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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

The media is not a monolithic entity but rather a broad term encompassing a variety of content provided to the public, or sectors of the public, over a range of platforms. There is no closed list of content provided by the media: news, politics, business, current affairs, entertainment, motoring, gardening, religion, home decor, fashion, food, celebrity and lifestyle are some of the many topics covered by the media.

Furthermore, these topics are provided over a range of platforms. Traditionally, when one thought of the media one thought of newspapers, magazines, radio and television. This is no longer the case. The so-called ‘new media’ encompasses a range of platforms, including web-based platforms, such as internet sites, but also mobile platforms such as mobile television or the ability to listen to news headlines on your mobile phone. Internet-based media can be merely electronic versions of what is available in the print media. For example, a newspaper’s website will carry an electronic version of the newspaper for that day, or such media can carry unique content not available in hard-copy form. New media is changing the way citizens and the media relate. Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, for example, have played a significant role as sources of news and information in repressive countries.

The most significant example is the recent uprisings in the Arab world. Just as there is no monolithic ‘media’ entity, similarly there is no single role that it plays. Indeed, the role of a particular part of the media is very much determined by a range of factors relating to the nature of the media itself, in particular the content of the media (news or current affairs versus light entertainment) and the medium used (print, broadcasting or internet based). Thus the media plays a number of different roles in society, including being informative, educational or entertaining. Media can be narrowly focused by appealing to a particular interest (for example, a fishing magazine), religion (such as a Christian broadcaster) or area of specialization (such as a trade publication). It can also appeal to a mass audience by being a full service television station or a daily newspaper covering a variety of news and current affairs, whether local, national or international. It is common to conflate the terms ‘the media’ with ‘the press’. This is not necessarily a problem; however, when thinking about media and press freedom concerns it is helpful to see the term ‘the press’ as a sub-set of ‘the media’. The press has a connotation that is clearly associated with the news media, whether provided in print or electronically. Within the term ‘the press’ (meaning the news media) there are various kinds of press outlets – state media, public media, commercial media, and even certain forms of community media can be included in ‘the press’. It is important to bear these distinctions in mind when considering the role of the press in particular, and of the media more generally.

Academic commentators have often characterized the media or the press as being ‘a separate player on behalf of the public against the agencies of power’, and that media organizations ‘take a position between government agencies and the public’. Clearly, this is true only to a certain extent as a number of media outlets (print, broadcasting or otherwise) are fundamentally part and parcel of government, and therefore cannot and will not play any role that is not supportive of 

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