media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

21

Upload: international-islamic-university-islamabad-pakistan

Post on 11-Jul-2015

142 views

Category:

Documents


4 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan
Page 2: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

Fall 2014

Media and Society

International Islamic University, Islamabad

Page 3: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

“Thomas Jefferson once said that if

He had to choose between a

government without newspapers

or newspapers without a

government, he would pick the latter”

Page 4: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

New times call for new thinking

Countries in eastern Europe have redesigned media systems,

looking for new ideas and models

Combined commercial and political onslaught has weaken the

domination of public service broadcasting

Expansion of TV channels and technologies has changed the

landscape of media, requiring intellectual adjustments

Page 5: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

Much liberal commentary derives from a period when the

media consisted principally of small circulations, Pol.

Publications and small landed elites who dominated the state

As a result of this, media does not bear the relation with

contemporary reality and it continues to be repeated

uncritically. It now should be given a decent funeral

Page 6: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

Traditional liberal conception were framed partly in order to

‘legitimate the deregulation of the press’ and ‘its market free

lines’

Traditional thought intended to legitimate free market

programmers thus calling questions on the prior, casts doubts

on the later

“But” going back to first principles and reappraising the

democratic role of media raises questions about the quality of

conventional public service alternatives to the market

Page 7: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

Conclusion of this affirmation reappraisal comes with a

revised conception of the democratic role of media and by

designing Proposal for new way of organizing the media

Alternatives may replace the current style of media but one

thing is for sure, the literature on democracy and media need

to get rid of lumber(used for unwanted objects)

What is to be removed? What should take its place? It needs to

be addressed critically

Page 8: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

Habermas argues, the arena of public debate was brought by

capitalism, economic independence, critical discussion,

independent market based media created a new public engaged

in political discussion

This reason based consensus shaped the direction of the state

From 17th to the mid of 19th century, public sphere made

public opinion and supervised state

Page 9: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

New corporatist patterns excluded the public and organized

interests were bargained

Media was no more agency of empowerment and rationality

public was sidelined

Media manipulated mass opinion rather than producing

rational critical debate

Media conditioned the public in the role of passive consumer

Page 10: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

More conventional accounts of the democratic role of the

media focusing on three key points in the liberal canon

1. The Media as Public Watchdog

2. Public Representative(‘fourth estate’)

3. Source of Public Information

Page 11: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

According to classical liberal thoughts, the primary democratic

role of the media is to act as a public watchdog overseeing the

state

It basically reveals abuses in the exercise of state authority

This watchdog role overrides all the other functions of the

media in importance

Media can only be independent from the government if it is

anchored in free market

Page 12: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

It legitimates free market reforms

Capitalist organization of the press

Critical surveillance of government

Page 13: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

The public watchdog perspective is essentially negative and

defensive

It usually defines the role of media in terms of monitoring the

government, protecting the public, preventing those with

power from overstepping the mark

It thus stops short of the more positive, Hurbermas conception

of the media

Page 14: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

However, there is one strand within traditional liberal thought

with affinities to Harbermas’s approach which defines the role

of media as ‘fourth estate’

As Thomas Carlyle argued, the press should be deemed ‘a

power, a branch of government, with inalienable weight in

law-making’ derived from the will of people (Carlyle, 1907:

164)

Page 15: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

This argument was reformulated in 20th century

The core premise is that ‘the broad shape and nature of the

press is ultimately determined by no one but its readers’

(Whale, 1977: 85)

Media-owners is a market-based system must give people

what they want if they are to stay in business, and this ensures

that media act as a public mouthpiece

Page 16: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

This is usually in terms of facilitating self-expression and

promoting public rationality

These functions of the media can only be fulfilled adequately,

it is argued through the processes of free market

Free market allows anyone to publish an opinion who wishes

to

Promotes good judgment and wise government

Holmas’s says that the ultimate good desired is better reached

by free trade in ideas that the best test of truth is the power of

thought to get itself accepted in the competition of market

(Barron, 1975)

Page 17: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

Democratic function of the media system is to act as an

agency of representation. It should be organized in a way that

enables diverse social groups and organizations to express

alternative viewpoint

The public dialogue staged by the media should give the

public access to a diversity of values and perspectives

Media should enable individuals to reinterpret their social

experience

Media have to compromise between opposed groups

Media should also facilitate the exercise of continuing public

pressure on government

Page 18: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

There is great need to establish an alternative communication

system, a conscious commitment to achieving some kind of

equilibrium between conflict and conciliation and unity

Groups need to be brought in to an arena of common discourse

where reciprocal debate can take place in order to facilitate a

peaceful compromise

Page 19: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan

Media is not democratic

Need to design Proposal for new way of organizing

the media

All the system to be rebuild

What is to be removed? What should take its place? It

needs to be addressed critically

Requiring intellectual adjustments

Page 20: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan
Page 21: Media and democracy by abid zafar, international islamic university islamabad, pakistan