T 5 Media and Mediation Function
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
Describe the mediation function of the media;
Analyse the way the media influences public opinion;
Describe how the media function in a democratic society;
Explain the hegemony theory; and
Elaborate on political parties and fourth state power.
INTRODUCTION
This topic intends to equip you with knowledge of the media, its function of
mediation, and its inseparable relation to the world of politics in today's daily life.
You should be able to understand the influence of politics on the media, and vice
versa, and also the role the media plays in directing public opinion.
Media is the collective means of communication that conveys information from
one end to another, and vice versa. In other words, it is the indirect channel of
communication between individuals or between groups. It entails various tools
such as radio, television, newspapers, magazines and books. As a result of the
rapid technological advancements in the 21st century, electronic media such as the
Internet and its various components have become the most popular means of
communication. This can be in diverse fields such as politics, economics, business,
cultural and social communications.
5.1 THE CONCEPT OF MEDIATION IN MEDIA AND POLITICS
The strongest relationship between media and politics is located in the word
mediatisation. Politics has become highly mediatised today. This means that
politics cannot be separated from the media, which has become like a shadow
following the former wherever it is. Every important political event that occurs in
a particular country or in any other part of the world might fall under the spotlight
of the media.
The media has professional agents dedicated to hunting for events or news in
order to highlight them to the public as well as to other destinations, based on the
degree of independence that the media enjoys in a given environment. This is
because the common man, political leaders and other members of the public also
get information from a similar source or sources of information. Likewise, the
highest elites like the president or the prime minister also turn to the media to
know what is going on around them.
Mediation is the principal function of the media, conveying messages, news,
information, or data from one party to another. In politics, mediation is a very
important role played by certain intermediaries to create awareness and solve
problems for the welfare of everyone. For instance, there has been a long political
and territorial dispute between the Philippines and China over certain rocky
islands in the South China Sea called the Scarborough Shoal (see Figure 5.1). The
Philippines took the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for mediation
and ruling on the disputes. Then in July 2016, the ICJ passed a ruling in favour of
the Philippines. This is now a hot political issue making political headlines in the
media around the world.
Public demonstrations are going on in both China and the Philippines calling on
each government of the two countries never to give up its claim over the issue.
Tension is rising high in the region with China flexing its military muscles and
vowing not to accept the ruling. Most probably, the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) will mediate in order to cool off the rising tension between the
two countries and to find a peaceful solution to the issue. Everyone who is
concerned about world politics and news is following this issue as well as other
issues from the media.
5.1.1 Mass Media Function in Democratic Society
Politics and the art of governing have become strongly tied to the mass media.
Governments, political and other national leaders depend highly on the media as
a means of communication with the rest of society, in particular democratic
societies where the media has some freedom in influencing public opinion
and highlighting the daily functions of the government. Even in countries
characterised as dictatorial, authoritarian, or autocratic, the media plays a very
important role in directing the minds of the citizens.
In a democratic society, the media is expected to have a degree of independence
so as to be a credible watchdog especially of those in political power. The media
is expected to highlight the social, political, and economic performances of the
government to the public in order to call the national leaders to account in case of
errors, wrongdoings, or violation of the democratic agreement between them and
the people. In a democracy, the freedom of the media is a constitutional right, and
a free and open media is very important for an effective meaningful democracy.
However, the passion of many journalists in uncovering events and disseminating
news about political leaders oftentimes creates hostilities between the two. The
political leaders expect the press media to support their views and policies. On the
other hand, many journalists see themselves as watchdogs and guardians of
democracy.
Nevertheless, today, there is a noticeable concern in many democratic countries
that the media is not functioning as expected. There are two main reasons for this.
One is because the media has become commercialised in many instances and
rather serves to portray the interests of those in power. At times, the media focuses
more on trivial issues like entertainment, scandals, violence, and personality
targeting in order to attract a wider audience. All too often, the media makes
us afraid of the wrong things. Minor dangers are hysterically blown out of
proportion, while much more serious dangers in our society go largely unnoticed
(Glassner, 1999). So far, the Internet serves more than the commercialised media
because it cannot be easily controlled. People are able to express their minds more
openly than they can on TV, radio, and/or newspapers.
Unfortunately, there is no consensus on the normative expectations and moral
values that the media is universally obliged to adhere to. This means people in
different parts of the world may give subjective arguments to support and justify
the way a certain media behaves, or the way the political authority tries to have
influence in directing the course of the media. One group in a given society might
support certain information diffused by the media, while another might go against
it, and yet another might remain neutral. Most cases of selection in the news media
can be explained by structural factors, such as the organisation of news agencies,
financing, dependence on sources, and ratings competition (Ericson, Baranek, &
Chan, 1987).
