The Enhanced Challenge of News Media in the Era of Internet

This week the new chapter of textbook ushered in a crucial component of democracy and our civil society —- the News Media. Despite the different requirement and diverse features of news media in different countries, there is a common-ground of the functions and role of press to properly play in a society: being the watchdog over the government, clarifying electoral choices and providing policy information. Generally, the news media is designed as the unique intermediary between the government and the public. It is highly expected that the news media functions effectively, if not, it would arise the incomprehension and distrust of public toward the government and reduce the efficiency of government’s work.

As discussed above, an effective new media would be indispensable and highly approved by the ordinary people. Yet a recent survey by Reuters Poll shows that only 48% of people feel “great deal” or “some” confident in journalists. People are now more likely to be skeptical about the news materials than any other period. Under the background of developing internet and social media, it is not just a simple result of temporary down-side of news media, but more likely a truly disappointment or distrust caused by a series of events, the exposure of some fake news, the leakage of personal information on social media and the political advertising promoting on the divide issues. As revealed by Facebook recently, they’ve found $100,000 worth of political advertising ranging from 2015 to this May which is connected with hundreds of fake accounts, and those fake accounts are all associated with a shadowy Russian company. More importantly, the personal information of those fake accounts is actually real exist and correct. Apparently, the news media is now facing a serious challenge about its safety, authenticity and accuracy in this digital era. And this situation inevitably leads into some questions about the news media. Is there a new role or responsibility of news media in the new era of internet to keep the quality of news and protect the privacy of audience? What is the most effective method to ensure the credibility of news media ? And is it possible for the industry to solve these problems by itself, or it may need some assistance by the government?

Comparing the role of new media in other countries may be helpful to explore the questions listed. Until 1980s, the news media was seen as a public utility in most of the Western European countries. This type of news media now still cover around 40% of audience in Italy and France ( compared with 2% in the U.S). Since the news media is more seen as a public institution, rather than a business industry, the state is more responsible to it. Every year in most of the Western European country, the state government subsidies to the news media industry to keep a moderate degree of pluralism alive in the press. Meanwhile, the state government makes substantial regulation of communication in election campaigns, bans paid political advertising, and grants free air to political parties instead. Another feature of news media industry in Western Europe is that the private cooperation and nation sponsored media both exist and compete with each other ( BBC, the largest press in U.K, is directed by the government). Such structure is designed to not only maintain the freedom of the press, but also enhance the credibility of the press.

Another case in this issue could be China. Apparently, as an authoritarian regime, the news media is tightly controlled in the hands of government. As the Reform and Open policy is promoting in these decades, more and more private-owned news media appeared especially for the social media and online news media, but they are still under strict supervision of the government. The downside of this structure is obvious —- the popular sovereignty is not well protected and the freedom of press is in the hands of government. But it’s actually a double-edged sword. The main idea of managing the news media and especially online social media is that “ the media is not just an industry, but also a part of society.” So the government would assist and require, not directly, those companies to censor their information before it’s been exposed to the public. At least this top-down model ( or relation between government and news media industry) works effectively to prevent the fake news and foreign meddling.

There is no such exact answer to what role or structure of news media is the best since the news media is required to fit into its society. But based on the comparison of different regions, it’s clear to see that the news media in the U.S is more subjective in reporting and more profit motivated. Because of the political culture in the U.S, the media freedom means minimal state involvement with private operation of press. But probably within this structure, a more uniform norm and standard of the industry and a more strict protection of personal information and censorship of news accuracy is needed, and thus to improve the confidence level of people toward the news media. It is not absolute to say the government is adverse to the news media, but it should actively help ensure the safety and credibility of news media and therefore the news media could maintain effective role in the new era.

3 Responses to "The Enhanced Challenge of News Media in the Era of Internet"

Declan Horrigan says:

October 29, 2017 at 6:03 pm

This is a good post with some very interesting and important points discussed. The one I want to focus on is that “only 48% of people feel “great deal” or “some” confident in journalists.” The fact that news today can be received from literally anyone at any time through blogs or tweets or Facebook or anything else along those lines gives people the power to put whatever they want online for people to read. The things people write can have absolutely no backing or support, and in fact, can be completely made up. This is one of the main reasons, and a fair one, why people don’t trust journalists or the news they are receiving. Another reason is because of the partisanship of the news broadcasts. No one is denying the obvious fact that CNN and MSNBC take on a more liberal and democratic approach to their news and Fox News takes a more conservative and republican stance. The controversy that this causes where people are hearing the same stories told two polarized and opposite ways leads to a simple conclusion that at least one side, but probably both, are not telling the whole truth. This fact that there are such controversial stories being told completely differently without a doubt leads people to not trust the news media.
Lotte Elfering says:

October 29, 2017 at 6:39 pm

A very interesting approach, and I would be interested in seeing what the effect would be if a state media station would be introduced in the US. However, due to the people’s distrust in government that we learned about in previous chapters, I doubt it will change their attitude by much. Because people in the US have a relatively high degree of distrust in government, they would be even less likely to trust the public channel than they do the private channels. This distrust is inherent in the political culture, and thus will not be changed, stemming from a fear of tyranny during the founding of the United States and thus incorporated in the founding documents and ideas of the state.

However, it has surprised me that the people seem to trust the opinion of Donald Trump and his administration enough to fuel their growing distrust of privately owned media stations. In theory, public news media would thus be a good idea to prevent this increased distrust of the media, but there is a big chance that people would distrust this type of media even more.
Marcin Jerzewski says:

October 29, 2017 at 10:19 pm

Yanbing, the aspect of your blog post which I enjoyed the most is your comparison of the role of media in the United States, other western countries, and China. I believe that the awareness of these different cases effectively informs our choices, as we debate how governments and private actors should approach the serious challenge of fake news and intellectual integrity in the era of new media. Nowadays, one of the most important issues for liberal democracies worldwide ought to be the compromise between stronger government action against the “post-truth reality,” and staying mindful of not infringing upon civil liberties. Recent developments in Czechia illustrate how these two seemingly contradictory goals can be reconciled. On January 1st, 2017, the Czech Ministry of the Interior inaugurated the Center Against Terrorism and Hybrid Threats (website: http://www.mvcr.cz/cthh/clanek/centre-against-terrorism-and-hybrid-threats.aspx), whose aim is to “inform about serious cases of disinformation and provide expert opinions for the public and for government institutions.” As a matter of fact, it may seem that Czechia has learned from the example of the U.S., as the Center was established ten months prior to the (recently held) general election, and amid speculations that the Russian Federation may attempt to interfere in the election. In an interview with the British “Guardian,” Tomáš Prouza of the Czech government’s state secretary for European affairs said, “[The Russians] will undoubtedly try to influence the upcoming elections by discouraging people who would most probably vote for the democratic parties from voting” (Tait 2016; https://goo.gl/mWQ1kT). Consequently, the new unit has aim to counteract interference in Czechia’s public opinion and democratic system, established after the fall of communism in 1989. I believe that the United States is a country with substantial institutional resources and capabilities to implement a similar solution to combat fake news. It is thus utterly disappointing to observe that the current administration is evoking this term to erode trust in the media, whose scrutinizing powers are a necessary to perpetuate a liberal democratic regime. Nevertheless, I believe that a state-led initiative to counter the spread of fake news, such as the one started in Czechia, should be considered by U.S. Americans. After all, fake news and foreign interference in public opinion and elections constitute a substantial threat to national security. And protection of national security is ultimately a job of the government.

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