Democracy and the News Media

Democracy and the News Media

“Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power and to withhold from

them information, without which power is abused. A people who mean to be their own

governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. A popular government

without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to

a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.” James Madison

Democracy can be an effective form of government only to the

extent that the public (that rules it in theory) is well-informed about

national and international events and can think independently and

critically about those events. If the vast majority of citizens do not

recognize bias in their nation’s news; if they cannot detect ideology,

slant, and spin, if they cannot recognize propaganda when exposed

to it, they cannot reasonably determine what media messages have

to be supplemented, counter-balanced, or thrown out entirely.

On the one hand, world-wide news sources are increasingly sophisticated

in media logic (the art of “persuading” and manipulating

large masses of people). This enables them to create an aura of

objectivity and “truthfulness” in the news stories they construct. On

the other hand, only a small minority of citizens are skilled in recognizing

bias and propaganda in the news disseminated in their country.

Only a relatively few are able to detect one-sided portrayals of

events or seek out alternative sources of information and opinion to

compare to those of their mainstream news media. At present, the

overwhelming majority of people in the world, untrained in critical

thinking, are at the mercy of the news media in their own country.

Their view of the world, which countries they identify as friends and

which as enemies, is determined largely by those media (and the traditional

beliefs and conventions of their society).

This slanted information is not a “plot” or a “conspiracy.” It is simply

a matter of educational background and economic reality.

Journalists and news editors are themselves members of a culture

(German, French, Mexican, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian,

Russian,