How does mass media reflect a political system globally?

You can see a lot about about a country's politics by looking at their mass media. The media reflects how liberal or conservative, how free or oppressed a country is. The amount of freedom the mass media has mirrors the amount of freedom the people have. If the government of a country has control over the media, the people of that country are not receiving the truth. Mass media that is censored, reflects a government that is aiming to keep it's people in the dark. Censorship and lies in the mass media reflects a political system with corruption. Openness and truth reflects a country that is free and just.
Countries whose government controls the media are generally authoritarian governments. In an authoritarian political system the government has control of everything, including the media. Mass media in countries like China and North Korea suffers from extreme control by the government. The mass media is extremely censored, and so by the time the mass media gets a story to the people, it has probably been changed in one way or another by the government. Countries like China and North Korea are proof that government involvement with the mass media is dangerous. If the government does not want the public to know about a certain event, they make sure the mass media lies about it or does not report on it. In china atrocities such as Tienanmen square have gone undocumented and were not even reported on because the government has complete control. People are shielded from events that are going on in their own country, and the government uses the mass media as a way to send the messages they want to send. In a society where the government controls the mass media, they do not have news they have propaganda. The media's subservient to the government reflects a subservience of the people to the government.
The mass media in these countries is very different from the mass media in our country. In the U.S the mass media is expected to be a watchdog for the government. A journalist's job is to expose corruption in politics, and reporters are praised for looking into government activity and sharing problems in the government openly with the public. In the U.S, we are lucky enough to have the mass media protected by the first amendment, and the government is very accepting of the media's role as the fourth estate. The U.S is an example of a libertarianism political system, and the goals and values of our government are reflected in the mass media. The press is entitled to freedom of speech, and is expected to report on events involving the government, no matter how bad they may be. This reflects the American goal of "liberty and justice for all."

How Does Mass Media Shape the Public's Agenda of Issues?

The mass media shapes the public's agenda of issues through ethics. The media has created numerous ways of deciding what is morall acceptable and also clarifying right from wrong. However it is never an easy decision. The media shapes the publics view on issues because of the way they handle issues of their own. The media is seen to be a role model for many people. When the media makes a mistake it is taken very seriously and people will react to not only the mistake, but the steps taken to move on and learn from it. The media has created codes of ethics and other various methods to help keep themselves from getting out of hand. These ethics codes are what drive the public to better understand what is right from wrong and morally accptable. The media sets a standard for what is socailly acceptable and understanding issues of ethics is no different. When dealing with ethics and morals it is hard to leave personal beliefs at the door, but it has to be done. The media keeps an objective outlook to anything that deals with ethics to look out for the common good of the public. John Mills had the best idea when creating the theory that whichever outcome benefits the most people will dictate which option to chose. The public in turn will apply the media's theories to their daily lives, in most cases.

How does media shape the publics agenda of issues?

Media itself is clearly very influential in todays society. It is all around us- adds, T.V, press, and the internet. It would be very easy to believe that the media tells us what to think and what to do. The difference is that instead of the US media telling us what to think, they tell us what to think about, or give us an agenda.

By choosing to focus on specific hot topics or issues, the media can zero in the stream of information the public is getting. If there is zero media coverage for a topic, it is very difficult to attain a significant amount of citizens interest. On the other hand, if there is a large amount of coverage for a certain topic, it will spark a lot of interest and there for change. The media has control over the information they give us, and because most americans rely on the media for our information stream, they can give us nearly everything they wish for us to consider. When you are the source of information, you control what is given.

How does mass media reflect a political system globally?

Media- often the second runner behind the governement as the voice of the people. (well hopefully). In this country we follow the idea of libertarian, choosing that information should be free and un regulated by government. This follows the rules set down by the first ammendment, which protect speech and press in addition to other areas of life. This system is a more liberal, freedom and expression based system, much like the US itself is built around and functions like.

Authortarinism is much more like china, or korea. This system is far more regulated, just like the Governments themselves. For instance, in china, the government is based around communist beliefs. This certain type of government prevents people from speaking out against the government, and thus many websites and publications are blocked and censored. So, stricter government, stricter media system.

The media portrays in large the countries ideals and visions. If this is driven by equality, lack of expression, and a pro government stance all the time, the media will reflect this. If it is driven by open expression and a freedom within government and its ideas, this will in turn be reflected, as media is a reflection on the political systems of a country.

What is the significance of the First Amendment with speech and press?

The First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press and one of the most important rights listed in the United States Constitution, however, just six years after the ratification of the this document, laws were passed to limit free expression. These laws were called the alien and sedition acts of 1798, resulting in people getting jailed or fined for criticizing government leaders and policies. The reason these laws were passed was because the government was paranoid about a French invasion but it infuriated the people that the same men who wrote the Constitution could turn around six years later and take away the freedoms they had given.

The rights of speech and press make sure the government cannot interfere with a person or group if they are merely speaking their minds through voice or text. Adding on to this is the idea of prior restraint, which further states that the government cannot silence someone from speaking their mind before they have spoken. If these rights were taken away then the whole idea of democracy would be lost, as the government would be able to control what the people say and what they write so nothing slanderous would ever be written about the people in power. In this respect, the rights of the First Amendment are the most important items listed in the Constitution as they prevent our form of government from falling apart and ensure the common citizen continues to have a voice in society.

How does mass media reflect a political system globally?

The countries political system often reflects how they censor and run the mass media coming into and leaving the country. China, for example, is a dictatorship where the people cannot vote for their leader or speak bad about him in public. This is reflected in the fact that the government has complete control over what the public can and cannot see on the internet and television. An interesting thing to do is to search on Google for Tiananmen Square and look at the pictures of the massacre of college students by the government which occurred there. Then go to Google China and search the same thing to see what the Chinese would see if they were to search for the major event and all you see is images of the square with tourists and nothing bad happening because the government has banned those images from Chinese servers and, therefore, Chinese eyes.

Another country who's mass media reflects their political system is Colombia, where anarchy reigns. The radios in Colombia are filled with pleas to release kidnapped family members and friends so that it sounds like an episode of Criminal Minds, the sad part is, it's all completely real. In a country filled with chaos and little rules, people are kidnapped every day and the radios hardly play music as they are filled with these desperate pleas for mercy. In the 1990s 31 journalists were killed because of their job with another 16 who's deaths may or may not have been related to the news they reported. In an average year six to ten journalists are kidnapped. These two countries prove, if the government has complete control, like China, the mass media is completely owned by them and if the government has no control, as in Colombia, then the mass media has no purpose but to invoke fear in its citizens.

What is the significance of the fourth estate?

The idea of the fourth estate comes from Medieval times in England and France, where the population was structured into three different estates. The first estate consisted of the clergy, the second was the nobility, and the third estate was the common people. With the arrival of the printing press and the early reporters, the written word industry created its own place in society and it did not fit perfectly into either of the three estates, so a fourth was created. First coined by British Parliament member Edmund Burke in the mid-1700s, the term "fourth estate" is now used to describe all journalistic activities.

When the United States was founded under the three-branch form of government, the term fourth estate took on a new meeting as the press was designed to regulate the activities of the other three branches and it was stated in the first amendment that the government should not interfere in the actions of the press. However, the press was not given a formal branch of the government but was still called the fourth branch. The unofficial fourth branch of our government is meant to be a sort of watchdog of the people to keep containment on the government. As the founders put it, "the role of the press is keeping tabs in power to keep them honest."