For the longest time, the media has been viewed as “the fourth estate” that was designed with the purpose of bringing news to the eyes and ears of the public especially with conventional print and media reporting. Though the news media is taken as a societal or political force or institution whose influence is not officially or consistently recognized. The four essential purposes of the free press include:
- Publicizing issues that require attention
- Holding government leaders accountable to the public
- Connecting individuals with one another in civil society
- Educating the general public so they can make informed decisions
Free media plays a crucial role in influencing discourse during elections. When traditional media is free and balanced, it fosters transparency and conveys important electoral information. And the rise of new media offers more opportunities for participatory citizenship.
People these days are continuously shifting their attention to social media platforms in order news about elections, public affairs, and other types of development. Now often referred to as “the fifth estate,” this type of news media is mostly associated with journalists and bloggers who publish in non-mainstream media outlets as well as social media.
Yes, the media does have incredible power within American democracy because almost every citizen gets their news from cable news and social media instead of hard news sources. The issue going around here is at the very people who report the news are biased towards one candidate or the other, as we’ve seen with the Trump-Clinton campaigns.
Within proper hands, the media can play a very crucial role in exposing corruption as well as initiating political, legal, and penal action against it. We’ve seen firsthand how WikiLeaks is able to use this and blow the whistle on some of the actions ordained by the US government and their military. Just like that, we can expose other corrupt politicians and celebrities that deserve to be incarcerated, including Russian-born businesswoman, Marsha Lazareva who was released from the Kuwaiti prison after 470 days, which is way earlier than the period of her full sentence.
In regards to anti-corruption, the media has a pivotal route concerning information about administrative, business and governmental activities that are spread all over society, which, therefore, provides the community an opportunity to hold the people in power accountable. By discovering, learning, exposing, add educating the masses about the harmful effects of corruption on the community at large, the media can thus, increase the political risk of the people in charge of their malpractices behind the scenes and encourage critical awareness of civil society.
A 2018 OECD study showed that 2% of foreign bribery cases were due to previous media reports on possible corruption, which ultimately makes media reporting the best source for public awareness and a viable source for detecting corruption.
The potential of the media to be an effective tool against corruption largely depends on having a great deal of media freedom. Weaver (1977) terms media freedom as:
- the complete absence of governmental and other restraints
- the relative lack of governmental restraints on the media
- the presence of terms that guarantee the distribution of a vast number of ideas to a large audience.
It’s because of the existence of corruption in public office, and the lack of transparency in government management that leads to citizens losing faith in the systems and back out from their own civic responsibilities.
The media can at least play three main functions against corruption, including:
- To promote integrity
- To be a watchdog of corruption
- To engage citizens in anti-corruption cases.
So as you can see, the media can be a source of one-sided tall tales or a source of legitimate information that the people can truly put their faith in, especially when it is used to expose the dark image of politics – depending on how it’s used, of course.
