The Importance of Media in the Day-to-Day

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Introduction

Within each country or sovereign body, the media plays a key role in the day to day lives of the citizen. This is because it is usually the only way by which events of national interests can be made known to the average citizen. It is therefore of prime importance that the media system remains impartial and fair in its information dissemination. This is the only way that it can ensure that the citizens also form informed decisions, based on facts rather than propaganda or incomplete facts. Sadly though, this fairness by the media is severely threatened by the very systems under which media corporations operate. This environment should be reviewed and modified to maintain the media’s integrity.

Advertising

Almost every media body is a profit-making entity. However it operates, at the end of the day, the margins are the bottom line. Hence, media bodies have devised ingenious ways of ensuring that they get as much revenues as they can from their airspace. One of the major sources for this profit is advertising. The media houses get other big businesses and other corporate bodies to advertise their interests through them.

A conflict of interest arises, however, when the media house has to broadcast sensitive issues that may harm these sponsors. It becomes a case of the bottom line: remain impartial and lose the sponsor, or omit these issues from the broadcast and maintain their revenues. In this way, the media houses become compromised. They end up broadcasting only what can be termed as “safe topics” (Anup, 2009). And gradually, the corporate sponsors can take advantage and actively influence what the media house broadcasts or omits. Hence as long as a media house is relying on advertisements for revenues, it can easily become partial in its broadcasts.

Privacy

Media news channels are particularly hampered by several ethical issues. By their definition, the news channels are supposed to broadcast any information that is of public interest. But at the same time, they have to ensure that they don’t infringe on the privacy of citizens. There is a legislative clause against invasion of privacy. This creates a conflict of interest for the news channels (Andrew and Ruth, 1992). Granted, everybody deserves his or her privacy. But some people or interest groups misuse this and hide critical information from the public. For media news channels, it’s a tight-rope walk between the privacy issue and the public’s right to information.

Sensationalism

Media entities are not entirely blameless. They have in particular been accused of sensational reporting. This is the practice whereby a certain media house deliberately broadcasts issues based on their controversial or shock value rather than their practical value to the public. Sometimes, even the accuracy of the information becomes compromised. Media bodies do this to grab the attention of the public, and ultimately raise their revenues (Answers.com, N.D.). Obviously, the public looses in the end since it ends up with a lot of sensational, but useless, information.

Internet

The internet has changed some of these media anomalies. It has presented an avenue through which the average citizen can countercheck news bytes for consistency. And, in keeping up with this need by the reader, most news reporters are now providing links within their articles for related articles elsewhere (Kevin, 2002). This practice demands that their reports be accurate in the first place. At the same time, media bodies are now concentrating more on local news, since international news can easily be got through the net. This has resulted in a more focused reporting, and hence more informative news.

Biased reporting

Of course, the advantages of the internet can only be experienced where technology is advanced. Hence in the developing countries, or countries that have undergone some large scale disasters, media bodies can still get away with partiality in reporting. Coverage of the war in Iraq, for example, is said to have suffered a lot of bias from the media. Most of the aired content exhibited a devastated country with little being done to improve the living conditions there. Media critics argued that the positive aspects of the war were not adequately covered, like the many infrastructures being rebuilt. Why such a bias could have occurred remains speculative. But ultimately, it weakened the resolve of all supporting the war, and emboldened the resistance from the Iraqis (fair.org, 2003).

Conglomeration

In their bid to secure better revenues, separate media bodies tend to join up into giant conglomerates. Others are bought out by their competitors. Ultimately, the media bodies end up being owned by a small number of people. In such situations, it is easy for these few owners to dictate what will be broadcast, and what will be omitted. Private interests come to determine just what is aired or not (William, 2002). Hence the government itself should take an interest in the factors causing media conglomeration, if impartiality in news reporting is to be maintained.

Cable companies

The ownership by few individuals of the media houses is made worse by the monopoly of cable companies. A research in 2002 showed that the top 40 cable companies are owned by a certain group of elites who hold shares in several cable companies simultaneously. Several cable companies would be under the influence of a certain individual. With such monopoly, the cable companies have been raising their prizes arbitrary, without any reasonable grounds. Their monopoly ensures that these misdemeanors are not challenged (Mark, 2002). Breaking this monopoly will need decisive action from the government.

