On the Media

{The first in a series of case studies looking at the media and democracy.}

Recently, there has been many headlines where President Trump has decried the "dishonesty" of the media and that media organizations are essentially tools of the left in an overall "corrupt system" that is in need of fixing. While the media and Washington do have a symbiotic relationship of sorts, this relationship is not as cozy as some would claim. This week I write to shine a light on the critical role that media organizations and journalists play in helping to maintain a healthy democracy like ours.

One of the cornerstones of a functioning, stable democracy is an independent (i.e. not state-owned as many media organizations are in say, Russia or China) media. Some scholars have gone so far as to call the media the "fourth branch of government," in a reference to its importance in providing critical, albeit somewhat informal checks and balances on government and its exercise of power (Bennett, 2007; Cook, 1998). Essentially, the media serves the role of watchdog, helping to keep the government accountable to its people through its reporting (especially in an age of "alternative facts" that can create harmful, false realities) and to call it out when it is overstepping the bounds of its authority or acting in a way contrary to the will of the people.

Again, I acknowledge that the media does not function in a complete vacuum. However, the reporter-politician/official relationship is a two-way street. Reporters depend on government officials or politicians for the content of their stories and government officials/politicians need the media in order to reach wide audiences with their messages (i.e. the people). Like all relationships, there is friction between the two parties, as government officials feel the media can be intrusive, especially around potentially classified matters of national security. Meanwhile, reporters can feel that government officials are hiding critical information, especially when Freedom of Information Act (FIA) requests are denied on the grounds of national security.

In this way, the relationship is a feedback loop that can reinforce frictions between the two parties, with government officials and the media calling out each other in a battle of narratives. The outsider's view of this relationship can leave them rightly confused or even embittered towards the media, as the government has incredible powers to shape messaging in a way that it is able to portray itself as a victim of overly zealous attack journalism. The media's responses to such charges sometimes do not help that perception either.

It is this great amount of power that government has over messaging and framing issues that lately has had me worried. President Trump seems to be exploiting an underlying anger that people have towards the media by using his position one of the most visible people in the world to decry the media as "corrupt" and "against the people." Other frequent charges have centered around news organizations spreading "fake news." (The irony of this messaging method is that the president took advantage of the vast audience media organizations of all stripes report to in spreading his message that the media are not to be trusted.) By delegitimizing the news as an actor that actually runs contrary to democracy, President Trump is setting a dangerous precedent.

If people do not trust the news and are told to trust exclusively in the government and its messaging, that comes dangerously close to living in a society where government powers are not checked and opposition coalitions are systematically targeted. In other words, those civil and political liberties that we treasure can be taken away if we're not careful. In such situations, competing ideas and beliefs can be quashed by a government and tyranny of the majority becomes a very real possibility. The media represents those diverse ideas, the alternative ways of looking at problems and solving them. Diversity of ideas is one of the defining features of a democracy, after all. Therefore, do not discount the media so easily. By keeping watch over the government and providing (and rightly defending) a necessary platform for the expression of a multitude of ideas, the people can hold the government accountable. Especially when an administration like Trump's tries to circumvent the checks and balances that have held our democracy together.



Sources Cited:

Bennett, W. L. & Graber, D.A. (2007). News: the politics of illusion (6th ed.). New York: Pearson Longman.

Cook, T. E. (1998). Governing with the news: The news media as a political institution (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39018096