controversial issues)

The media has an enormous influence over the public agenda by selecting what issues to focus on (the controversial issues). The media defines the most controversial topics and thereby determining the political priorities of the public. i.e. the media tells the people what to focus on. The media is also a watchdog by forcing the government to reluctantly answer the people.
Role of media in protection of human rights?
Answer:
Around the world, the media is the most effective avenue for spreading human rights awareness and acceptance. While spreading messages through schools and community forums can be effective at reaching dozens or even hundreds of people at the time, they can't match the reach and scope of the media. For instance, one radio station in the Congo can reach hundreds of thousands of people simultaneously with information about women's rights. A website featuring photographs of rights abuses in North American Aboriginal communities may get millions of hits a day.
Increased awareness about human rights is the first, and most necessary, step to ending human rights abuses. The more people know and care about human rights standards:
The more people are empowered to defend their own rights (think FGM victims in the DRC)
The more people are inspired to come to the defense of others (think of interventions in spousal abuse situations in North America)
The more governments and civil society leaders are forced to improving their practices (think of the improved government rights record in Ghana or the US under Obama)
The more human rights norms are injected into the fabric of society, the less likely rights abuses will be committed or tolerated when they do occur.
Other methods of improving human rights-namely creating legal frameworks (United Nations) or sparking international public pressure (Amnesty International)-can be effective, but only when the general public in the countries in question understand, accept and embrace their human rights