The University of Melbourne

Media reporting of politics matters

Throughout the repercussion of civilisation, the concept of media has internationally developed to become an integrated sector of human life forms, as it has progressively established to become an accessible avenue, which allows the individuals of the public to interconnect and distribute certain sources of political material throughout society (Salgado 2018, p. 318). Whether seeking media dissertation help or exploring different perspectives on political matters, individuals rely on the media for information dissemination. Overall, this essay asserts the notion that although media reportage of political matters may be considered as a necessary practice, whether it is categorised to be of favourable conduct concerning the regulation of upholding liberalist values in a democratic society is questioned. This ideology will be emphasised by scrutinising the efficiency of the media to promote knowledge production throughout the public and through how the lack of trust in political journalism affects the public perception of the officials. Lastly, by examining the extent to which media reporting is non-reliant on government influence in a liberalist and authoritarian context.

Considering a large sum of civilians solely rely on media reporting as a leading resource of personal knowledge production, reporting of politics as information sources is prevalently recognised to be an essential component of constructing individual perceptions regarding political phenomenon. Media platforms are ultimately tasked with the liability to gather and distribute material in relation to political matters within the domestic and international regions, thereby enabling the public to gain extensive insights on political matters, which are generally outside their immediate field of familiarity (Errington & Miragilotta2011, p. 13). Therefore, such reporting is deemed to be a fundamental component to reinforce liberalist ideologies within a democratic society, as it encourages the individuals to construct extensive sentiments concerning political leaders, which according to Haus and Dahl (2000), is exemplified to be an essential component of reinforcing liberalist values within a democracy (Dahl & Haus 2000, p. 505). However conversely, Abdosamadi (2018, p. 189) argued that, although the distribution of such political information through particular traditional media outlets promotes the notion of political accessibility, this particular advantage is limited in its function to reach all the users unsystematically across all digital media platforms due to the systematic processes of ‘content filtering’ to suit the individual interests. Such algorithms may prohibit the individuals to explore a more diverse range of political opinions, as they are generally restricted to view certain information that they may wish to see. An issue associated with such factor, is that it does not allow the users to interact with the platform to an extensive standard outside their general interest (Abdosamadi 2018, p. 190). Therefore, media reporting of politics only tends to ‘matter’ and benefit its users, when the individuals are able to expose themselves to a diverse range of political viewpoints outside their personal agenda in order to allow for comprehensive opinion formations.

Additionally, critical media reporting of politics is significant as the public must be able to ‘trust’ certain media coverage in order to uphold more trust towards the government officials. In order for civilians to construct informed decisions in relation to political matters, it is essential that individuals are able to rely on political journalism to uphold its responsibility of producing and distributing valuable content (Gibbons 2010, p. 372). In a liberal discourse, despite the ideology that privately owned media are more likely to promote a diverse range of views and political opinions, media content that derive from such platforms are often recognised to be over-commercialised and over generalised in order to transmit more ‘marketable stories’ to the public, and therefore, insufficiently hinders the ability of the public to generate scholarly and rational debate (Errington & Miragilotta 2011, p. 15).

Lastly, the ability of media platforms to uphold the fundamental components of a liberalist society through transparent and independent coverage of political materials maximises the interest of the public. Due to the increased allowance of independent media outlets throughout democratic societies, such platforms are essentially recognised to ‘work for the people’ by scrutinising political subjects (Kaplan 2010, p. 27). However contrastingly, in certain geographic areas which execute less liberalist principles, the government hold a high capability of influencing people’s perceptions and opinions by restricting space for independent media outlets, therefore controlling and limiting the availability to scrutinise political agendas (Gazizov & Tatiana 2019, p. 15). Such limitations coincides with a process of voluntarily ‘hiding’ information and enforcing psychological influence to mass audiences, with the motive to alter the political beliefs, attitudes and values of its consumers. However comparably, it is also untrue that, such manipulation of what material is dispersed is not observed in democratic societies. Similarly to the structured media coverage portrayed in more authoritarian regimes, media in western civilisations also operate certain levels of control through filtering what sectors of information gets distributed and published to favour certain political ideologies (Gibbons 2010, p. 368). Considering the less critical nature of the press, extradition of such information to favour certain political parties would eventually create a society which passively corresponds the government values, which diminishes the meaning of a democracy then (Gibbons 2010, p. 368). This can be demonstrated through the lack of media coverage of the Iraq War in 2003, as the media failed to publish the negatives, associated with the culmination of warfare, and rather focused on components that would solely benefit the western society (Gibbons 2010, p. 369). Such manipulation can be achieved to the majority of the public by selective choice of content and careful use of word placement (Gazizov & Tatiana 2019, p. 17). Therefore, transparent media reporting of political matters in liberalist society is essential, as it majorly influences the way that public perceive particular areas of political subject.

Therefore, in conclusion, the correlation between the media reporting of political discourse has vast influence on the formation of public viewpoints and opinion, hence promotes the ideology that media reporting does in fact matter in political contexts. This has been demonstrated shown by discussing that the systematic distribution of media coverage efficiently promoted the ability to extend individual knowledge’s. Furthermore, by comparing the ability of the press to remain impartial and independent in democratic and authoritarian regimes is essential in order understand whether such media outlets are effectively maintaining their roles of promoting the values of the population. Lastly, explore how a lack of trust in the media can affect political decision making, therefore concluding that, in order to reinforce liberalist values, they must deliver more impartial and transparent content.

Harvard referencing:

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Gazizov, R & Tatiana, A 2019, ‘Political Manipulation of the Media (on the example of Mass Media of the Republic

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Haus, M & Dahl, R 2000, ‘Democracy’, European Journal of Social Theory, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 504–508

Kaplan, R 2010, ‘The Origins of Objectivity in American Journalism’, in S Allan (eds), The Routledge companion to news and journalism’, Routledge, London, pp. 25–37

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