which media reporting on covid -19 reflects a Democratic society?
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Something seems to be wrong. Talk of decline, disengagement and disenchantment dominates the debate about the state of contemporary democracy. All too often, such talk leads on to expressions of ill-concealed frustration about ‘apathetic’ citizens who have forgotten their civic ‘duty’ and ‘irresponsible’ media failing to serve the public interest. Avoiding these well-rehearsed lamentations, the aim of this book is to reflect upon the ways in which one of the key institutional actors in the public domain — the media in their various forms — both serve and undermine democratic objectives. Let us take the Leveson Report’s call for the media: ‘to give a powerful voice in the public domain to those unable to do so effectively for themselves’ and to provide ‘a public forum, where information, ideas and entertainment are both circulated and held up to scrutiny’ as a normative benchmark.
There has arguably never been a time when so many opportunities have been available for ‘the people’ to contribute to the democratic process, yet political participation seems to be in decline …
(McHugh, D. and Parvin, P. Neglecting Democracy: Participation and Representation in 21st Century Politics, London, Hansard Society, 2005: pp. 7–8)
The general argument for a free press as a means of free communication … has to do with a number of different things. These include the ability to give a powerful voice in the public domain to those unable to do so effectively for themselves … Importantly, it is also to do with the constitution by the media in their own right of a public forum, where information, ideas and entertainment are both circulated and held up to scrutiny.
(Report of the Leveson Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press, 2012: Vol. I, p. 62, para 3.4)
It is sometimes said that the media is accountable daily through the choice of readers and viewers. That is true up to a point. But the reality is that the viewers or readers have no objective yardstick to measure what they are being told. In every other walk of life in our society that exercises power, there are external forms of accountability, not least through the media itself … I do believe this relationship between public life and media is now damaged in a manner that requires repair. The damage saps the country’s confidence and self-belief; it undermines its assessment of itself, its institutions; and above all, it reduces our capacity to take the right decisions, in the right spirit for our future.
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