There has been talk of introducing a la carte system within the cable systems. This is a system whereby the programs broadcasted by a company are sponsored and paid for on an individual base. The problem with such a system lies in the way media houses presently operate. Usually, several programs are bought as a bundle, and those getting the highest revenues act as financial platforms for the others, giving these others time to be accepted in the market.

In this way, programs leap frog on each other. If a la carte system was introduced, this system wouldn’t work, and programs would have to market themselves right from oblivion into the lime light. Obviously, some programs would never get anywhere near the limelight on their own. The content diversity offered by the media bodies would hence decrease over time. Because of this, it is probably better if the la carte system is not institutionalized – at least until the other fundamental market factors have been modified (NCTA, 2005).

Content rating

Some of the content aired on televisions and radios is obviously not appropriate for some age groups. Due to this, the media industry introduced a content rating system, also commonly called parental guidelines, to help filter between what the whole family can watch and what only adults can watch. But even with these guidelines in place, it is still hard to tell whether they are effective. For one, rating systems differ from country to country.

What may be considered adult content in one country may be general content in another. Only the authorities within a certain country can determine whether or not to make the rating systems stiffer for the media bodies within. But overall, all tabloid television should be scheduled for late night slots. This way, the parents or guardians have a better chance at controlling what their children watch. Parental locks can also help control the content watched, but they should not be mandatory. Only a parent can determine whether his or her children need such extreme measures.

Digital television

As technology advances, television media houses are taking the next step: into high definition technology. Due to this, people having the older analogue receptors are being obliged to buy a convertor box in order to receive these new digital frequencies. It is a worthwhile cost, for many reasons. For one, it frees up frequencies that can then be used for other causes like police and emergency communications. Commercial companies can also use these freed up frequencies. At the same time, digital broadcasting offers better picture and sound quality. It also offers consumer options like choice of programs through multicasting (FCC, 2008). Probably the only disadvantage for this new technology is the initial installation cost. Hence, by all means, it should be integrated into mainstream broadcasting as soon as possible.

Download sites

The advances of technology have their downsides. For example, certain unscrupulous individuals have taken the advantages of the internet to pirate music and other intellectual property. These individuals rarely credit the owners of these properties. And due to the anonymity offered by the internet, it becomes hard to prosecute them. Legislature should come up with laws requiring all internet sites offering music downloads to have valid licenses for the business, and to conduct the businesses within certain limits. Sites that fail to abide by these regulations should be shut down. But otherwise, music download sites are ideally an extension of the conveniences that the net has to offer. Used with integrity, they can actually result to higher revenues for the owners of the intellectual properties.

Conclusion

The media faces many issues that influence its effectiveness to deliver information to the public. Some of these issues determine whether the information is impartial, accurate, complete and useful. Yet the day to day life of the citizens is greatly influenced by what the media bodies deliver. It is vital hence that all factors influencing the efficacy of the media houses be carefully controlled. The government, the media houses and the general public should be involved in creating regulations to control media houses.

Works Cited

Andrew Belsey, Ruth F. Chadwick (1992) Ethical Issues in Journalism and the Media Routledge, 1992. Pgs. 59-61.

Answers. (N.D.) Sensationalism. Web.

Anup Shah (2009) Media Conglomerates, Mergers, Concentration of Ownership. Web.

Barnhurst, Kevin. The impact of the internet on newspaper political coverage Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston Marriott Copley Place, Sheraton Boston & Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts, 2002.

Fair. (2003) Is Media Bias Filtering Out Good News from Iraq? Web.

FCC-Federal communications commission (2008) “DTV” is coming. Web.

Mark Cooper (2003) As Cable Rates Rise Again, Consumer Groups Say Companies Are Using Monopoly Power to Unfair Advantage. Web.

NCTA (2005) Mandating a la carte distribution of cable programming would harm consumers. Web.

William Hoynes (2002) Why media mergers matter. Web.

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