Looking Beyond Elections

Author(s):  
Ufuoma Akpojivi

Media freedom is pivotal to the sustenance and consolidation of democracy, as the quality of democracy in any society depends on the level of freedom accorded the media and the plurality of views entertained (Diamond, 2008). The ability of the mass media to carry out their traditional functions of educating, entertaining and enlightening the public about their democratic rights, and holding governments accountable, will subsequently lead to the establishment of a strong democratic institution. Hence there is need to protect media freedom in any democratic society (Baker, 2007; Norris, 2008). The Nigerian media environment, however, is characterised by a series of laws such as sedition law, official secret act, amongst others, which have directly and indirectly hindered the freedom of the mass media and their responsibility of promoting and advancing democracy. This is made worse by the incomprehensive nature of the 1999 Constitution. Using interviews and policy analysis, this chapter critically examines the policy framework of media freedom in Nigeria and its impact on the operation of the mass media. The ability of the media to live up to their responsibility of promoting and advancing the democratisation process in Nigeria within the available framework is also examined.

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 110-120
Author(s):  
Oksana Olshevskaya

An attempt to define the degree of media freedom in contemporary Russia leads to contradiction between the declaration of the mass media freedom provided by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Soviet Union heritage of unequivocal control of the press by the government, described by Siebert et al. (1984) as the Soviet-Communist Press Theory. The reason for this ambiguity could be explained by the great deal of different factors that exert an influence on the journalism, such as features of mass media legislation, governmental control of the media, the diversity of media ownership, sources of media incomes, and traditions of censorship in Russia.  The current development of the media legislation in Russia shows no improvement regarding the freedom of speech. In the beginning of the third presidential term in 2012, Vladimir Putin has signed several laws that reduced the freedom of speech through the limitation of public assembly, criminalization of defamation in the mass media, and intensification of governmental censorship on the internet. On the other hand, the contemporary press freedom that appeared in conditions of the new market economy in the beginning of the 1990s has brought discredit as to the conception of an exclusively positive impact of unconditional freedom on the mass media since the newspapers, television and radio channels were controlled by several powerful oligarchs who used the owned mass media to spread and support their political influence. However, after the authorities’ reference in the 2000s the balance was not regained. As a result, the majority of the media outlets in Russia became co-owned or fully controlled by the government. Another crucial aspect of the mass media freedom as the cultural phenomenon should be kept in mind: seven decades of severe censorship could not be erased from the journalism professional community’s memory in several years. The negative experience of predecessors transforms censorship into self-censorship in modern Russia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Narayana Mahendra Prastya

Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis aktivitas hubungan media yang dilakukan oleh Universitas Islam Indonesia, saat kejadian Tragedi Diksar Mapala UII. Kejadian tersebut merupakan krisis karena tidak diduga, terjadi secara mendadak, dan menimbulkan gangguan pada aktivitas dan citra organisasi. Hubungan media adalah salah satu aktivitas yang penting dalam manajemen krisis, karena media massa mampu mempengaruhi persepsi masyarakat terhadap satu organisasi dalam krisis. Dalam situasi krisis sendiri, persepsi dapat menjadi lebih kuat daripada fakta. Batasan hubungan media dalam tulisan ini adalah dalam aspek penyediaan informasi yang terdiri dari : (1) kualitas narasumber organisasi dan (2) cara organisasi dalam membantu liputan media. Data penelitian ini diperoleh dengan mewawancarai wartawan dari media di Yogyakarta yang meliput Diksar Mapala UII. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa media membutuhkan narasumber pimpinan tertinggi universitas. Informasi yang diperoleh dari humas universitas dirasa masih kurang cukup. Dalam hal upaya organisasi membantu aktivitas liputan, UII dinilai masih kurang cepat dan kurang terbuka dalam memberikan informasi. The purpose of this article is to analyse the media relations activities by Islamic University of Indonesia (UII), related to crisis "Tragedi Diksar Mapala UII". This incident lead to crisis because it is unpredictable, happen suddenly, disturb the organizational activities, and make the organization's image being at risk. Media relations is one important activites in crisis management. It is because mass media could affect the public perception toward an organization. In crisis situation, perception could be stronger than the fact. The limitation of media relations in this article are information subsidies. Information subsidies consist of : (1) the quality of news sources that provided by the organization, and (2) how organization facilitate the news gathering process by the media. The data for this article is being collected from interview with journalist from the mass media in Yogyakarta. The results are media want the top management of the universities as the news sources. The information that being provided by public relations is not enough. The university also lack of quickness and lack of openess.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (25) ◽  
pp. 31-40
Author(s):  
Kirill V. Aksenov ◽  
◽  
Diana A. Bagdasaryan ◽  

The article is devoted to the issue of communication strategy in the mass media and PR-departments in organizations of various orientations. The authors draw attention to the existing practice of similar, repetitive messages that fill the information space. This complicates the perception of information by the public and makes this process boring and uninteresting. As one way of solving the problem, it is proposed to focus on unique information offers in communications. The authors believe that a wide potential audience is not aware of truly unique information offers of the mass media or PR departments of companies and organizations. A unique information offer is lost in the conditions of the growing tradition to consume news information from the social media feed, subscribing to a large number of public pages, unless these offers are made by popular and well-known companies. For instance, the authors of the article study unique information offers made by the media service of a football club in March-June 2020 in the context of the coronavirus crisis and the absence of matches. This is one of the most popular Russian clubs, well-known even to those Russians who are not football fans. Moreover, the authors also examine the unique information offers of a beauty company, with some of them not directly related to their products. As a result, theauthors suggest that it is worth advertising not only products on external resources, but also unique information offers directly.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 209
Author(s):  
Agus Toto Widyatmoko

