Question

Essay on importance of independence of media

Answer 1

Mass media are mirror of the society depicting the political environment and making discourses on the issues of significance. mass media can be defined as: “The methods and organisations used by specialist social groups to convey messages to large, socially mixed and widely dispersed audiences” (Haralambos et al., 2000, p935)

In ‘The German Ideology (1846), Marx asserts that “the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class”. Applying this to Marxism, the media are the means by which the ideas of the ruling class maintain their dominance as the ruling ideas (Haralambos & Holborn, 2000, p937).

The Marxist view was dominant in Britain and Europe from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s, and is still used in modern research. Although less dominant now, Marxism still affects much media research.

In studying the relationship between media and government, the most important role of the media is its ability to perform a watchdog role, monitoring and criticizing government behavior because when the media performs this function it is able to act as a forum for political debate regardless of other limitationson its freedom. In his press freedom index, Van Belle (2000) focuses on the ability of the news media to criticize the government and thereby serve as an arena for political competition. This more narrow definition of media independence is aimed more at the function and practices of the media. While the political, legal, economic, and professional environments each play a role in the capability of the media to serve as a watchdog and an arena for political competition.

Mass media are a structural and functional unit of the society .Every society constitutes several institutions that work together to make the system functional and stable . These social institutions are known as social structures and the work performed by them are called social functions in the structural functional theory . This theory was developed from 1930 to 1960 in the United States by Comte, Herbert Spencer and Durkheim .