Today, information is enjoying unprecedented success, it highly exalts, and without the slightest mercy, it destroys, and the person who owns it has the whole world. In recent years, the role of the media in political life has grown immeasurably, the impact on public life from this perspective is completely unlike that which existed in all past centuries.
Responsibility
Already not only certain opinions are imposed on society, but also behavior models that violate all seemingly unshakable principles. Television, radio, magazines, newspapers are now fighting, and this information war is much more bloody than any atomic one, because it directly affects the human mind, masterfully operating with half-truth, untruth and outright lies. In the Soviet era, a certain role of the media in political life was also noticeable, when all the facts were carefully verified and manipulated quite skillfully. Recall examples of the slandered activities of almost all the outgoing general secretaries.
A huge mass of untruth was exaggerated regarding institutions such as SMERSH, the Gulag, as well as the personalities of Stalin and Beria. There were public debunks and smaller ones, there were revelations of the illegal activities of officials and politicians, artists and writers. Such information has always been a huge success with readers and has been truly disastrous for the heroes of these publications. And on the contrary, laudatory essays and programs made all kinds of activists and leaders literally stars of various levels, right down to the state. Therefore, the role of the media in political life is difficult to exaggerate. And of course, for the information provided for general use, each person should bear responsibility.
Media Functions in Political Activities
In public life, the media perform a variety of functions and literally in all areas and institutions. This is informing about various events in the world and in the country, in almost all areas - politics, health, socialization, education and so on. This is advertising in all its forms. And it is impossible to overestimate the influence of information on society, since it is comprehensive, and the role of the media in political life is especially great, since all the instruments of influence on the implementation of the political process are in the hands of those who possess and can manipulate information.
Modern political science does not detract from this role in any way, endowing the media with such high-profile titles as the “fourth power”, “the great arbiter” and so on, putting the media on a par with the judicial, executive and even legislative powers. However, political scientists are not so wrong, the media really have become almost omnipotent. Controlling television - control the country. Not a single politician can do without the press; he needs all its forms - print, radio and television. And those grandiose changes that are now being observed all over the world, this redistribution of spheres of influence, are the result of the fact that the media play their role in the political life of society with inspiration.
A story full of tragedy
The revelry of the media is especially dangerous when there are no opposition parties, significant unions or organizations in the country that prevent the development of a totalitarian system. In these conditions, the role of the media in the political life of society is simply irreplaceable. Examples right before your eyes. How did everything happen at the end of the immemorial 80s in the Soviet Union, where the population still relaxedly believed everything no matter what the media broadcast?
Truly, then it was much more interesting to read than to actually live. The people are not accustomed to scandals and such mass exposures, which suddenly fell from everywhere on the perplexed and horrified population. It was the information war that the media unleashed in those years that organized and stimulated forces that quickly broke up and then plundered the richest country; it was it that contributed to the defeat of the entire political system that had been operating in the country for seventy years. The growing role of the media in the political life of society occurs precisely when the control of information falls into the hands of unscrupulous people who, through manipulation, create a public opinion that is beneficial to them.
Meanwhile in america
In the United States, the role of the media in the political life of society began to be closely studied and analyzed in the very beginning of the 60s. What can lead to an uncontrolled direct communication with the public, without the participation of institutions such as schools, church, family, party organizations, and so on? And what happens if this process is put under control? This is an indispensable tool in mass support of a certain program. Until the media got television and radio into their arsenal, using only the press, it wasn’t so scary, although many newspapers and magazines initially opened up as bodies of various political parties and very few of them remained outside the political process.
The main tool of any publication is the multidimensionality of information. Even newspapers tied to a certain political platform always served neutral materials, entertaining or news, that is, people from the very beginning were taught to see themselves as part of the wide world and to react in a certain way to events in it. But when television came ... The first coverage of the US election campaign dates back to 1952. Since then, whole schools have been created that train journalists to influence the masses in a way that is beneficial. In the 80s, television began to truly dominate among all the media.
Debate
The growing role of the media in the political life of society is due to the fact that it has become possible to influence and even model political behavior among the masses, which has been verified more than once by voting in the United States after a televised debate between presidential candidates. So Kennedy won after a television meeting with a political opponent - Nixon, and numerous polls confirmed that it was these debates that influenced their choice.
In the same way, after a television program, Reagan managed not only to close the four percent gap between him and Carter, but also to earn another five percent of the vote through television debates. The same thing happened in the pairs Reagan-Mondale, Bush-Dyukakis, Bush-Clinton. So gradually the televised debate between competitors for the presidency became an effective tool in almost all countries, including Russia. The place and role of the media in political life is becoming the most important and leading. And television in this bunch of means is a huge opportunity to influence and manipulate public consciousness. It is used less and less for operational or objective information, for enlightenment, for education. More often manipulations occur in the interests of certain groups.
