In your opinion, in a country with a democratic system of government, should the main, dominant, meanstream, public news media be independent, private or state-owned, under government control?
I ask because different countries have different solutions to this issue. In the country where I have been operating for many years, the main, dominant, meanstream, public news media are under government control, are state-owned (e.g., companies in which the treasury dominates as the main or sole shareholder), are referred to as public, and are used by the government as a mouthpiece for pro-government propaganda, including generating disinformation to citizens so that citizens will once again vote for the same ruling political party in parliamentary elections. On the one hand, this has been operating for many years and nothing has changed in this regard. And on the other hand, it is criticized by media experts, researchers and scholars, by media scholars, but also by many citizens who are not professionally or scientifically involved in the media. The criticism points to the lack of information objectivity, to the politicization of information, to the creation of pro-government propaganda, consisting of constant and incessant praise of what the government is doing, criticism of what the opposition parties are proposing, etc. on the unreliability of information, on the violation of the rules of journalistic ethics, on the public practice of hegemony against people working in opposition political circles, on the practice of disinformation even against people representing the so-called "hardcore electorate" of voters who usually vote in parliamentary and other elections for the ruling PIS political option.
In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:
In your opinion, in a country with a democratic system of government, should the main, dominant, meanstream, public news media be independent, private or under government control?
Should the main, dominant, meanstream, public news media be independent, private or state-owned, under government control?
What do you think about this topic?
What is your opinion on this issue?
Please answer,
I invite everyone to join the discussion,
Thank you very much,
Warm regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
Counting on your opinions, on getting to know your personal opinion, on a fair approach to the discussion of scientific issues, I deliberately used the phrase "in your opinion" in the question.
The above text is entirely my own work written by me on the basis of my research.
In writing this text I did not use other sources or automatic text generation systems.
Copyright by Dariusz Prokopowicz
It is essential for nations and academic, scientific, and research societies to unite 🌍 in the interest of the public and openness 🤝, both by the government and the general society. This collaborative effort should encompass providing and safeguarding mass media outlets 📺📻, both traditional and alternative (even though it might not be directly acknowledged, they are known to be government-affiliated). The current possibility of supposedly open spaces for all sorts of opinions on social media has prompted the population itself to resort to communicating partially and independently 💬📱, disconnected from traditional channels.
Communication must serve as a guiding light for study 🔍📚, research 🧪🔬, and be a priority for specialized, academic, social, and research sectors. Only through this approach can we ensure critical thinking 🤔💡, partial analysis 🧐, and active participation of future society in shaping their own future 🚀👥.
It should be independent, in my opinion. We have seen difference in functioning of the state-owned and independent medias in various countries over the years, and while the independent medias reflects the voice of public, the state-owned medias seemed to care less about them.
Public media should not be controlled by the government, because public media actually works for the community, fulfilling the needs of the community. Therefore, public media should be subservient to society.
Based on my over one and half decade experience in active journalism practice, i believe a balance media ownership is better, safer and will serve the best interest of the majority.
By balance media ownership, i mean the one that allows the private and public ownership of media houses
Dariusz: your are asking a number of good questions, most are not easy to answer other than subjectively. The younger population have almost eschewed the public news media in the USA and Europe and look to the internet for answers and discussion of issues. This reflects the increasing control of the media by powerful minority interests. The essential for the future is to ensure that the Internet remains as free and untarnished as possible and that users are able to sort free sites from junk-news. The UK government is now imposing restrictions on providers that are apparently benign (i.e. against evil usage), but can be used in future to control material that is not evil.
No media can truly be independent in reportage, be it private or public, dominant or otherwise.
From media house philosophy, ownership interest, advertisers' influence, reporter's interest, religious doctrine, ethnic alliance, continental alliance to language/regional affinity are fundamental factors that shape media reporting pattern.
Consciously or subconsciously, we tend to tilt our report in this direction
Musliyu Raufu: In real free-press the bias is that of the editor, unfortunately, free-press is reducing and the bias is becoming that of the owner. Murdoch, Maxwell and other similar billionaires were behind this insidious trend: most of the world's press is owned / controlled by a handful of billionaires now. The end result in the UK is that the BBC is no longer respected as truly impartial, as even there the hand of government / powerful players is all too apparent and the propaganda level excessive. This is why the younger people are moving to internet based information and open discussion. The internet is often corrupted by vested interests, ( e.g. google), but, with judicious use, it is better than any of the controlled media.
Regardless of the type of ownership, all that is important in journalism is integrity, transparency and adherence to ethical standards.