Role of mass media in governance: A critic
Introduction.
Media is the fourth pillar of democracy. Mass media and society is interlinked of many aspects. Mass media play a crucial role of creating awareness in society. It opens a platform for free speech and human right. Citizen is educated through mass media and learn about the efficiency of good governance. They collect information on civil rights, government policies and other essential civic amenities. Media houses help to improve trust of citizen over government. The effectiveness of media is essential for good democratic governance. The mass media concern for the basic amenities of general people. They force the government to make effective public policies for citizens. The bias media houses not interested in effective public policy or governance. A partial media easily distort the trust of citizens towards their government and create public opinion in the interest of particular group or classes. Let us critically discuss the situation.
1. Transparency of governance.
Transparency is one of the burning issues in a good governance. The state promotes transparency in the public affair. Media creates a bridge between government and citizen. The people use media as a tool to gather information about administration, civil service and other essential services. The information technology plays pivotal role in access the information of government. Media houses use the modern in formation warfare as an information gathering tools in service of citizen.
In many cases, media has been criticised for their working procedure in society. Media houses are owned by public enterprises. They are influenced by power and money. They try to construct a narrative in their favour or against of government. They do not provide a correct picture of ground reality. The situation is more worth when they twist the news in the favour of their own interest. Some media houses are also directly influence by the government authority. They cannot portray the right in formation of society. The expansion of bias information makes a distrust between government and people, and effect the level of transparency.
2. Public policies.
Mass media influence the public policies in a democratic government. They arise the voice of poor and marginal people through a proper channel. The government and citizens share the common platform in public discussion. Media confirmed the participation of each section in the policymaking process of government. Newspaper, TV, public seminar, debates etc. are valued platform have to engage people and make perception on different public policies.
In developing countries like India, the mass media do not serve their responsibilities in different cases. They are less interested in social issues. Lack of professionalism and training affect the reporting of social issues in the country. They choose their subject according to the priorities of business houses, and they do not meet the interest of society. A bias journalist do not cover the social and developmental issues.
3. Accountability of governance.
Media enhance the accountability of government to their citizens. A free media exchange valuable information from government. The government personal arranges press meet in regular intervals. They try to provide the information about their office and various projects. Mass media has the responsibility to portray those in formation in every part of society. They gather the feedback from people and represent in front of the responsible authority. A good journalist ask question in each and every issue regarding the policies and administration. Sometimes the question is not suitable to answer by the government or public authority. In this process, the media are strengthened the Government Accountability in society.
The exchange of information between government and media is not always satisfactory. Some media has lack of experience to handle those issues. Government and media communication are not properly take place in different matter. The people do not access the valuable information form governing body. As a result, poor communication adversely effect on accountabilityof governance.
4. Expansion of mass media and governance.
The expansion of mass media in every sector of social organization increase the accessibility of government policies. Media houses reach the urban as well as rural area of the country. They represent the problems of poor and socio-economically backward people in front of government. It helps the government for effective policymaking and reach to the marginal section of society. But, all media personal are not reach to the basic needs of society. Their reporting basically represent the needs of the urban area. In rural pockets, the efficient reporting are not seen. The mass media failed to educated people to the current situation of state and society. For this consequence, the people cannot choose the better policy to meets the needs of their society. The use of ICT is much costly for the rural section. They do not access Internet and other technology due to the price and also not the availability of resource. The print media do not reach the sizeable section of society.
Conclusion.
Mass media constitute a large impact in the governance of a country. It helps to sharp the government policies of his state. It increases transparency and accountability of public authority, government office and important institution. The government communicate to citizen so mass media. The mass media arrange two-way communication in society. The media houses are also run by the powerful elite section. Sometimes government also influence the working of media. This type of situation diminished the trust parameter of citizen on governance and increase social inequality. The journalist cannot reach the base of the problem of society. Government must promote an independent media for better accessibility and trust. If the media work independently and reach the all section of society, then the governance of a country must improve.
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