democracy

The Role of Media in Shaping Democracy:

The media plays a crucial role in shaping democracy by providing citizens with information and facilitating public discourse. The media has the power to influence public opinion, hold elected officials accountable, and shape policy decisions. As such, the role of the media in a democratic society is essential. However, the modern media landscape has undergone significant changes with the rise of social media and the proliferation of biased news sources. This has raised questions about the role of the media in shaping democracy and its impact on the public. In this blog, we will explore the role of the media in shaping democracy, its importance, and the challenges that must be addressed to ensure that the media continues to play a constructive role in our democratic system.

What the Media does:

As mentioned, the media plays a crucial role by influencing public opinion, holding

elected officials accountable, and shaping policy decisions. The role of the media in shaping policy decisions cannot be understated. Through in-depth reporting and analysis, the media can help to inform public discourse and promote productive dialogue around important issues. By providing a platform for debate and discussion, the media can help to facilitate the democratic process and promote a more informed and engaged citizenry. This is particularly important in a time when political polarization is at an all-time high and people are increasingly turning to social media for news and information. One of the most important roles of the media is to hold elected officials accountable. This is essential to ensuring transparency and promoting good governance. By shining a light on government actions and policies, the media can help to prevent abuse of power and promote accountability. This is particularly important in a time when trust in government institutions is at an all-time low. The media can help to restore faith in government by providing accurate and impartial reporting on issues that matter to the public. Another extremely important aspect of the media is how it shapes policy decisions. The media wields tremendous influence over which policies are discussed in Congress and in the court of public opinion. By providing more coverage to a certain policy, it will become more discussed in the political realm, meaning that it will gain more attention in Congress and more attention in the public. In that sense, the media chooses which policies will be resolved and which ones will be placed further down the line.

How has the Media Changed:

Today's media landscape looks incredibly different than the one only 20 years ago. In

the past, the media landscape was dominated by large news corporations such as FOX, CNN, and NBC. These news organizations would present factual and for the most part, unbiased information. Nowadays, while these news corporations are still around and playing a similar role that they did in the past, there are new elements to the media landscape. Namely, the rise in social media and biased smaller news sources. Social media has dramatically changed the media landscape in the way that it has allowed for political information to be disseminated throughout something that people use many times a day. This gives a person access to information almost every time they open their phone. This has come with both positives and negatives. A positive is that it means that now people who might not have had easy access to political information in the past now do and can be informed about whatever is happening in the political and policy world. A negative is that since these social media posts tend to be short and/or quick, often creators will leave out the facts behind what they are saying, meaning that a culture of ignoring whatever the facts are behind a particular opinion or policy has been created. This has meant that people are now often supporting a policy or political position without really knowing anything about what they are supporting. Biased small media networks have also changed the media landscape. These networks have allowed for small subsections of society with harmful and radical views to spread those views. In the past these groups would not have had an opportunity to influence susceptible people into their dangerous ideologies/ideas, now they can. They exacerbate this problem by creating a wedge between their audience and the more mainstream media by telling their audience to not listen to the mainstream media and that they are lying to them. This means that their audience never gets to listen to factual and unbiased information, which could change their mind.

What Should Be Done:

There are many debates about what could be done to solve the problem that is gripping the media landscape nowadays. While the majority of action needs to be taken by our lawmakers, there are a few things that you can do. Mainly, educate yourself. If you find a policy or topic on social media that you find interesting and want to support, go research it further and provide yourself with factual information. Another thing you can do is if you have a friend or family member who is ensnared in a biased small media source trap, help them out of it as best as you can. If you do any of these things, it will help bring the media back to shaping democracy more healthily.

By Brady Patton