Sunday, February 20, 2011
Media, Duty and Liberty
Media being a watchdog, media mobilizing the population, media this, media that... It seems like each chapter we are reading is adding another burden on the mediatic shoulders. To me, though, there are different sorts of medias, with different roles and they don't exist as one entity but rather as complementary ones. Yes, some sort of medias have as their mission statement to be purely academic, objective, and provide citizens with information, and analysis. Others are openly partisan and serve to mobilize the citizens. Others are simply the voice of liberty, the voice of minorities and their claim to existence. You will never find any branch of media, any newspaper, any channel of tv, just anything that is holding on all of those roles. Maybe it's time we stop wanting media to be this ideal glory of democracy and understand that they all make for the different pieces of the same puzzle, just give them their individual liberty to be whatever they want to be, and to be useful to society not because they fill a checklist but rather because they don't and therefore represent individuals the way they are, the voice of the people in its trueness and not in its concept.
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While I agree that no two types of media can be the same, It is a bit disconcerting that if we were to read/ watch just one of these forms of media we would only be exposed to one side and one can easily fall to ignorance that way.
ReplyDeleteIs the criticism really that the media as a whole-meaning every single media outlet-should take on every burden? It seems to me that the criticism is that even those who are supposed to have taken on more responsibility, like watchdog, are shirking their duties. Nobody is angry at People for printing news about celebrities. People are dissatisfied, however,with news sources that say they are presenting us with "the truth," but instead present a one-sided story aimed at convincing the reader to conceptualize of the subject matter in a specific way.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we may be placing too much burden on the media. After all, it is a business. But if you are saying you are "fair and balanced" then actually be fair and balanced; if you are going to "lean forward," then you best be progressive.