Media's Role in Liberal Democracies

The American journalist and politician Clare Boothe Luce spoke out to a group of journalists to make her statement on the press. The time Luce’s speech was presented, it was 1960; a much different time from how press runs today. Back in the sixties, press was presented in the form of newspapers or by word of mouth, whereas today press appears on a computer screen. In Luce’s speech she states, “It is- to use the big word- the pursuit of and the effort to state the truth.” (L.39). This statement concludes that the author views the whole point of the press to tell the truth. Whether the topic is on the food industry or on economics, press brings information to the people in an honest fashion. Back in this time Clare used many rhetorical

Since the dawn of human civilization, individuals have been constantly immersed in conflict with each other. Whether these conflicts stemmed from socio-economic inequalities, political disputes, property rights, religious disagreements, or any other contentious matter, the creation of human governments has necessarily been to handle, organize, and resolve conflicts between people within communities in the least destructive manner possible. Governments act as a formal instrument through which individuals in a society can agree upon shared rules, solve problems, and engage in cooperative behavior, and it helps avoid the severe repercussions resulting from revolutionary social upheaval. The purpose of government – as spelled out in the Preamble of the Constitution – is to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” While countless forms of government have sprung up over the centuries, only one has been resilient enough and has had the pervasive influence necessary to stand the test of time: democracy. While there are many different types of democracies, this paper will focus on liberal democracy specifically. A liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy that operates under the paradigm of classical liberalism. According to the Center for Research on Globalization, liberal democracy is defined as:

Consequently, the political sphere is now being colonised by the media, and politics has begun re-orientating itself to satisfy the logic of media organisations (Meyer, 2002, p. 71). Therefore, the media are active participants in the policymaking process and the ability to stimulate change or maintain the status quo depends on their choice of subject or policy issue and how they frame it. Active investigative reporting attempts to shape policy outcomes, but this does not necessarily mean that it always represents the most successful approach for gaining policy changes (Spitzer, 1993, p. 7). In fact, sometimes passive, straight reporting can have a greater influence on policy choices. When this occurs, media independence is largely bypassed, as the news generated depends solely on the information released (as public relations material) from legitimate news sources. For example, in the United States, White House staff routinely make ‘leaks’ - expressively to influence policy decisions (Davis, 1992, p. 143; Robinson, 2001, p. 948). Robinson noted that journalists regard “leaks… as indispensable to their work” and that they are aware of their use by officials in return for scoops (2001, p. 949).

Liberalism started with the ideas of the Enlightenment. Two of these ideas were freedom of speech and freedom of the individual, and kept growing from there. Liberalism is the belief in a small central government and no monarchy. The liberalists defended the ideas of the definitive rights of an individual’s liberty, equality and property. The liberalists wanted their government to be established on written laws and a constitution based on equality.

In the United States, we have a liberal democracy meaning our rights and liberties are protected. The US also has a multiparty electoral system with free and fair participation and a checks and balances system that prevents a single party from taking sovereign control. Liberal democracy is a political system that is supported by free and fair elections, but also a separation of powers between branches and the protection of its citizens basic liberties such as, freedom of speech, assembly, property, and religion (Zakaria 22). Constituitonal liberalism is mostly based on limiting power in government, while democracies tend to be more about its accumulation and use (Zakaria 30).

The purpose of this report is to analyse journalism practices employed in newspaper reporting across different outlets and to analyse if the practice was in line with the media

Democracy is the ultimate political form of ideological liberalism. It refers to the ideal form of state, and is common to both classical and modern liberals.

The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics strives to secure the “free exchange of information”. It must be fair, accurate and thorough and also states that integrity is a key factor in being an ethical journalist. The Society asserts four main principles as the foundations to all ethical journalism and promotes their use in practice by all people in all media. The first code is to “Seek Truth and Report It.” It states that all ethical

The media is an industry that wants to sell the most out of their product: the story. They will try to make their stories as exciting and interesting possible (Innes 1999). If the SIO does not negotiate and talk with the press, they face the risk of the press interfering, meddling in, and/or impeding the investigation (Cook & Tattersall 2008:386). However, sometimes it is in the best interest to withhold information from the press (Cook & Tattersall 2008: 402). In the Damilola Taylor murder investigation a tabloid newspaper leaked evidence that could have been information only the offender could have acquired. It severely weakened the evidence and it ended up being ruled as inadmissible (Damilola Taylor Investigative Review 2002, as discussed in Cook & Tattersall 2008). One should not only be careful with what one says, but also what one shows. In 2009, senior counterterrorism officer Bob Quick accidently showed his papers about a planned anti-terror operation to the waiting press. The documents carried sensitive information about an operation planned by the MI6 and several police officers. The press did not care and within a few minutes the pictures were circling online. As a result, they had to rush their plans forward and quickly impose a “D notice” to restrict the media. Quick was fired soon after (Dodd & Batty 2009). For these kind of situations, quick thinking and handling is needed to still get a positive result out of the situation. Off-the-record press briefings have the tendency to interfere with ongoing police investigations and could give the suspect the chance to evade arrest. For example, once the media has been alerted of a possible terror-related arrest, they will soon arrive race to the location to be the first with the “breaking news”. This is a big warning to the suspects that the police are on its way (House of commons 2009). During the

Liberalism is a collection of political, social and economic philosophies that is centered around the rights of personal liberties, civil rights, economic freedom, controlled and democratic government and the rule of law. A controlled and democratic government is instrumental to liberalism. A controlled government is one restricted by the law. The most common example of this can be found in the United States Constitution. The Constitution has outlined the roles and restrictions of each branch of government while also setting a system of checks and balances.

Propaganda is a tool for manipulating and changing the opinions people. The bases of propaganda have come forth form the modes of persuasion, Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

An essential part of an "ideal" representative democracy is competitive elections that are fair both substantively[10] and procedurally.[11] Furthermore, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press are considered to be essential rights that allow citizens to be adequately informed and able to vote according to their own interests.[12][13]

The duty of journalists is to tell the truth. Journalism means you go back to the actual facts, you look at the documents, you discover what the record is, and you report it that way. — Chomsky 2008

Having the democracy to exercise and express our freedom of the press, which was have been suppressed before, during the Marcos regime, we can say that the Philippine news media’s role is critical to the advancement and preservation of the country’s democratic institutions and way of life and in helping catalyze equitable development.  The issues and problems confronting the Philippine press

The overview of the subject matter is that the big worry is that quality will decline Journalists are employed to check their facts and they get checked in turn by editors who question the reliability of their sources; we trust the paper’s brand not the individual journalist. Social media could be reliable, but how would we know? This is equally true then it comes to bias. But the fact of the matter is journalism is more credible and if we lose credibility in the information we get everything could fall for speculation. The authors’ thesis is we should not stand for the decline of journalism as a profession but support our right to have valuable information