Roles of the media in influencing government and citizens
Media embraces all the tools or communication channels that are primarily used to store and convey info or data. Therefore media encompasses various constituents of the mass media communication comprising print media, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising. This paper elucidates how the media performs some functions which belong to the government agencies expresses when the government is on its verge destruction (Lawlor and Andrea 201-222). Additionally, the paper discusses how media influences citizens within a particular state or country. Some of the roles on how media influences government comprise; media aids in the creation of awareness to the people on the operations of the government, participation in political decisions, holding government officials accountable.
Through media components such as broadcasting, people can certainly understand the government’s ongoing operations besides being conscious of the activities that the government anticipates implementing. Therefore media plays a vibrant role in informing the public what is in and out of the government. For instance, during the height of the Estrada impeachment trial and that of Chief Justice Renato Corona, the media played an essential role in conveying information to the citizens regarding the two trial impeachments whereby people were following the trials over their radio and television.
Media aids the public in making political decisions. Mostly this occurs when an oppressive action is about to be committed by the government. Therefore media establishes a venue for public discourse that is expressly aimed at creating loud dissents to restrict the government from enacting such as oppressive and wrongful acts. For instance, the government’s introduction of the pay-hike to raise the pay of the government employees was expedited by the presence of the public discourse eased public to make loud prayers regarding the rise in the wage then grinding the media hence leading to the implementation of the salary standardization law.
Media has been a regulator of the government. That media holds the government’s officials hence expediting easier monitoring of possible corruption and illegal acts. Hence suggesting media has been manifested in various states whereby in the Philippines, through the media, numerous governmental wrongful transactions have been exposed, such as the payolas during the impeachment trial Renato Corona.
Additionally, the media influences the government through questioning by the journalist, whereby they work as a controller by checking legitimacy besides people’s integrity in power. Through critiquing, the journalist is capable of judging and condemning the deeds of the people in power by making allegations (Chen et al, 1122-1134). For instance, inquiring governmental leaders concerning the operations to implement aids in easier identification of corruption cases. Consequently, criticizing such leaders from instigating such processes affects the citizens since it limits the misuse of the funds, which could be used in establishing economic practices.
The increasing use of the media affects the citizen’s opinions. This has been eased by the capability of the media to offer two-way communication hence enhancing thorough interaction as people can directly send messages to the government and enable politicians to make various comments online. Therefore citizens can share their advice concerning the onions of the government. For example, the presence of the new technology, which eases interaction between the government and citizens, has initiated the government to publicize the projects or operations which it intends to implement. Thus the media enables citizens to share their opinions and views regarding the activities to be instigated hence limiting the enactment of projects which will lead to embezzlement of funds.
Conclusively, media has been helpful as it helps citizens understand the operations conducted by the government through broadcasting. They are hence facilitating citizens to raise various views about the proposed actions restricting the implementation of the oppressive operations, which are not helpful.
Works Cited
Lawlor, Andrea. “Getting Citizens to Save: Media Influence on Incentive-Based Policies.” Journal of Social Policy 45.2 (2016): 201-222.
Chen, Jianan, and Lanying Sun. “Media Influence on Citizens’ Government Trust: A Cross-Sectional Data Analysis of China.” International Journal of Public Administration 42.13 (2019): 1122-1134.