Media democracy

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The term media democracy is used to sloganized the increased importance of the mass media for the political system to stress. In media democracy, the media are not just political communication channels on which the political actors are inevitably dependent in order to spread their messages, but above all themselves politically effective actors who decisively determine the formation of opinion and thus political scope for action. In this respect, political and media actors in media democracy are closely related, the two fields of activity overlap, politics is increasingly "mediating".

Media democracy can be seen, for example, in the fact that political decisions, the presentation of politicians and their statements are geared towards the needs of the mass media, especially those of television and its viewers. The term “ mediocracy ”, which the Dortmund political scientist Thomas Meyer uses, is intended to express that politics has to submit to the logic of the media. This can lead to political events and forms of expression becoming more or less stagings.

This applies, for example, to:

  • Party congresses ,
  • TV speeches , so-called "TV duels" and public appearances by politicians,
  • Statements that are checked for media effectiveness
  • symbolic politics,
  • Emotionalization , simplification and personalization of complex political issues.

Basic problem

An essential feature of democracy is the freedom of the press , which is guaranteed in Germany by Article 5 of the Basic Law , which with a few exceptions ( hatred of the people or inhuman content) allows the press to publish without being influenced by the government. The media are a powerful supervisory authority and are therefore often referred to as the fourth power within the separation of powers . By reporting, the media contribute to the functioning of a democratic system in two ways:

On the one hand, they monitor z. B. the activities of politicians through research , on the other hand, the media form an interface between the rulers and the voters, as they report on political content, decisions and plans.

A positive aspect of the complete independence of free private media is the theoretically completely free choice of topics without any specifications or constraints that could arise in public broadcasters, for example through hierarchies , i.e. dependencies of individuals on political authorities responsible for the administration of public broadcasters Institutions are responsible and can also determine which programs from other state broadcasters are included in their own programs.

The economically active companies are therefore not subject to any restrictions whatsoever in terms of their structure or hierarchy when selecting their topics, because they can publish nationwide in the Federal Republic of Germany at any time. However, this statement only applies to the external freedom of the press of the media as a whole. Journalists who work for private media have to take into account the interests of the capital owners and the tendency of the medium. Their internal freedom of the press is limited by the fact that they have a duty of loyalty to their employer or client that does not exist in this form in the public media.

Media practitioners such as Ulrich Wickert also question the function of the media as a fourth form of violence, which is taken for granted. The claim has always been wrong that there is no democratic legitimation of the press. Instead, media are largely a part of the economy. "The media are shaped by economic interests. Publishers have to consider: How do I sell my paper? How much profit do I make? In my eyes, that is a limitation of the Fourth Estate."

Dependency on advertisers

The economic independence of the private media outlets raises some problems as far as the quality of the programs is concerned. In contrast to public service broadcasters , which are mainly financed by license fees, these are financed exclusively through advertising income. Since the price for advertisements or commercials is determined by the number of readers or viewers, private media try to achieve the highest possible rates . As a result, most commercial broadcasters try to reach as large an audience as possible by simplifying content, displaying it on posters or even polemicizing it and presenting it with sensational headlines. As in the case of Florida-Rolf , this can trigger destructive political debates or falsify the content and course of ongoing discussions.

So-called tabloids take this principle so far that they largely consist of headlines, pictures and very compressed, simplified and sometimes polemic content, which makes a search for well-founded information difficult or impossible.

The selection of topics with regard to the expected economic development is a decisive factor in the dissemination of information, which means for the readers or viewers that the topics presented to them are selected from many, sometimes very contradicting, aspects.

Topics that increase circulation or increase quotas are often published without considering relevant facts and details, so that consumers are often presented with a distorted picture of reality. The moods so often created artificially and without any real background also seem to have a great influence on politicians and decision-makers from the economy with regard to their appearances in public and the content presented, which is expressed in the term mood democracy . Consideration for advertisers should not be overlooked either, because certain political issues also influence the economy, which in turn could put advertisers in certain directions when making statements.

A monopoly of media companies in connection with the norm of protection against tendencies can prevent a wide range of opinions from being published.

United States

In the USA, the freedom of the press was severely restricted by the so-called USA PATRIOT Act , and after the attacks of September 11, 2001, there was also a widespread silent agreement of many television stations, newspapers and radio stations that too critical reporting on the reaction of the Government such as anti-terrorism legislation should be restricted or avoided. In the opinion of many observers, such as civil rights activists and foreign journalists, this had a very strong influence on the mood among the population; many critics of these restrictive measures are of the opinion that the war against Iraq was so significantly facilitated because the population was largely informed in a very one-sided manner.

In recent years, journalists have often been forced to reveal their informants because there is no clear law in the US that will protect them. In the past, they simply refrained from taking legal action against them.

literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Media Democracy - Democracy Center Vienna. Retrieved February 25, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Ulrich Wickert: The term “lying press” possibly launched by the Russian secret service ›Meedia. January 28, 2016, accessed December 27, 2016 .