[ freedom of speech and its perspective ]
Freedom of speech is the concept of being able to speak freely without censorship and is one of the key principles of a democracy. Through this principle everybody can be heard so opinions can be expressed and views can be build. One of the classical tasks of the media is to guard democracy by reflecting the ruling views and opinions that live in society. Different media have expressed different views and perspectives in a fashion so that all society’s views were expressed. All media have traditionally stated the frame and perspective on society that they represent so it was made clear to the public that from living views and takes of society, this media had chosen a specific perspective.
[ society changing, media sustaining ]
Up to the point of the rise of the politician Fortuyn, the media had not been adjusting to the changing views and opinions in society. Media had created a corruptive self image. Once these media had started with an ideologic idea. That idea found followers and had became an institution. That institution then gained power. Power lead to a corruptive self-image; institution became occupied with trying to remain the power they had harvested and were slowly losing their ideologic roots.
Meanwhile the public had been through a explosive growth of awareness and exploration of self. They found the traditional media had become tendentious, distant, had lost its ideology on which it was founded and had not been reflecting the publics changing beliefs anymore. Altogether peoples belief in institutions have crumbled.
Although the discrepancy had been growing over several years, the rise of the politician Fortuyn had made clear that media had lost its touch with society. Combined with the world wide growth of individual awareness and expressions made that in the Netherlands the gap between media and people had become huge overnight. In an effort to correct this discrepancy, lots of media begun hunting on the latest hypes and trends. Additionally media which traditionally fulfilled the role of perspective messenger and which used to have vast amounts of paying readers/viewers, now started hunting for popular vote and sponsored content.
[ citizen journalism ]
On the other side of the story we’ve seen the unstoppable rise of citizen journalism. An increasing portion of the world population is blogging and expressing their own individual experiences, views and opinions. Some blogs and bloggers are more popular than traditional newspapers, others are small in read-count or maybe obscure. And as with democracies, the Internet has freedom of speech and some expressions or so popular they find a large group of interested subscribers/followers. Blog however are open for discussion in the same domain as the expressions published. Traditionally small talk and discussions about media expressions were held in the physical space, but with blogs discussions are held in the same anonymous virtual space.
Another differentiating point about blogs is that they often represent the views and experiences of a individual, not a collective. I think this is important in relation to a democracy because a democracy is about listening to the representation of individuals in collectives rather than each of the individuals themselves (?). Many-to-many discussions are really hard to manage. Institutions can act as discussion leaders and influence hierarchical ‘higher’ institutions. The differentiating point with blogs is that the individual can create strong opinion and momentum, and that power shifts from the institution to the individual. The power of a individual in a democracy can potentially be counter productive and polarizing. In a increasingly complex time, where the remark ‘generally speaking’ is declining in validity, some sense of ones surrounding reality is necessary to live in cohesion which those surroundings.
A big plus for citizen journalism in relation to democracy is it can examine big brother, doing counter intelligence. Several examples are known in which the public have had large contributions in correcting government institutions and discussions.
[ identify thyself ]
In both online and offline media a perspective in presented. The perspective is their because the author of the article brought a certain heritage of ideas to the subject. The difference is that traditional media has stated from what perspective their ‘truth’ originates and the traditional media is used to reference sources of information. In the abundance of information surrounding us, it can be quite clarifying from what perspective the opinion was written.
People writing and commenting blogs are mostly anonymous and offers a certain freedom one would not appoint their-self in the physical world and can create some very bold statements and the anonymity of the virtual space renders little responsibility. This is a big difference with the traditional mass media. Nowadays everybody says everything and as in every relationship, this is not always the best thing to do.
[ democratic view ]
Nowadays, mass media and citizen journalism are challenging each other, with some new hybrid forms entering the domain. However, their dynamics in relation to democracy can be quite different. Through mass media we as citizens are pulled into the same public domain and moved by them. Fashion has become something of enormous spread, politics are displayed from the channels and perspectives we all watch. We all saw the same debates and collectively participate in them in the physical world. Wether we agreed with the discussions or statements or not, we all encountered the same reasoning and stay tuned to the collective truth. A democracy can only survive in social cohesion.
When a disharmony arises in a society, a blog are often used for strong opinion. One of the functions of traditional media is to offer a platform for sensitive subjects like abortion or euthanasia and to try to fully shed light on the matters 360 degrees. Media’s task should be to publish vast amounts of information and exhibit several views, so alternative ways of thinking can develop.