5.1.2 Mass Media and Public Opinion
Public opinion refers to the views, the attitudes, the preferences, and the feelings
of individuals on a particular issue in public life. These are highly influenced by
the mass media and the personal ability to absorb at first hand, or to critically
analyse the information provided by the media. Among the most powerful news
agencies in the West are the BBC, CNN, Euro-news, and Monte Carlo, while, Al
Jazeera, Al Arabiya, LBC, and Asharq Al-Awsat are the news agencies in the
Middle East. The religious and political leaders of these media agencies are always
around to talk freely and pass news, stands, and positions to their communities
and to the public using them to serve their political and economic ends
(Hadeshian, 2006).
Public opinion has become very important in political decision-making in
democratic societies. The common masses get their information from the media,
analyse it, and consequently take sides in supporting or opposing a particular
policy, or government. Therefore, the media has the power to direct public opinion
into its desired direction. It directs a large public population to take action towards
certain issues in their respective countries. That is why, some scholars have begun
to characterise public opinion as a relatively stable and consistent counterweight
that policy makers must, or at least should, take into consideration (Page & Bouton,
2006).
The public needs information and knowledge about what is taking place around
the world. The mass media provides this knowledge to the public through its
various channels. Today, even the illiterate individual who does not know how to
read and write is informed according to his own analytical capacity about what
is happening in his country or in another. The media here works as a strong
intermediary to inform the public about what is happening around and even many
miles away from the scene of the events.
5.1.3 Mass Media and Agenda Setting
Agenda setting simply refers to the role played by the media in highlighting an
important event to make it the prime focus of public opinion. It might go on
repeatedly highlighting an event in order to make it very important in the view of
the public. For example, the event or news can be placed on the front page, or can
be given a large headline to signify its prime importance to the viewer. The news
might be repeated over and over again to the extent that if anyone is asked about
the most important current national issue, a majority of people might give similar
answers. People need to orient themselves in a complex world full of complex
issues. In the absence of other cues, people tend to judge the importance of issues
from their salience in the media and to focus their attention on those presumably
most important issues (Fog, 2013).
The media has more power in areas about which most people are not well-
informed. It has less influencing powers when people are informed because in this
case, the people can make up their minds and counter argue with the points
presented in the media. It will be much easier for them to verify the authenticity
of the information given by the media. Furthermore, the agenda-setting effect is
stronger for concrete issues that are easy to visualise than for abstract issues
(Yagade & Dozier, 1990).
The media itself can also be influenced by the power of the political elite or
government in setting the public agenda of a given issue. Special interest groups
also compete for a share in this influence. In this respect, there is a concept known
as priming, which is closely related to agenda setting. Thus, the news media can
influence the criteria by which political candidates are judged by calling attention
to some issues and ignoring others before the speech of the candidate (Fog, 2013).
For instance, in the case of the Philippines, where the main concern of the public
is the dispute with China over the ICJ’s ruling on the Scarborough Shoal in the
South China Sea, the media might shift direction to economic problems in order to
set a new agenda to divert public opinion away from its previous focus point.
ACTIVITY 5.1
1. Explain in some detail how and why politics is said to be
mediatised in the modern world. Give examples.
2. How is it possible for the media to influence public opinion?
SELF-CHECK 5.1
1. Explain mediation.
2. How do media function in a democratic society?
3. What is public opinion?
4. Explain the concept of agenda setting and priming.
5.2 MASS MEDIA AND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Social institutions refer to the principal social, political, economic, and other
components of the society that enable it to function as one body. Examples of social
institutions are the government, in its various forms across the world; economic
institutions, like the many ministries that cater for economic development; and the
school and the family that instil education, and social and cultural values in the
people. In the following subtopics, we will explore the relationships between mass
media and national development and social integration, respectively.
5.2.1 Mass Media and National Development
National development refers to improvement in many dimensions of society, such
as the economic, social and political life of the people. The media plays a very
important role in this aspect. However, this role depends on the type of social and
political environment where the media operates. Its influence is greater where it is
able to reach a large number of people to draw them into the functional sphere of
the nation. Otherwise, it would not be very effective, for example, in societies
where social and political awareness is shallow among the population.
Where the society is characterised as a parochial society, people are not interested
in the political functioning of the government and the role of the media in directing
public opinion is weak. Hence, national development works freely without much
scrutiny. This is because as mentioned earlier, the media functions as a watchdog
on the performance of the political regime. That function depends on the
support it garners from influencing public opinion that might call the ruling elite
into account in terms of wrongdoings or deliberate poor performance and
mismanagement.
It should always be held in mind that the media is not expected to be biased against
the government. It is rather expected to influence the opinion of the government
leaders as well. It should also be remembered that the government has a strong
influence on the media, depending on the type of political system that prevails in
the country. This implies that there is a nation-wide dialogue between these three
components; the media, the public, and the national leaders on the way national
development moves.
