Importance of Media in Liberal Democracy

The topic of our discussion is “Importance of media in liberal democracy”. At first we have to know about liberal democracy and media. Democratic government was initiated in the Greek city states of Athens in the fifth century BC. The word ‘democracy’ is derived from two Greek words, demos (meaning ‘people’) and kratos (meaning ‘power’). The term literally means ‘government by the people’. Initially, major decisions were taken by meeting at which all free male attended. But now this system has been changed. Liberal democracy is a form of representative democracy where elected representatives that hold the decision power are moderated by a constitution that emphasizes protecting individual liberties and the rights of minorities in society, such as freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, the right to private property and privacy, as well as equality before the law and due process under the rule of law, and many more. Decisions have been taken by the government and it is selected through the election and all the eligible members of the state take part into it. The media are mechanisms of communication: historically the media consisted mainly of newspapers, but today they are more diverse and include journals, radio, televisions. Today we get information from internet also. It is developing into a major mechanism of international communication and is becoming widely utilized as a source of information regarding political affairs and also to organize extra-parliamentary political activities on a global basis. The importance of media in our modern life needs no explanation. Media is necessary from our household chores to our professional life and the importance of media in liberal democracy is vast.
As a backbone of democracy, mass media can play a vital role in the political structure of each country through disseminating information, enlightening voters, protecting human rights, creating tolerance among groups and helping

References: 1. Peter Joyce. 2. Global Media Journal. 3. Curran, James. “Mass Media & Democracy Revisited”.