Is There a Link Between Media and Good Governance? What the Academics Say (original) (raw)
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Good governance is a real drive behind a country’s development. It protects the human rights, ensures the justice, maintains law an order and provides equal opportunities to the masses. It provides the fruits of progress and development to all and sundry. Participation, transparency and rule of law, are some essentials of good governance. It is a vital aspect at all levels of society and state. It makes the system of the state effective and efficient. Good governance is checked by some organs of the state. Media is one of them. In this paper we discussed about the definitions of media, mass media, governance, good governance and various aspects of it. The role of media is very crucial for good governance. Here the role of media on good governance is elaborately discussed. In preparing this paper I have took help of many books and internet. I want to convey my heartiest thanks to our honorable course teacher Sarder Kaiser Ahmed Sir for his valuable suggestion and advice. His nice explanation to the topics made us very much clear which helped us a lot.
Seminar, 2002
MODERN politics is largely a mediated politics, experienced by most citizens through their broadcast and print media of choice. Any study of democracy in contemporary conditions is, therefore, also a study of how the media report and interpret political events and issues, and how media itself influences the political processes and shapes public opinion. Thus, media has become central to politics and public life in contemporary democracy. Access to media is one of the key measures of power and equality. Media can shape power and participation in society in negative ways, by obscuring the motives and interests behind political decisions, or in positive ways, by promoting the involvement of people in those decisions. In this respect the media and governance equation becomes important. Media occupies a space that is constantly contested, which is subject to organizational and technological restructuring, to economic, cultural and political constraints, to commercial pressures and to changing professional practices. The changing contours of this space can lead to different patterns of domination and agenda-setting and to different degrees of openness and closure in terms of access, patterns of ownership, available genres, types of disclosure and range of opinions represented. Although it is intrinsically difficult to theorize about the complexities implied in this formulation, the implications of the empirical outcomes of the struggle over this terrain are crucial for the ways in which they help or hinder democratic governance. For this reason journalists and their audiences, when they first read, hear or see news, should always ask the irreverent question: 'Says who?' This may be bad news for the official managers of society, but it will be good news for democracy. In a democratic society, therefore, the role of the media assumes seminal importance. Democracy implies participative governance, and it is the media that informs people about various problems of society, which makes those wielding power on their behalf answerable to them. That the actions of the government and the state, and the efforts of competing parties and interests to exercise political power should be underpinned and legitimized by critical scrutiny and informed debate facilitated by the institutions of the media is a normative assumption uniting the political spectrum. It has been further remarked by Davis Merritt, in his work Public Journalism and Public Life that what journalists should bring to the arena of public life is knowledge of the rules – how the public has decided a democracy should work – and the ability and willingness to provide relevant information and a place for that information to be discussed and turned into
Role of Media in Ensuring Good Governance: An Analysis
https://www.ijrrjournal.com/IJRR\_Vol.5\_Issue.10\_Oct2018/Abstract\_IJRR0055.html, 2018
Development Journalists feel that greater stress on "development oriented politics" and greater media attention for such development are absolutely essential. The media should act as partners in various developmental programmes and should perform the role of watchdog on the governance. The media are not only a framework through which news about developmental initiatives is passed on to the larger field of the common man but also a filter through which the common man's perception of government policies and their implementation is brought to the attention of the government. One of its principal objectives may be to gather people's reactions to the programmes and policies of the government and their implementation and to report them back for appropriate and corrective action by the government. But the government, in the present setup , lacks an organized and effective system to find out and disseminate the perceptions of the common man about various government programmes and initiatives. The media can be made the main channel for collecting and collating the feedback from the people. It is essential to have research wings in academic institutions developing media personnel in reporting news, event analysis and highlights that may help the Government to perform more transparently. This will enable our journalists to carry out original research on issues related with the functioning of the Government at Centre and at various States. Indian newspapers and news agencies should encourage research being carried out by journalists within India in academic research institutions, which will definitely improve the quality of reporting and enhance the participation of journalists in building good governance.
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The differences within and between Western and Eastern democracies are so significant that the concept of multiple democracies is proposed. To most of the developing world, democratisation is transculturation a process by which Western democracy is transformed for self-aggrandisement. In the age of globalisation, the media are potentially important sources of international and domestic referencing. Media and democratisation are mutually reinforcing, one being constituted by the other. The roles of the media in a society are very much defined by its mode of media control, which varies mainly with its power structure. With concentrated power, the media tend to demote democracy; the opposite is true when equity reigns. Based on a mixed use of inducements and constraints in media control, four modes of state-press relationships are identified: laissez faire, repression, incorporation and co-optation. Each ideal type entails certain media roles that have important implications for democratisation. Media can perform both positive and negative functions in regard to democracy, depending on the prevailing mode of power distribution and specific social and organisational contexts. Each mode of media control and the corresponding media roles may shift as power is restructured. Media usually assume a more emancipatory role as the power structure becomes more decentralised.
Media bodies in Malawi play their roles in dynamic and changing democratic governance situations. Whether their roles or approaches change or remain constant in response to changing governance situations is the question this paper attempts to answer. This paper thus evaluates the role of Umbrella Media Bodies in Malawi in Changing Democratic Governance Situations. Media Council of Malawi (MCM) and Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) Malawi are media umbrella bodies that provide mechanisms established in Malawi to improve public trust in the media, by demonstrating accountability, self - regulation and advocating for media freedom and free flow of information respectively. It follows that their credibility themselves is a crucial challenge. It is in a sense separate to the credibility of the media themselves, but no less important. Put differently, the councils can only do their job of boosting media credibility if they are themselves credible. Credibility applied to Media Council shall imply a number of things: their capabilities, capacities, integrity, reputation etc. It is important to carry out an assessment to determine these factors in the two institutions and fairly strengthen any existing gaps. If the gaps are observable there is a need for ffunctional review and capacity building of the two bodies.
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MEDIA, DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT
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Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between the triple concept of media, democracy and development in terms of how they relate to each other within the African context generally, and specifically to Cameroon. The paper studies them individually and then as an entity and looks at the impact they create on each other and on society at large. The research methods employed include mainly secondary sources and observation. The findings of the investigation reveal that although different, the three phenomena are interdependent and indispensable in the construction of a society and Civil society that satisfactorily address the aspirations of the people. Based on the foregone, it is recommended that stakeholders put all hands on deck for the desired results to be achieved. The state must above all, provide an enabling environment for success to come about.