Politically, for instance, there is no doubt that „corruption has a negative impact
on society, particularly in furthering poverty and income inequality‰ (Gupta,
Davoodi, & Alonso-Terme, 2002). An independent media exposes corruption and
corrupt national leaders to the public, a matter that reduces the level of corruption,
which in turn enhances national development.
Economically, national leaders, investors and economic agents also need accurate
information from the media in order to allocate resources for national
development in a proper and timely manner. The government and political leaders
need similar information in order to monitor national economic policies.
Socially, the people need to be well-informed and guided to participate in national
development by adopting adequate and responsible attitudes towards such
development. Several studies conducted in the past show that the lesser
restrictions are placed on the free media, the greater its positive impact on national
development is. For example, in a study of 51 countries from 1995 to 2004, it was
found that improving the viability and competitiveness of the media in the
economic sector, would be associated with a decline in corruption of between 0.6
and 1.7 for economic influences and 0.7 to 1.4 for political influences (Freille,
Haque, & Kneller, 2007).
5.2.2 Mass Media and Social Integration
The media is very crucial in directing the public towards particular attitudes
related to social integration. National unity and the feeling of belonging to one
solid national community is one of the important aspects of state formation and
survival. Most nations on earth are heterogeneous. That means they are made
up of different racial or ethnic, religious, and cultural structures. It is often very
difficult to have the nation united along these social cleavages. When these diverse
national components are cemented and rallied around the central government, the
country will be strong and the government can operate more easily. This relates to
the role of the media as one of the most important factors that strengthen social
integration. This is done by instilling positive information that breeds social
cohesion and unity among the people.
Unbiased dissemination of news and views is important in keeping the various
elements of the society intact. Otherwise, the media can play a devastating role if
it demonises or stereotypes any particular group within the society. In todayÊs
world, we can easily see how the media is playing a leading negative role in
creating tension, hostilities, and hatred towards a particular group in a given
society. For instance, the moment this biased role of the media is mentioned, the
mental picture of how Islam and Muslims are portrayed in western media appears
on the minds of many. The positive role of the media requires its presentation of
the views and interests of different social identities with the aim of harnessing
better mutual understanding for more national integration and cohesion. It can
iron out divergent views and bring awareness of the benefits of national cohesion
in order to garner more understanding and social harmony among different social
groups.
5.3.1 Mass Media and Political Parties
Political parties are simply organised groups of individuals who are working
collectively in order to politically rule the country for a certain agreed upon
duration, by coming to power through national elections. Of course this definition
is rather democratic because in many non-democratic countries different views are
given.
The media has a very strong influence on political parties. All politicians and
political parties especially during election campaigns, depend highly on the media
to gather support for their political agenda. Since there are two or more competing
political parties campaigning for power, the public needs to know the messages
and promises of each one of them in order to choose a side and vote for their own
choice.
The media here plays the role of delivering the views of each party to the public.
The media also delivers the public’s views and response to the leaders of political
parties for them to act upon in order to achieve their political objectives. The top
figures of different political parties appear constantly in the media propagating
their views and agenda. It should be remembered also that press media is not one.
Many press media compete against each other as well. Therefore, one media
organisation might favour a certain party and act as its agent more than it does for
another.
The time of election is actually the peak season of commerce when the media
makes huge profits. It is no longer possible to conduct politics today without the
media. Traditionally, the government is divided into the legislature, the judiciary,
and the executive. Today, many scholars add the media and they often refer to it
as the „fourth state power‰. This shows how strong and crucial the media is in the
political process across the world. Every political issue is highlighted and is
discussed through media channels. But because of the possibility of it being
commercialised and controlled by other forces, some do not yet give the media
such greatness as a „fourth state power‰. This is because it can be manipulated and
used by strong agents like political parties as a tool for their political agenda and
interests. In many democratic or authoritarian countries, the media offices and
agents are violently targeted by its opponents in dangerous manners that can even
lead to vandalism and murder.
During election campaigns, the leaders of political parties travel around to meet
up face-to-face with the public to propagate their views and policies. However,
they still depend on the media to cover and publicise such meetings and
gatherings to the larger society. There might even be voters outside the country
that follow the election campaign through the different media channels. After the
political party comes to power and forms the government, the media continues to
play the same roles of informing the public about the functions of the political
leadership. Here the voters might be monitoring and expecting the government to
fulfil the promises it made before coming to power.