Image
Nevertheless, the reasons for the increasing role of the media in political life are not entirely clear; this multifaceted and complex institution cannot be evaluated one-sidedly. Many of its organs and elements realize tasks that are too diverse even to simply inform people about events and phenomena that occur everywhere - from regional to world. This is the collection of information, and its dissemination through vigilant observation of the world, this is selection and commentary, that is, editing the information received, and then the goal is to form public opinion. The possibilities of human communication are growing - this is the main reason for the growing role of the media.
Society is extremely politicized, and the press, radio, television contribute to this enlightenment in the widest sections of the world's population. Therefore, the role of the media in modern political life is stronger than ever. They pretend to be a watchdog in the public interest, in the eyes and ears of the whole society: they warn of economic downturns, the growth of drug addiction or other crime, they talk about corruption in government structures. However, for this role, the media should be completely and completely independent of anyone - neither politically nor economically. But this does not happen.
Profession
In industrialized countries, the media is a private entrepreneurial institution or industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people. The economic activity of the media is based on the collection, processing, storage and subsequent sale of information. That is, the functions of the media are completely subordinate to a market economy. All the contradictions in society, all the interests of various layers of it and groups are reproduced in publications and programs. Economic power and sociocultural influence are growing - control by the state and corporations (advertisers) is decreasing.
It even happens that opinions on individual issues do not coincide with the ruling elite and the leadership of a publication. The media turned into huge conglomerates, they have an independent and quite profitable industry in business, however, this is a commercial beginning and does not allow to do without market use of available information. And here, not only the nature of the activity, but the entire role of the media in political life can change severely. Examples are quite numerous. Even Reagan, the then acting president of the country, in 1988, all three major US television companies did not broadcast due to lack of commercial interest. As a result, 1989 was the last year of his reign.
Other examples
Publications, reports and comments should shed light on the secret springs acting on the policies of the ruling circles, to draw the attention of the general public to the most odious characteristics of this activity. Sometimes this happens. For example, in the New York Times there was a publication of such a plan, when some Pentagon documents were revealed, the Washington Post newspaper exposed the Watergate scandal, and television companies broadcasted from Congress, where the revealing hearings were held. Public opinion regarding the Vietnam War was also mobilized to protest, and quite a lot of the world's media, including the United States, participated in this process.
US Presidents L. Johnson and R. Nixon were forced to leave the political arena, since the role of the media in political life is great. In short, the media can limit both power and specific actions of the ruling circles. However, this happens most often in cases where the media is profitable. Most magazines and newspapers, radio and television broadcasting stations, even the most famous, keep afloat only thanks to sensations. Uncovering scandals, exposing frauds, seeking out secrets, exposing all this to the public - this is the main role of the media in political life. Grade 11 in Russian schools is already studying the mechanisms of this influence.
Bombs
Often sensationalist editions, trying to “detonate the bomb,” investigate corruption or other official crimes, talk about a decline in morality among high-ranking officials or deceit of voters by presidential candidates. This sets the tone for public debate. All scandals and scams in the corridors of power are brought to the public. And there are times when the media win brilliant victories.
For example, after the Waltergate scandal, the first president’s resignation in US history followed. And when Spiegel shared information with readers about the secret penetration of constitutional security officers into the private house of a simple engineer and the installation of all kinds of eavesdropping equipment there, the German Minister of the Interior resigned.
Ducks
But it happens differently. A journalist from Interfax was present at the court session, where Khodorkovsky was to be sentenced. She prepared two reports to the publisher before a verdict was issued. And then I made a mistake with sending. Information appeared in the news feed that M. Khodorkovsky was already at large. A rebuttal is not a quick matter. Until it was formalized, the market grew by many percent. This is far from the only case. Rumors about the resignation of V. Chernomyrdin also rolled after a similar “duck” in the “Novaya Gazeta”, where B. Gromov was “removed” from the post of governor of the Moscow Region to be sent to the Ukrainian Embassy.
This is what the media play in politics in the pursuit of sensationalism. In such cases, the dialogue between the authorities and the population is simply impossible, because communication is very similar to a children's game called "deaf phone". The most important rule of manipulating public awareness is that it is possible to isolate the addressee, to deprive him of extraneous influences. When there are no alternative, smart and uncontrolled opinions. Dialogue and debate in such conditions are impossible. Unfortunately, at the moment, the method of manipulating information is part of the policy in almost any state. After another “duck” of the victim, the public remembers as a person associated with some kind of scandal: either his wallet was stolen, or he stole. Yes, this is no longer important to anyone, since information today very quickly ceases to be relevant.