Media is considered as the fourth pillar of democracy. It is one of the finest links between democracy and people’s rights. This medium, which serves as a messenger for spreading information regarding every aspect of life, is a disseminator of knowledge. In any democracy, media is an important tool for bringing information regarding people’s opinions about government policies and other issues.
To put it aptly, media acts as an integrator to democracy. Neither the media nor democracy can exist without the existence of the other, hence making them mutually dependent.
The primary role of media has become to enhance the smooth functioning of democracy. There are different problems which society, in general, and people, in particular, face regularly in their daily lives, and media has a precious role to address these issues by reporting on them like cases of nepotism, corruption, frauds, criminality, women’s safety and more.
Media has to put their efforts in reporting the real cause of conflicts arising from the ground. This role is as crucial as that of politicians.
One can’t ignore the role of mass media in bringing forth the diverse opinions of people. It is worthy to note that if the media is given a free hand in reporting about different issues, only then can it act as a true messenger of democracy.
The media also has a critical role in shaping the political ideologue of people. To analyse critically, we need to understand the fundamental rights that democracy offers to the people.
In a democracy, people have a right to choose their candidates by exercising a vote in an electoral process. There are always various candidates fighting elections, all of them with diverse ideologies and have their own election manifestos.
The media’s work starts here, by giving neutral, unbiased views of the politicians so that it helps people to choose worthy candidates for the democratic politics of the country.
There have been various times when media, be it in print or broadcasting, has carried biased reports for any political ideology and has resorted to a sort of discrimination in politics. It will affect democracy in a negative sense and will spindle the voters towards a rabbit’s hole. The negative sense here being the misinformation that would be relayed to people, hence causing them to make either uninformed or incorrect choices entirely. More than that, it will destroy the ethics of journalism in real terms.
There are always hurdles in every aspect of life, and the media is no different to this. In the name of censorship, the government in any country allegedly stops the flow of information to the general masses. By doing so, the government shoots the messenger and acts like a tyrant. There are various instances when governments across the globe have banned a particular media outlet for speaking truth.
For example, in 1980, four newspapers in Africa were banned and even after protests by various journalists, the ban was not lifted, hence creating an environment for false information to prosper. By putting a gag on media, governments disallow democracy to work freely.
In today’s time, when social media has come into the realm of online journalism, the role of media has become more important and investigative. With the rise of fake news on social media, major media outlets have also spurred their resentments against this trend. But some have even used them for raising their TRPs.
The hunger for TRPs has a serious effect on our collective society, even on our communal harmony. There should be some strong regulations and acts which could stop this war of spreading lies and destroying communal peace and brotherhood. Governments must act tough on it and must neutralize this menace which has become a matter of grievance for all of us.
By working on truth and ethics of journalism, media can act as a watch-dog of democracy if it is allowed to do so. Democracy is meaningless in the absence of media. So, the role of media becomes more vital and critical in the modern era of information.