The 20th century has brought a lot of changes all aspects of contemporary social life and it specifically changed the mass media environment within the United States. Modern technologies and development of new ways of spreading information presented a new format of informing and communicating that could reach the audience in a serious number of different ways. New actors have recently entered the environment of political communications. They are the talk show hosts and the reports of popular tabloids, and their manner of informing altered the manner that was previously used by journalists and leaders to communicate with the audience.
In the researches of Diane Owen the author states that electronic media now have the leading position in the new media list and this is supported by the constant development of Internet that stimulates changing processes within the traditional new organizations (Owen 99).
The new communication mechanisms provided society with new ways of political discourse emergence. And therefore it is obvious that changes within the American media environment seriously impact the democratic processes with the country.
It is important to underline that not only American society witnesses these processes. The same changes can be seen all over the planet as a series of recent political events were supported first of all by media system. Therefore, media has gained a special position within the democratic processes in all countries and it has to prepare people for participation in democratic processes.
Yochai Benkler defines the main solutions for this problem, where the first position has to be given to replicating and maintaining the industrial model of the 20th century (p. 22). This increases the level of social political activity and the interest demonstrated by citizens within the political and economic spheres (Benkler 231).
Another important issue that media system has to address is technological changes that impact the reshaping of cost and market structure of journalism. The monopolies that take leading positions within the market have no more chance to survive as the Internet gives people the open access to the information of all kinds and that creates additional stimulus for competitive struggle.
Diverse models are taking control over this area of influencing society and volunteer press, non-profits and even individuals can change social attitude towards democratic processes by providing g them with the unique information that is presented in their specific manner. The emergence of great amount of different opinions and details over the political issues help audience to develop a reputable position. Moreover, people can be included in the process of democratic development of American society.
Nowadays, a lot of measures are being implemented in order to support the social participation in democracy. Current media system is making accent on web resources and support the developing young journalists that can present an alternative point of view. The increased competition among different media systems stimulates the growing level of professionalism within the media resources.
However, one of the most interesting initiatives has been recently discussed by Elizabeth Jensen in Columbia Journalism Review (Jensen 33). The idea of developing public media and paying more attention to its role in the democratic processes is quite logical as a lot of people prefer to address to such sources in search for the new information. Public television is simpler and indirectly closer to ordinary people. However, in the past times public media failed to present the proper quality level of information.
The situation has seriously changed nowadays. The recent researches have been held by the Federal Communication Commission and published within the “The Information Needs of Communities” (Jensen 35).
The rate has shown that more than a half of noncommercial TV programs have provided no local new information that seriously distinguishes them from the local radio stations. It is essential for the contemporary media system to take into account the existing misbalance between this two public media tools and to develop mechanisms that will allow local television channels to inform people about the recent events and therefore be more involved in the democratic development of society.
Although the series of different obstacles can be seen in the process of involving citizens in democratic participation, the main barrier to this development is finance. If more resources would have been available, the radio stations could provide society with more journalism (Jensen 36).
Therefore, it can be stated that the process of preparation of the audience for the full participation in democracy is an extremely complex issue. It is connected with multiple obstacles, but at the same time the development of modern technologies gives more opportunities to the democracy development and interest of the public.
The series of monopolies have disappeared within the market that was followed by the emergence of new independent media and the development of free market with a lot of different groups of media resources that present their view on the current political events. That seriously supported the social involvement in democracy.
People received the ability read different Internet resources, to receive the information from experts, volunteers, independent journalists and therefore to have the full understanding of different aspects of state system and the events that take place within it.
However, the lack of money seriously harms the development of democratic aspect within the media on the government level. Fewer donations are given to the local media resources that reflect the lowering level of journalism within the popular newspapers, radios or TV programs. Government has to play one of the leading roles in the formation of democratic American nation.
Therefore, it can be stated that two of the most important issues that create obstacles to an effective media system nowadays are financing and information overload. The great amount of independent media, as well as bloggers, modern TV shows, non-profits and tabloids can overload people with information that they do not need. Democracy has to be practiced, but getting over the standard number of acceptable information resources will not be beneficiary for people. Moreover, the decreased donations towards the media resources are logically followed by less journalism in them.
The media system is constantly developing and therefore it tries to address the following problems. It is important to take into account the real meaning of information and its influence in the society, like the social cascades, in which the information spreads like a wildfire, despite its real validity and trustworthiness. This effect increases with the development of the enormous role of the Internet and other modern technologies (Sunstein 11).
Here, the more important meaning has to be given to alternative media that received a new stimulus for development and expansion within the information market. According to Pickard, it somehow opposes the mainstream media, although it can be become the mainstream one in the future (Pickard 12).
