Media coverage exerts too much of an influence over governments 媒体报道的影响过大甚至超过政府.doc

PRE-SESSIONAL PROGRAMMEARGUMENTATIVE-ESSAYMedia coverage exerts too much of an influence over governmentsNowadays, both democratic governments and citizens recognize the importance of press-freedom. However, with the coming of the new media age, governments are losing the dominant right to issue news and information gradually since a great many private media agencies and social websites have the power and first chance to spread information. Traditional news theory and ways of media management lose their effectiveness. Some people doubt whether the power of the media itself exceeds the influence of government on citizens thought and behaviour. How to control the will of people to the extent, which can be accepted by the government, is the most urgent thing, which governments need to be concerned about. Government need to make sure popular will can be delivered fully. Meanwhile, government should avoid the over-expression of media to threaten the authority of government. This essay will state the background of how the media influence peoples lives and its benefits to construct a better political environment for citizens. It will also analyze whether there are any threats to government in loosening the control of the media or government has already trumped up a countercharge against medias accuser. Moreover, it will demonstrate specific cases about the conflicts and trouble government confronts which are caused by the overflow of the media. Finally, there will be a discussion about what government should do to deal with the current media situation and even in turn take full advantage of it.According to Tumber (2000), new media is a kind of media which supported by new technology, such as digital magazine and newspaper, website, mobile message and etc. it is called the fifth media besides newspaper, outdoor media, video and television. The power of new media now permeates through every corner of the society macroscopically and microscopically including peoples worldview, living behavior and the whole business environment of a society. Besides, new media now are changing the ruling mode, conception and legal system of government.There are large amounts of advantages, which new media has the influence to decision-making of government. Those advantages maintain the crucial status of media as a supplementary tool to perfect governance. At first, new media accelerates the development of democratic politics. People are equal on the Internet and they are free of chatting and debating, feedbacks are delivered to the government timely and effectively. Secondly, new media have the potential to change the concept of governances. More and more government moved into Internet and communicates with citizens. Moreover, the media encourage government to public inner secrets which exposes the practice of policy in a transparent environment, for example, the emergence of Wiki leaks uncover the traditional corruption of government and may push the government to clean the phenomenon of decomposition in bureaucratic system.However, not all the above influences are benign; government sometimes loses the control of the spreading of vicious information. Among those new communication mediums, the social media website has become the most influential one. As Curran (2002) argued, new media sometimes undermined the hierarchical control of social knowledge by bypassing established mediating agencies and distributing prohibited or restricted information. In other word, the process of censorship for mass information is no longer effective so that people receive information from resources with personal or other non-government organizations. The growing popularity of social media websites has changed the framework of journalism systems even in some closed countries, such as Malaysia, which stands at the bottom status in the pyramid of free press. Opposing views increasingly appears on blogs and mobile phone messages when the government-controlled mainstream media broadcast criticism news and information. (Robinson, 2000) Sometimes, those resistive messages from the social website and mobile phone messages bring bad influence to citizens group activities. Taking recent news as a specific example, in the last few weeks, some mobile message, which broadcast hatred and panic, leads to thousands of Indian people escape from south- east India. It is the biggest migration in the peacetime of India. The government of India passes the buck to some social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Characteristics of those social media are as follows. Firstly, its speed of broadcasting is too quick to government to forecast and control. Secondly, since too many talebearers are involved in social media without any censor, it is hard for audiences to distinguish the authenticity of the information. Thirdly, those social media is easy and free to manipulate. With those features, social media become a potential bomb for government. Another obvious threatens for government is new medias impact to referendum democracy. According to one of the famous communication theories the spiral of silence, the one view dominated the public scene and others disappeared from the public awareness as it adherents became silent. (Lloyd 2004). In other words, the people fear of separation or isolation those around them, they tend to keep their attitudes to themselves when they think they are in the minority. what it is to say is that once people who are capable to manipulate the power and intend to change the will of people, it is easy for them to influence the popular will. For example, in 2006, Eric of Google said, Internet will determine the American Election. This prediction became true when Obama almost overturn the traditional pattern of American Election. He took full advantage of the Internet including internet news, video share website, blogs, e-mail and social websites. He persuaded those people who do not use traditional media such as newspaper and TV to search and absorb information. He made new media as his twig, which is more economic and effective than traditional media. This action also influences the phenomenon of American politics. (Liu 2012) For another example, in 13th June 2009, the present president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the election with 62.63% vote. The result was immediately queried by the opposition and evolved to be mass violence, which is confirmedly supported by Twitter. It indicates that new social media is no longer pure social contact tools but has functions of political communication and mobilization. (Robinson 2000)Government now recognizes the serious situation of that new media participating in government and political affairs. “Governments are becoming increasingly more sophisticated at dictating the terms and the content of media coverage,” says Byron Scott, a professor emeritus at the University Of Missouri School Of Journalism. ( Bear and Jane 2005). Since the expanding of new media power, it is a high time for government to correspond the situation in a tactical and strategic way.Sometimes government should volunteer to be monitored by the media to show the sincerity and maintain the confidents of its citizens. In this respect, Media coverage supervises the practice of government when its regulation lacks stability and flexibility. However, to become a doctor for government, media has a long way to go which is as far as the way that government exposure itself under the spotlighting of media. When facing the challenge of new media age, it is impossible for government to ban all kinds of media. What can government does now is to set up a platform in new media environment, which is different from the traditional one. Government should make sure citizens know they are trying to communicate with common people and do their best for the civil. Secondly, Government needs to improve the sensitivity of crisis management. It is important to establish crisis team to predict and handle crisis before and after it happens. Thirdly, government should strengthen the regulation about new media broadcasting to keep the position of media as a virtuous watchdog.ReferenceBear. M. J & Jane H. 2005. Media coverage of the War in Iraq. American University School of CommunicationCurran, J. 2002. Media and Power. New York: Rutledge.Lloyd, J. 2004. What the Media Are Doing to Our Politics. London: Constable.Liu, BF. 2012. Overcoming Negative Media Coverage: Does Government Communication Matter? Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 22 (3). pp. 597-621 Robinson, P. 2000. World Politics and Media Power: Problems of Research Design Media,Culture and Society 22 (2).pp. 227-232Tumber, H. 2000. Media Power, Professionals and Politics. New York: Rutledge.