The First Amendment assigns a special role for the media by providing for freedo

Question

The First Amendment assigns a special role for the media by providing for freedom of speech and a free press. What are the responsibilities of the media in a democratic society? What are some of the challenges the American media faces in fulfilling its democratic responsibilities? How have government actions helped or hurt the media’s ability to fulfill its democratic responsibilities in the last 50 years? Due to the nature of recent changes in the media landscape, include a discussion on the role of social media giants like Facebook and Twitter on our democracy and whether they should also have an obligation to our democratic society.

Explanation / Answer

One of the most important responsibility of media in a democratic country is reporting news fairly thus not taking any sides because democracy is a type of government where the rulers are elected by all the people in that system. Media is the eyes of a democracy through which people see the activities of the government and other enterprises in the political, social and economical environments. Media is the only entity that speaks for the people to the government by printing and broadcasting the turmoil of the public thus forcing the governments to function.

There will be lots of political pressure media will face from the politicians. Most of the media owners are close to politicians who will influence them to act in favor of them when they come to power. There are also media that is owned by the politicians who will influence the way news will be shared.

At times, governments block certain news in the name of censorship and ultimate power. This news censorship threatened the media at times and prevented them from functioning effectively in the past. As the awareness about the freedom of speech and press spread among the common people, governments started losing their grip on the media. Nevertheless, rich and powerful people still control media.

Today, with the invention of internet and social networking media, it has become more complex because every individual has become a media owner where they could just share a message with millions of people with a click of a button. Although false news, rumors etc. are on the rise, the importance of social networking media shouldn’t be undermined. Most of the social issues were discussed in the social media and people share their views and show their solidarity with others by supporting them. People came to the streets to fight for their rights and all these people were strangers who were connected through social networking sites. In brief social networking media has become an alternate to the traditional media.

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