5.3.2 Mass Media and Non-governmental Organisations
There is a strong relationship between the media and the non-governmental
organisations (NGOs). Most NGOs play important roles in disseminating
information and awareness among people by trying to protect issues related to, for
example, human rights, minority rights, and environmental concerns. It is here
that their objectives converge with the media. It is because of the similar efforts
of NGOs to those of the media that a new discipline known as „environmental
journalism‰ has emerged. NGOs monitor different social, economic, and political
events and publish reports on them. However, merely publishing reports on their
own websites does not ensure that NGOs will reach their audiences.
A report's coverage by the mass media, however, is an efficient channel for NGOs'
communication with their audience, so maximising that coverage is a way to
increase their effectiveness (Couttenier & Hatte, 2015). Thus both NGOs and the
media work hand-in-hand to educate the public on various important issues. The
NGOs are mostly structured by individuals from the society. Therefore, they work
to represent different social entities and safeguard the public welfare. The crucial
roles of NGOs, therefore, give a strong boost to the operation of the media that is
unable to solve all problems alone.
Many independent issues that need pressing solutions are highlighted in written
reports and publications by these non-governmental organisations. For instance,
the issues of sustainable development and environmental degradation in the
world have become such a focal concern for NGOs that they constantly direct their
spotlights on them to push for solutions from the community. In this regard, the
mass media helps by further highlighting such issues to the public. That in turn
supports NGOs in their endeavour.
The public understands that the democratic system needs NGO's active
participation to make policies which are important for sustainable development.
In turn, government leaders and other responsible organisations learn from such
awareness and are expected to get actively engaged in addressing issues of concern
for the common welfare. Hence, the media and the NGOs are working towards, or
are expected to complement each other's efforts towards, educating the masses as
well as those holding power on the national and international levels.
5.3.3 Mass Media and Governmental Organisations
Governmental organisations include all the various types of organisations that are
established to carry out the functions of governments. This includes all the
ministries, the army, and the police. The government uses these organs in order to
run the country and achieve the objectives of governing. As such, the media are
related again to all these organisations as they monitor their functions either
critically or in a supporting manner, based on the degree of independence the
media enjoy in a particular country. The media, either through the TV, the radio,
or newspapers, report the daily functions of such organisations and highlight them
to the public, which brings about transparency in the society.
In the modern world, most governments have become accustomed to the role
played by the media. In turn, governmental organisations turn to the media to
educate the public on their functions or on particular issues so as to get their
support and help, especially in democratic nations.
On many occasions, the government might allow the media to interfere in all its
activities. Therefore, if the media expose certain issues that are sensitive to the
government or any of its organisations, this might cause both parties to be at
loggerheads. That is why, some government officials or agents might attempt to
punish, censor, or even sue a certain media channel or individual for such
activities. As such, the government might work to restrict or regulate the function
of the media, while the media might call for its freedom and for the protection of
its agents.
On many other occasions, journalists and other media agents are subject to arrest,
persecution, and assassination. In addition, other media channels are called into
account by the government and their licenses might be revoked. In many non-
democratic countries, such as communist states, the media actually function as the
mouthpiece of the government.
ACTIVITY 5.3
1. During national elections and campaigns for power, is the media a
watchdog or a hunting dog for a certain political party? Explain
your answer with some real examples.
2. Would you like to be a journalist in the future? Explain why or why
not.
Explain the hegemony theory.
What are political parties and fourth state power?
•
The word media comes from the noun mediation. Today, politics has become
mediatised. That means the media tries to get involved in every political event.
The ICJ’s ruling in the case of the Philippines versus China in the South China
Sea is a good example of mediatisation and the mediation function of the
media.
In democratic countries, the media act as a watchdog which the public relies
on to check the performance of those elected to hold political office. Public
opinion refers to the views, attitudes preferences, and feelings of individuals
on a particular issue in public life.
The media have more power in areas where most people are not well-
informed. They have less influencing power when people are informed
because in this case, the people can make up their minds and counter argue the
points presented in the media.
Unbiased dissemination of news and views is important in keeping the various
elements of the society intact. Otherwise, the media can play a devastating role
if they demonise or stereotype any particular group within the society.
Political parties are simply organised groups of individuals working
collectively in order to politically rule the country for a certain agreed upon
duration by coming to power through national elections.
Both NGOs and the media work hand-in-hand to educate the public on various
important issues. The NGOs are mostly structured by individuals from society.
Therefore, they work to represent different social entities and safeguard their
public welfare.
Governmental organisations are all the various types of organisations
established to carry out the functions of governments. This includes all the
ministries, the army, and the police.
Agenda setting
Censorship
Corruption
Democratic societies
Fourth state power
Governmental organisations
Hegemony theory
Income inequality
Mediation
Mediatisation
National development
National unity
Non-democratic societies
Non-governmental organisations
Parochial society
Persecution
Social institutions
Social integration
State formation and survival
Sustainable development
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