What role do media industries have in the maintenance or dilution of democratic institutions?

Introduction

The subject of discussion is incredibly profound and vast because it has various angles to cover. For example, media has strengthened as well as weaken all types of democratic institutions. On one side, it is strengthening in different formats and on the other side it is also weakening.

There are different and innovated forms of media industries in Australia and all over the world. The paper has explored the basic realities and facts about the role and performance of media in the development of democratic institutions. Although, media covers many other issues of the country but the major and common part of any democracy are its democratic institutions. The social subject is democratic institutions that utilize diverse types of media to present their views to all types of citizens consistently. They present their views globally because world has become extremely small due to introduction of smart technological gadgets. 

In this composition, it has been attempted to explain that media is maintaining democratic institutions but sometimes it gives a lot of unlimited respects and power intentionally or unintentionally that is difficult to digest by democratic institutions.

Moreover, it has been further argued that media should support all the political institutions and print and upload that information that present a positive picture of the country and also helpful for the locales. Moreover, all mediums of media should not lose its focus and purpose of existence instead of running towards making money by showing fake image to the society only through biasness and other ways. If it shows erroneous depiction then democratic institutions becomes weaker, society affects as well as the self respect of media can also be damaged further. Due to numerous reasons media is losing its self respect by running towards money. One of the major problems is that some people have the ownership of all the medium of communication in Australia and lack of substance of information and investigation approach over democratic institutions. In fact, they are supporting democrats for wrong doing which can be really drastic for Australians.  

Delve into the intricate dynamics of the Role of Media in Democracy at Assignmentstudio. Through comprehensive analysis, we uncover the profound impact of media on democratic governance, fostering informed engagement and advocacy.

Media Industries

There are several things in life that should be studied so that people can be more practical before entering into practical life.  Basically, without understanding the social norms of the society it is difficult to be successful. Our study is related to the media industries and their significance in the current prevailing society. It is necessary to understand the reality about media industries very carefully; media industries have started its real operations from seventeenth century (Conboy, 2013). At the time of discussing about media industries, several interesting important questions arise. These questions related to the history of media industries, current use of media industries and their connection with different social institutions such as democracy and the future of media industries. It is important to know that at what form of media industry will be existing in future and which form will be erased from the life of people.

Media has different types such as digital, print, music and cinema. People are used to with all these types of media in their routine life. People use any forms, which is best suitable to them for getting and educating about any area such as democracy. On other hand, any institute can use any form of media to present its views and arguments through proper and standards channel in Australia such as democratic institutes.

There is a common perception that media industries and democratic institutions are strongly connected with each other. Every citizen has the right to know about anything in the country so they can get all the information through different forms of media. On the other hand, democratic institutions also need media to voice out their views, understanding and future planning about Australia and its masses. Media is therefore considered as a vital and powerful source of interaction with state and society by political and democratic institutions. It is possible that media can strengthen the voice the democratic institutions.  

Democratic institutions

Democratic institutions may not necessarily be the kind of registered institutions and also not directly involved for the rights of people. These institutions may be informal as well formal institutions. Formal institutions are legal and judicature system, human right authorities, parliament and particular authorities, and political parties. Informal institutions may be any individual who is in favor of all the citizens and collective decisions such as journalists, health practitioners and media itself.

Democratic institutions are the kind of institutions who promotes, support and give equal right of argument and discussion to every single citizen of Australia.  The basic work of democratic institutions or democracy is to present the views of a particular area or region on the national level with the back of people.  Democrats also use media to provide the information about the situation of a particular area and personality to correct the direction or help citizens of Australia.

There are several other democratic institutions such as Human Right and Equal Opportunity Commission.  The branches of human rights institutions and equal opportunity are available in all the territories of Australia. In every field, certain department and institutions have been formed so that no one can stop and pressurize any type of citizen of Australia by any sort of discrimination.

Australia is also an active member of six major UN human rights treaties. It always promotes all types of human rights all over the world and support to the human rights of all the people of the world very strongly (DFAT, 2012).

Impact of Media Industries

The history of media is very deep and long. It is in the practice from the fifteenth century within the society. At the early stage, it was evolved from a printing movable press but it has taken unique forms such as cinema, music, print and digital media (Teacher Slides).

The impact of media is very high on the democratic institutions. Democratic institutions are the part of social life and society; countries can never survive without complete democracy in the society. The role of media can be very critical and helpful for the betterment of democratic institutions. It plays the role of watchdog or guardians for all the people of the country. Although, the forms of media have been changed but it is still has a lot of significance within society. Almost all the citizens of the country want to know about any type of information and knowledge about any particular field such as politics, local, showbiz, sports and business news. Democracy is one of the major topics because the present and future of people is with democracy and democratic institutions. Media always let people know what democratic institutions are doing these days truly. In case, media is with democratic authorities for the sake of business and profits then the effects of those wrong bonding appears very clearly. It shows injustice, inequality, violation of human rights, and discrimination in terms of race, gender, color, language, geography and wealth status (Moyers, 1993).

Australia is one of the advance countries of the world and the politics is an important topic of media all over Australia. Media plays its role in the development and reporting of true and fair news about democratic institutions all the time but it is also true that political and democratic institutions misuse the media visibly or non-visibly. Media also help democratic institutions by manipulating the facts and figures or by reporting irrelevant and unimportant news instead of right and important news. Journalists play an important role towards weakening the democratic institutions by being biased. They present and forward the voice of their liked personalities instead of presenting the current and real things over the platform of journal and newspapers articles. This type of act always promotes and supports the democratic system negatively. It depresses the voice of true and worthy personalities.