Abstract :The mass media had great influence in conveying a message against their common. The values of the message was set out in the text and images are presented by the media. The message may contain meaning positive and inspiring in describing events, so that is not interfere psychological of audience.  In the context of photojournalism, the expression that the power of the image can be far beyond the message conveyed through text. Because the meaning of the message, the essence of photojournalism must pay attention to the rules of journalism were set in the Press Law and the Code of Ethics of Journalism. An understanding of the ethics of photojournalism is not only for internal media, but also to a audience. Thus, the public can judge the mindset of media displaying photographic work does pay attention to aesthetic aspects or ignore the rules of journalism. Keywords: Photojournalism, Press Law, the Code of Ethics Journalism, the Power of Image


Subject The state of democracy in Kenya. Significance Since 2017’s contested elections, Kenya has entered a damaging period of political uncertainty, characterised by opposition leader Raila Odinga’s refusal to accept Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidency as legitimate, and the determination of ruling Jubilee Party leaders to use state power to reassert their authority. Consequently, the independence of the media, judiciary and security forces has been challenged, leading to a significant deterioration in the quality of democracy, which threatens -- but has not yet fully undermined -- the gains secured in the 2010 constitution. Impacts GDP growth fell to 4.5% in 2017 from 5.8% in 2016 and is unlikely to recover quickly without a solution to the political impasse. Democratic backsliding may erode relations between the opposition and donors, whom Odinga has already criticised for ignoring excesses. If true, rumours Kenyatta plans to buy a controlling stake in the influential Nation Media Group would be a major blow to media freedom.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-227
Author(s):  
Andrew Bradstock

A public theologian will have two questions constantly in mind: Where is the public square with which I am expected to engage? And, what are its terms of engagement? Both questions necessarily involve examining the nature and role of the media as it touches upon the given context, and it is the intention in this article to reflect upon the challenges and opportunities of undertaking public theology in an environment where, (a) significant sections of the mass media accord very low priority to serious discussion of current issues and (b) voices offering a ‘faith’ perspective, or seeking even to draw upon the language of conviction or moral value, are at worst unwelcome and at best misunderstood. What does it look like to do public theology in a ‘straitened’ public square? What challenges are presented and how might they be met?


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Muhammad Syaoki ◽  
Endang Rahmawati

Abstrak:Media massa mengalami perkembangan yang pesat, selain menyampaikan informasi kepada masyarakat media juga memiliki tugas mendidik publik melalui literasi media. Dengan menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat peranan program reporter on campus dalam upaya menumbuhkembangkan literasi media khususnya di kalangan mahasiswa. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa program reporter on campus sangat menunjang kemampuan mahasiswa baik dalam aspek teoritis maupun aplikatif.Kata Kunci: Radio, Reporter on Campus, Mahasiswa JurnalistikAbstract: The mass media experienced development fastly, in addition to conveying information to the media community also had the task of educating the public through media literacy. Using qualitative descriptive method, this study aims to see the role of on campus reporter program in an effort to develop media literacy, especially among students. The results of this study indicated that on the campus reporter program supports greatly the ability of students in both theoretical and applicative aspects.Keywords: Radio, Reporter on Campus, Student, Journalism


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Robeet Thadi

The era of information abundance problems has shifted, from the difficulty offinding information to the difficulty of filtering information. This paper aims toexplain the urgency of public media literacy in the midst of the abundance ofinformation presented by the mass media. Media literacy is a concept about the ways people question what is watched, observed, read and produced from the media. Media literacy is needed so that the public as a media audience has the authority to actively sort out and choose media shows, so that if there is a presentation that only emphasizes sensation, the public can reject it. by not watching it or switching to other shows. The public can control the contents of the media critically and intelligently so that they can detect propaganda, certain interests or bias in the appearance of the media


2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
YOHANES BERCHEMANS EBANG

So far, Indonesia has never been able to escape from the entanglement of corruption. This fact requires all elements of the nation to participate actively in combating this social scourge. Given that Indonesia is a democratic state, where the people are the holder of supreme power, the people have an important role in uncovering and combating the problem of corruption. One of the role and participation of the public is through the media. The reason is because the mass media can reach all levels of society. The mass media is a strategic tool that is able to sniff out and dismantle the rotten practices that start emerging or still veiled. The fact proves that in various places in Indonesia and abroad, corruption is always associated with the mass media.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 209
Author(s):  
Agus Toto Widyatmoko

Abstract :The mass media had great influence in conveying a message against their common. The values of the message was set out in the text and images are presented by the media. The message may contain meaning positive and inspiring in describing events, so that is not interfere psychological of audience.  In the context of photojournalism, the expression that the power of the image can be far beyond the message conveyed through text. Because the meaning of the message, the essence of photojournalism must pay attention to the rules of journalism were set in the Press Law and the Code of Ethics of Journalism. An understanding of the ethics of photojournalism is not only for internal media, but also to a audience. Thus, the public can judge the mindset of media displaying photographic work does pay attention to aesthetic aspects or ignore the rules of journalism. Keywords: Photojournalism, Press Law, the Code of Ethics Journalism, the Power of Image


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