Role of media in democracy

A democracy is a system of government in which all the people of a country can vote to elect their representatives. Media came into existence around the 1780s with the introduction of newspapers, and since then it has matured by leaps and bounds. It has played a very important role in shaping human minds. Every man needs food, clothing, healthcare and shelter for his physical survival. Similarly communication is regarded as an indispensable factor for the social welfare of people. In this 21^st century every individual is keen to be updated with the latest developments in all walks of life. It is here where the mass media comes into the picture which aims to reach out to a very large audience. It carries out its functions through advertising, marketing, propaganda, public relations and political communication. Mass media is now considered as an effective tool for advocating business and social concerns. But what role does media and information play in a democratic society need to be examined as there is still a dispute regarding the significance and magnitude of mass media in Indian society.

The media plays a very important role as a source of information, education and entertainment. It accommodates the world into a single village which is saturated of media-information. Media is a mirror of the society. Its duty is to inform, educate and entertain the people but nowadays we see that media is not doing its duty properly. Instead of giving important information and educative programme, it is giving emphasis to sensationalize the public. They are only trying to attract people to increase their TRP ratings. Technological innovations have expanded the scope and coverage of media. With television entering the drawing rooms of Indian households in 1990s, a new segment of electronic media emerged. The World Wide Web and web 2.0 technologies have enabled web journalism through Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. All these have led to creation of a richly diverse media industry in India.

Media as the fourth pillar of democracy

Media is considered the fourth pillar of democracy along with Judiciary, Executive, and Legislature. Media plays an important role in informing the public and creating public opinion on important issues. It serves as a link between the government and public. Indian democracy would be poorer without an active media. Media provides a platform for the voiceless many to put forth their grievances. Media serves as an important tool to ensure accountability of government to the public between elections. It informs public of the government schemes and its beneficiaries. At some time it also highlights the mistakes committed by government. Hence it ensures government’s accountability.The media should make the people aware of the consequences of the various actions of the governments. It is the media which plays a major role in making a politician hero or Zero. So utmost neutrality is required on the part of media to observe and it must give publicity only to those politicians who are committed to the welfare of the poor and underprivileged and who really deserve it. It is the duty of the media to make sure that it is not partial towards any particular political party or an individual and gives free and fair opinion to the people without having any bias towards anyone. It should never hesitate is unmasking before public the real faces of corrupt politicians and corrupt people without any fear and in disclosing corrupt practices prevalent in Government machinery but at the same time it should also bring before the pubic the good work done by the Government.

If media is honest and committed in its job, democracy is bound to function more efficiently and the loopholes present in any democratic system can certainly be plugged to the fullest satisfaction of the people. On the contrary, if media is biased, corrupt and favors only a particular party or few individuals, it can prove to be very dangerous for the smooth functioning of democracy. No one can become perfect and one can only strive to become so. The same holds true for our media also. Certainly there is still a lot of scope for improvement by which the media can rise upon the aspirations of the people for which it is primarily meant.