Alternative media has always been closely connected with social movement and especially the marginalized unities that opposed the official political course of the state. It became a serious support within the revolutions in the recent times, and it has always been present in the political life of the country in the past centuries. The alternative media can have a specific place within the process of social democratization, representing the information from the different point of view, giving the ability to analyze all aspects of the problem and be able to solve it.
Therefore, the division of different types of contemporary media can be seen as the solution for information overloading. However, the media system fails to cope with the enormous amount of the information as the American media is not profit-oriented and the role of the government is extremely small in the area (Benkler 240).
Media campaigns that can attract the attention of the audience to such important problems as child abuse prevention strategies are extremely expensive and the expenses are higher than the outcomes of the communication (Saunders, Goodard 2002). The real effect of such importation distribution is extremely hard to evaluate that creates another boundary for the development of this sector. It is even harder to justify the high expenses on media campaigns whining political sphere and therefore the attention of the audience is paid towards the enormous finances rather than to the main idea of the campaign.
Talking about money little success can be seen within this problem. However, the News Hour in Chicago has received more than $ 250 000 donations from the Joyce Foundation that is interested in the development of local information sector (Jensen 36). Therefore, the increased financing will give the ability to this local media resource to show more journalism and inform people about recent local events. It is extremely important for the emergence of democratic society.
In San Francisco, KQED was created a unified operation from the radio and television news and added a website of the resources. All this resulted in growth from $1 million to $14 million budget for the public affairs and a new sector that is more than a quarter of the yearly spending’s of the organization. Here, it can be seen that the reformation of the media system will give sources the ability to survive in the competitive struggle.
The implementation of websites and working with the information on the internet is one of the keys to success in the modern environment. It gives media the ability to be free and to give independent information to people all over the world.
However, in the majority of cases, the lack of money appears to cause the serious harm to journalism and its role in promoting democratic processes and creating the democratic society. In television, the localism is the another support to democratization as it gives people the ability to received personalized information and to have a look on the local point of view on the series of events that occur in the country. Localism is supported by many government officials as it also gives more journalists the ability to develop and supports the media system in general, creating the balance between cable and local channels. But the lack of finances does not give small local channels required support and therefore this way of informing people is getting into crisis.
All this evidence in common creates an impression that all the implemented policy measure will not work because the weak sides are much stronger than the strong ones. The lack of financing cannot be compensated by the official support from government and the imperfections of the information overloading cannot be solved with the help of partial differentiation. The high costs of using media resources do not give the desired outcomes for social or political campaigns. The media system is extremely complex and it has the series of different factors that influence the development of democratic society (Needham 1993).
It is important to increase financial support of local channels, as well as volunteer and non-profit media resources that will give people the ability to access more information about the current situation within the country, to discuss the actual problems and find possible solutions, to see the different sides of the problem and decided what is good for the country.
The democratic development of American nation depends mostly on state initiatives and government support. The rapid development of innovative technologies and the great potential of Internet give new opportunities for democracy development. In case the contemporary changes within the system of media will be met with real interest and serious attention of the qualified professionals and experts within the media sector, the dialogue with citizens will be more effective.
Effectiveness of American media system is closely connected with the democracy itself. Therefore, the liberalization of the media sphere and increased importance of journalism require more serious approach to the problems that contemporary media system witnesses and the government assistance will seriously support the democratization of society.
Works Cited
Benkler, Yochai. Giving the Network Public Sphere Time To Develop. Hrvard University Press, 2013. Print.
Jensen, Elizabeth. “Big Bird to the Rescue? Public television remains largely indifferent to calls to boost serious news coverage”. Columbia Journalism Review, July/August (2011): 33-37.
Needham, B. " A Better Way to Vote: Why Letting the People Themselves Take Decisions is the Logical Next Step for the West". The Economist. 9 Nov. 1993. Web. 22 Dec. 2014.
Owen, D. (1999). “Effects of Electronic Media on Democratic Attitudes”. CA: Center for Civic Education, Calabasas. Oct. 1999. Web. 22 Dec. 2014.
Pickard, Victor W. “In Todd M. Schaefer and Thomas A. Birkland (Eds.)”. The
Encyclopedia of Media and Politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press, (2007): 12-13.
Saunders, B. J., Goddard, C. (2002). “The role of mass media in facilitating community education and child abuse prevention strategies”. NCPC Issues 16. Jun. 2002. Web. 22 Dec. 2014.
Sunstein, Cass, R. “Republic. Com 2.0”. Princeton University Press, 2007. Print.
