Adapting E Business Model – It is Time to make that Paradigm Shift
Business Managers now a days are going back to the business schools to un-learn some of the lessons they had learnt during their class time days and build their ability to make paradigm shift in thinking. In today’s environment where technology and global business scenarios are changing, business rules are being re written. There is […]
Brand Positioning – Definition and Concept
Brand positioning refers to “target consumer’s” reason to buy your brand in preference to others. It is ensures that all brand activity has a common aim; is guided, directed and delivered by the brand’s benefits/reasons to buy; and it focusses at all points of contact with the consumer. Brand positioning must make sure that: Is […]
Importance of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship management is the strongest and the most efficient approach in maintaining and creating relationships with customers. Customer relationship management is not only pure business but also ideate strong personal bonding within people. Development of this type of bonding drives the business to new levels of success. Once this personal and emotional linkage is […]
A Comparison between Shareholder Ownership and Control
In previous articles, we discussed the roles and responsibilities of the shareholders. In this article, we look at the distinction between shareholder ownership and control and illuminate how this comparison plays out in the corporate world. To start with, many public limited companies have a large body of shareholders who have invested in the company […]
Advocacy Groups and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
We have seen how corporations need to embrace CSR as a paradigm if the challenges of the 21st century have to be met. We have also examined the role of the media in championing CSR. In this article, we look at how Advocacy Groups and Pressure Groups like Greenpeace and Media Lens along with other […]
We often hear the term fourth estate being applied to the media. The term refers to the four pillars of democracy and the media is the fourth pillar and an important one at that. Ever since many countries adopted democratic norms of governance, a vibrant and a free media were thought to be the necessary conditions for a healthy democracy. This is because in any democracy, there needs to be a medium wherein the authorities and their actions are commented upon and analyzed critically.
Without self-reflection and self-debate, no democracy can hope to actualize the noble principles behind the conception of freedom and equality. Further, the media is vital to the countries because of its inherent nature of questioning and criticism that is directed at the ruling dispensations. This means that without a free and fair press, no country in the world can hope to aspire to democratic norms of governance.
In the days before the advent of the television and the internet, the print media were the only source of information for the people.
With the advent of television, the ground rules changed since people could view the actions and the statements of their fellow citizens and the elected representatives live and hence, could form their opinions about them. Further, as the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words, and hence the moving images that are beamed into the living rooms on the Television did spark a revolution of sorts among the countries of the world. Moreover, as the legendary media theorist, Marshall McLuhan put it, the medium is the message and hence, TV radically altered the way in which countries and their systems of governance functioned. This has had a cascading effect on all forms of the body polity.
Next, the advent of the internet was another game changer. With the rapid spread of information technologies and the easy availability of information about hitherto closed countries, people finally had a chance to communicate and articulate their concerns and needs as well as their aspirations and dreams along with their anxieties and fears to others in faraway lands. This meant that internet went one-step ahead with the interactive format allowing for rapid dissemination of events and happenings across the world to anyone who had access to a computer and an internet connection. In addition, the advents of social media like Facebook and Twitter provided fresh impetus to the notion that media are a tool of revolutionaries as well as reactionaries. In the recent past, the Arab Spring was an example of a successful protest that was wholly driven by social media.
We have discussed how media should be unshackled and unrestrained to ensure a representative democracy. In addition to that, the media themselves have to introspect and analyze whether they are doing their job in accordance with the noble intentions that underpin the media industry. Only when there is critical, self-analysis and effective regulation of the media by the government can there be a symbiotic relationship between the various pillars of democracy that is healthy and productive.
In conclusion, we are living in extraordinary times and the challenges of the future call for extensive changes to be made in all aspects of our lives. The media has a preeminent role to play in this future and hence, there is a need more than ever for the media to perform their assigned roles professionally.
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