Freedom of Mass Media 1

Freedom of Mass Media

Freedom of Mass Media

Mass media compromises of a whole body of the media which reaches a large part of

the public through its main components which includes newspaper ,television, internet,

cinema and most recently mobile phones. Billboards, signs, place card placed inside and

outside the buildings are also considered as another form of media .It had passed through a

series of long development. which had started from the ancient Greek when philosophers and

politicians use to spread their issues to the public through the use of word of mouth .Recently

due to the advances of technology mass media have changed from paper letters to the use of

phones and the internet .As a result of this dramatic changes media can be considered as gate

through which the society can express and share their freedom of speech. This change may

lead the governments to put some restrictions on media in order to protect their own interest,

for that reason people should fight against the freedom of mass media as losing this freedom
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means losing the freedom of speech . Therefore the importance of free media should be

considered as a right for everyone because it forms as a basis of democracy for countries ,

for people to spread their word to the world and it helps people to be more exposed to each

other and to different cutlers of the world .

Free media forms the basis of democracy for countries .For example by promoting

fair and free elections as in face we as voters rely on media to expose the abuses and of those

in power and wealth and in order to do that the media should be unrestricted so that we can

hear from not only one side .Moreover it is hard to overestimate the importance of media in

the electoral process, for instance in the US ,the mass media plays an important role in

publicizing democratic elections. National television networks reaches 99 percent of homes

.Cable new stations ,radio and television talk shows, newspapers ,news magazines and

internet sites all provide voters with information about candidates .the content and emphasis

of their coverage are among the most powerful factors in determining how voters perceive the

candidates . According to the former president of Indonesia sukarno during his visit to

Hollywood characterized media as unconscious revolutionaries because media makers create

new expectations ,increase knowledge of other possibilities of better life for example , of

other ideologies, and even other forms of governances .Therefore, a democratic countries

should gives their citizens the opportunity to express and share among themselves their

daily concerns through open debates without any restrictions.

mass media is not just the base for democratic country but it is also a tool for the

people spread their word to the world and to achieve their goals. In countries where there is

no restrictions on media like Lebanon, the media becomes the tool for communications that

forms the structure of the Lebanese society and helps the citizens in uncovering the truth. It

also helps the educated people of destabilized countries to spread their word among the

common people and up rise for the achievement of their demands. For instant what happened
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recently to the Arab world showed how people were dissatisfied with their rulers, as People

were oppressed and their freedom to object with the current rulers were taken away .Mass

media with all its components such as the internet which include the different social medias

like face book ,twitter , YouTube etc had provided a window for people to express their

opinions across their own countries and to the world .for example in both Tunisia and Egypt

these form of media communications had turned political opposition into a mass protest. In

Tunisia conversations about liberty and revolution on twitter had constituted about twenty

percent of blogs were evaluating Ben Ali's leadership the day he resigned from his umpire .

Later the primary topic for Tunisians on blogs and twitter was the word revolution until a

mass protest of at least 100,000 people forced the old regimes remaining leaders to

reconciled from their positions . Moreover, when Egypt ruler tried to control and put

restrictions on all the components of media especially the press and social media .This had

created a massive anger among the people since media was there only tool to spread their

word ,and the only hope for them to spread their word . According to the one time American

president Jefferson(1787)"Were it left for me to decide whether we should have a

government without newspapers or newspaper without a government ,I should not hesitate a

moment to prefer the latter"(p.44) .The press is the primary source of quick and actionable

pieces of information through which people can express their opinions .

The importance of free media cannot be counted ,as it have enabled people to be

more exposed to each other and to the different cultures of the world. This had a great impact

on our society especially for Arab women ,as media have aid women to look into other

cultures specifically the western culture. For example the social media and reality TV shows

have helped Arab women to compare themselves and their role in society with the western

women ,for they had found a major discrepancy .one of the significant differences they had

found is the gender gap, as in western cultures women have a say in political as well as in
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economical sector of the society. As according to the world bank Arab women contribution in

employment is the lowest amongst all other region. However, media have helped women to

be more opened into the different cultures in the world .This have given them the incentive

to stand up and demand their rights -women like Tawakkul Karman from Yemen won a

Nobel peace prize on 2011 for defending women against non violent acts, Lubna Al Qassemi

a minister of development and international cooperation in UAE and Dr. Ansam Sawalha

camp for providing educational and work opportunities for Palestinian women . Thus media

have played a significant role in encouraging women to raise up in the society.

On the contrary many argues that media are sometimes controlled by individuals

which tries to manipulate true facts , shows the truth as the untruth ,and some may go to e

extreme to dominate the world by playing on people's minds ,for the sake of money, power

and many other bigger issues. As a result this may cause confusion among people and raise

violent acts between different ethnic, classes , religious group of the society. "Scholars

have been investigating media violence as a potential contributor to societal violence in the

United States since the early 1960s"(Bushman & Anderson ,2001,p.478). Media that mainly

focuses S on reporting dramatic and inventible political stories based on inaccurate or

insufficient information on regular basis tend to be prioritized .statistics shows that countries

like Pakistan 80% of its media uses sensationalism instead of reporting accurate information

.When sensationalism is being used in media it end up reporting untruthful and biased

information to the public and leaves no room for reality.

Several studies had been conducted by several scientist had showed that there is no

scientific evidence to prove that media causes violence . freedman(2002) noted it is a

coincidence that when television had began to prosper the rate of crime had risen, as during

that era there had been vast changes in societies that should be taken into consideration such

as gap between different classes, high rate of divorce, use of drug , single parents etc .That is
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people act depending on their scenery not by what they see on television .Moreover media

does not violence on its own it is the mirror of society we are living in thus it is there job to

make use of their freedom to expose what is really happening to the public. The only monitor

on press is another press outlet that is if on press provide fake truth about the reality it is

hoped that other press could provide unbiased issues. Recently in Nigeria enjoys more

freedom of press which started when a vast number of people protested against the fuel

subsidy removal by their president Goodluck Joanthan through the use of several social

media . Thus nowadays everyone should take the liability to defend and fight for freedom of

media, as it is the road towards liberty, freedom and democracy.