Some important and major roles of media about the mechanism and connection of media with democratic and political institutions are as follows:

• Media is always been considered as a strong and true source of information for people, people switch on their T.V, Radio, and internet to read the news given by different news channels in Australia. Media report political news over their news channels and people get to know about what is the current topic of debates.
• Every day, several types of debates take place in Australia between politicians and democratic institutions. The media plays its role by analyzing the debates and let people know that who is the strong opponent from those debates.
• Recent development has been observed in which democratic institutions have used media by controlling the important messages reported by media in the public (Economou & Ghazarian, 2013).

There are numerous ways in which media is maintaining the democratic institutions:

Media as a Watchdog

Media works in the society as a watchdog. It has always used the investigative approach towards the governance and strengthening of the democratic systems all over the country. It tries to minimize corruption, violation of human rights and bad governance issues as much as possible by presenting and reporting to all the relevant institutions of the country (Holmes, 1991).

A true story was reported in the independent Australia (IA) about the Interpol and Julian Assange red notice. Media reports these types of stories for the public and for the betterment of democratic institutions. On other hand, it has also been said by the reporter John Nicholas that media power and ownership is in the hands of politicians such as Rupert Murdoch (Djankov, et al., 2001). It also added that power and democracy is at stake due to the fact that powerful people are listening to the right stories because they are happy by manipulating the news in their own way (Donovan, 2011). So media is trying to report all the mechanism of democratic institutions and on the basis of investigation it helps institutions to declare the guilty people as accountable.

Media as a forum of Discussion

Media is consistently playing its role in the discussion and debates within general public and politicians. It proved all the support and help to democratic institutions to present their views towards general public. Democratic institutions can use any sort of media such as digital, press, cinema and music to present their views over the public as a large. On the other hand, media also helps public to decide which politicians should be supported their votes etc.

In this respect, media is playing its role by providing a wide platform of discussion to the all the proprietary of the country as much as possible in a very economical way. For example, newspapers and public affairs programs on radio and television inform, educate and connect public widely (Sen, 1999).

Peace and True Consensus Developer

Democratic institutions cannot work peacefully and thrive without the use of proper and free media. Although, media is new due to the introduction of digital technologies and intranet but there is strong presence and power of media in the countries. Media plays its role as a consensus builder. For instance, democratic institutes and parties can resolve their issues and come to mutual decisions with the help of media very easily and simply. 

Media has played its role as a means of education to the general public but it may also help democrats to use it for the electoral campaigns. The case of USA is significant where democrats use sounds, music, T.V, Radio and electronic stages to present their views. These campaigns are useful for democrats to some extent but overall the impact of these campaigns is low. Use of sounds and voices do not really help democrats to build their views in the minds forever but this is a kind of entertainment campaigns on the serious notes and issues of the country.

Innovations for Institutions

Currently, there are several tools of communication for the democrats all over the world. In many countries, radio is the favorite means to communicate the views by democrats and relevant institutions. It is a better choice of communication and helps democratic institutions to raise the true voices because it is an economical medium. This medium is usually prevailing in the poor and developing countries because of its cost effectiveness. Other mediums are expensive with a wide range of market; one of the wide and global medium is internet. It serves the purpose of developing democratic institutions by correcting their directions by realizing them about accountability and good governance issues.

Governance and Accountability

Although media is trying to correct the direction of democratic institutions and most of the time criticize them to come towards the right and decided vision instead of just taking the advantage for their own personalities (Journalists, 2002).

Due to several critical actions regarding accountability and governance issues, democratic institutions have been corrected a lot. Without corrective and neutral views on the democratic institutions, these institutes will be weaken and harms to the attached stakeholders a lot. Democratic institutions can only stronger when they work fairly and regard themselves accountable. Media is independent due to strong support by human rights institutes and legal system. There are standards and ethics in which they can work effectively and without harming and weakening the democratic institutions (UN Development, 1997).

Media also have been criticized due to bias decisions, misuse of internet, bad tips on health by health experts and journalists. On the other hand, media has also been threatened or pressed due to the ownership of this department is held by few people within country.

Conclusion

After studying the current performance of media and their role about democratic institutions, it can be said that media is not playing that level of role which should be played to strengthen the democratic institutions. Media is working and observing few areas in which democratic institutions are performing well and hiding the other issues.

Media is diluting democratic systems instead of strengthening them by just presenting that news which are beneficial for political and democratic authorities and for themselves in terms of money and fame. The reason of negative participation in the development process of democratic institutions is the hunger for promotion and money. Although, media has been advanced with the introduction of technologies such as mobile phones and internet but it is not showing the real facts to the public. The basic work of media is to educate, delight, entertain and provides comfort to all the citizens of the country but it is also persuading or outraging people to view an event or issue in a different light.

Media is not performing its duties in all aspects of the country but it is unnecessarily supporting democratic institutions. The second issues about the weak performance of democratic institution are the weak scrutiny of information and overwrite about the weak performance of democratic institution. For instance, journalists have divided their personalities as per their own likes or dislikes. They usually concern about the neutral investigation but they are only supporting to their favourites. In simple words, their pen is sold as per their desire.

In short, media is performing below par and it is very much important to also criticize media so that people can at least get to know about the real picture of the democratic institutions. Due to weak or bias media existence, democratic institutions are getting weaker and weaker.

By taking some strict and critical actions by the government and public, there is a much possibility of strengthening all the democratic institutions. There is also a view that democratic institutions are using media for their own benefits but they should solely work for the betterment of people by involving all the elected people.

Bibliography

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