Grommersoft

In a democracy, communication must go both ways; from the government to citizens and from citizens to government. The media are important in a democracy, in that one of their primary roles is the promotion of communication between citizens and their government.

The media are made up of the mass media, which allow for communications to large, heterogeneous audiences, and group media, which allow for communication between members of common-interest groups. Examples of mass media are the print media (newspapers and magazines) and the broadcast media (radio and television). Group media consist of fax transmission and the internet.

The growth of the country, technological inventions, and shifting political attitudes about the scope of government, as well as trends in entertainment, have all shaped the development of the media.

The print media were more important to politics earlier in our history. Even today, however, some newspapers and magazines enjoy mass circulation. Most news magazines, however, because they have small circulations and select readership are considered group media. Though radio was once a prime source for the coverage of live news, its salience today lies in its role as a forum for talk. Television has become the major medium for mass communications about politics. Television's main appeal-- that it shows people and events-- accounts for the influence of television news coverage.

The technology revolution produced the 'fax' and the internet, both of which have been adapted to politics. These are called group media-- communications technologies used primarily within groups with common interests. Campaign managers and interest groups frequently make use of the fax to communicate among themselves. The internet is also used as a source of political information.

Private ownership of the media in the United States means that the media operate free of government control, but it also means that they operate to make profits. In order to make a profit, they must attract large audiences, therefore their programming and content must have mass appeal. Only a portion of broadcast programming and newspaper content can be classified as political news. Much of their content is really news that is entertaining.

In their efforts to increase their profits, media owners have acquired additional media outlets. Early fears of concentrating ownership of the broadcast media under a single entity led to government regulation of media ownership. Government regulation began with the technical need to regulate competition for a limited number of airwaves. The Federal Communications Act of 1934 established the Federal Communications Commission and formed the basis for media regulation for over sixty years. Such regulation consisted of technical regulations, ownership regulation and, in some cases, regulation of content. More recently, the FCC has swung toward the view that the broadcast media should be given the same freedom as the print media, which means that television and radio would not be required to offer air time to those broadcasting contradictory sides of an issue.

In 1996, Congress responded to pressure from business that wanted to exploit new electronic technologies and, in a bipartisan effort, swept away mot regulations. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 relaxed or eliminated ownership regulations and rate regulation for cable television. The 1996 law immediately led to a number of media mergers, in which already large media companies purchased other large media companies.
The media have five functions: reporting the news, interpreting the news, influencing citizen opinion, setting the political agenda, and socializing citizens about politics.
Together, the mass media employ thousands of reporters to cover news firsthand as it breaks in major news centers of the world. Washington, D.C., has the largest press corps of any U.S. city. Most of the government news reported to the public comes from official government sources. The media executives‹news editors and prominent reporters‹function as gatekeepers in deciding what events to report and how to handle the coverage. In an effort to appeal to their audiences, the media tend to personalize news stories, which leads to horse-race journalism in election coverage, and to focus on media events‹activities that show well on television.

Studies of the public's source of news clearly demonstrate that most people rely on television as their main source of news. They also view television as the most credible source of news. Their attentiveness is related to several factors. However, people seem to recall little of the news to which they have been exposed over the year, and studies show that those who rely most on television tend to have less ability to see differences among political candidates than those who rely on other sources of information. Despite the image of the mass media as manipulators of the news to influence voters, the actual content of the news‹whether it is good or bad in the minds of the viewers‹seems to have more effect on voters than the way the news is reported.

Ample evidence supports the charge that working journalists tend to hold liberal views. On the other hand, it also seems that their editors and publishers (the gatekeepers) tend to reflect countervailing conservative views. What seems clearest from studies of media bias is that journalists tend to distrust politicians of either party, which encourages them to act in an adversarial manner when researching stories.

The media have more subtle effects on the political system in setting the political agenda‹often emphasizing social problems like crime in an unsettling way‹and in socializing the young through entertainment programs. Unlike early radio programs about cops and robbers, contemporary television police drama tend to undercut confidence in the criminal justice system. Overall, the media play contradictory roles in the socialization process, both supporting the system by celebrating national holidays and undermining order by publicizing grievances, corruption, and even terrorism. As new media systems, such as the information highway, develop more fully, their impacts on the political process will also require analysis.

The media contribute to democracy by critical reporting of government actions and by communicating to the government the public's attitudes and reactions. Reporters have advanced equality in the United States by their sympathetic coverage of minority groups, particularly during the civil rights movement. In their uncompromising effort to defend freedom of the press, however, the media have also exacted social costs by emphasizing the role of the sensational at the expense of content.

©1998 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.