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IPC - Background Guide

The Gopalan Model United Nations 2022 emphasizes the importance of the media in politics, highlighting its role as 'The Fourth Estate' in holding governments accountable and educating citizens. Delegates of the International Press Corps will report on committee activities while discussing the significance of an unbiased and free press. The document also addresses the challenges of media bias and the evolving landscape of news consumption, particularly through social media.

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IPC - Background Guide

The Gopalan Model United Nations 2022 emphasizes the importance of the media in politics, highlighting its role as 'The Fourth Estate' in holding governments accountable and educating citizens. Delegates of the International Press Corps will report on committee activities while discussing the significance of an unbiased and free press. The document also addresses the challenges of media bias and the evolving landscape of news consumption, particularly through social media.

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natsuadarsh007
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Gopalan Model United Nations

2022

INTERNATIONAL PRESS
CORPS
- BACKGROUND GUIDE -
LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE BOARD

Greetings delegates. I welcome you to the 2022 edition of Gopalan Model


United Nations. MUN conferences are not just competitions, it is a place
where we learn about the problems that plague the world and what we as
future leaders of the world can do about them. Hence, I request that you
all take part with a spirit of learning and collaboration over competition.

The media plays an important role in navigating our lives in today’s world.
Besides keeping us updated about sports and influencing the fashion
trends, media also keeps a check on the governments of the world.
Without anyone to monitor the governance and bring out their
misdoings, those in power can always take advantage and go beyond
what is needed of them.

In the Gopalan Model United Nations conference this year, it will be you,
the delegates of the International Press Corps who will be keeping a check
on what happens in the other committees and report it back to me in the
most eye catching way possible.

We will also have a couple sessions in committee discussing about the


how the media influences politics and how important it is for humanity to
have an unbiased and free press.

Looking Forward to the conference.

Kripal Gowda
Head of International Press

INTERNATIONAL PRESS CORPS | PAGE - 1


Agenda: Discussing the role of press in politics and the importance of
an unbiased and free press.

THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN POLITICS

The media has been referred to as “The Fourth Estate” with the important
function of being the news media – “the press” – and serving as the eyes
and ears of the public. The traditional print and media reporting has been
viewed over time as the way to insure the public gets the real scoop on the
functioning of government and viewpoints of political candidate. The
news media is a societal or political force or institution whose influence is
not consistently or officially recognized.

A free press serves four essential purposes:


- Holding government leaders accountable to the people.
- Publicizing issues that need attention.
- Educating citizens so they can make informed decisions, and
- Connecting people with each other in civil society.

Free media plays an important role in influencing political discourse


during elections. When free and balanced, traditional media (print and
broadcast) foster transparency and the determination of important
electoral information. The rise of new media provides further
opportunities for participatory citizenship.

Citizens are increasingly turning to social media platforms to follow


election news and developments. Referred to as “The Fifth Estate,” this
form of “news” media is a socio-cultural reference to groupings of outlier
viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most associated with bloggers,
journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social
media.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS CORPS | PAGE - 1


The media has immense power within the democratic countries because
just about all citizens get their news from cable news and social media
rather than hard news sources. The problem today is these very people
who report the news are biased towards one candidate or the other, as we
have learned in some political campaigns.

Citizens are increasingly turning to social media platforms to follow


election news and developments. According to a 2014 Pew Research
Center survey, 16 percent of registered American voters used social media
platforms like Facebook and Twitter to get political information and follow
election news during the 2014 U.S. midterm elections, more than
doubling the number of registered voters who used social media for the
same purpose in 2010.

In many ways, the rise of the Internet and the social web has made things
a lot better when it comes to being informed about the world. But in other
ways—as with so many other things the Internet touches—it has made
them much worse. And our trusted relationship with media (to the extent
that we ever had one) has taken the brunt of the damage.

The click economy has driven even traditional, mainstream media outlets
to focus on quick hits and “viral” stories, even if they have little truth to
them. And even if those stories are later corrected, only a tiny number of
people will see or share the correction. In any case, opinions have already
been formed, biases established, and alliances strengthened.

These days, politicians often complain about bias in the media, usually a
liberal bias against the views of conservative politicians. They complain
that the media’s ability to decide which stories to report often reflects its
partisanship.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS CORPS | PAGE - 1


The news media would like us to think that the bias is restricted to the
media’s outlet’s commentary and opinion pages. Have they read their
own newspapers lately?

The ethics of print and social media folks can be questioned on many
levels including a failure to act unbiased in reporting the news; spinning
the stories to advance the cause of their “chosen” candidate, and even
coloring the questions asked during political debates.

Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass
media in the selection of many events and stories that are reported and
how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or
widespread bias contravening of the standards of journalism, rather than
the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and
degree of media bias in various countries is widely disputed.

Practical limitations to media neutrality include the inability of journalists


to report all available stories and facts, and the requirement that selected
facts be linked into a coherent narrative. Government influence, including
overt and covert censorship, biases the media in some countries, for
example China, North Korea, Syria and Myanmar. Politics and media bias
may interact with each other; the media has the ability to influence
politicians, and politicians may have the power to influence the media.
This can change the distribution of power in society. Market forces may
also cause bias. Examples include bias introduced by the ownership of
media, including a concentration of media ownership, the subjective
selection of staff, or the perceived preferences of an intended audience.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS CORPS | PAGE - 1


There are a number of national and international watchdog groups that
report on bias of the media.

The delegates are requested to use this Background guide only as the
starting point of your research and not as the entirety of your research.

About the committee


The IPC at GMUN will be a different from an ideal MUN conference.
Delegates will be marked on the basis of their journalism skills. You will be
assigned to the committees you have to report about on the first day of
the conference. There will be a few sessions when we discuss the agenda
as well.

All the best delegates.

You can email me for clarifications at [email protected]

INTERNATIONAL PRESS CORPS | PAGE - 1


GOPALAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
Basavanagar, Seetharampalya - Hoodi Rd, Bengaluru - 560 048
Web: gopalanschool.com | PH: 080 4093 6034

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