Do the media play a fundamentally different role in non-free states?

INTRODUCTION

The media has played a very integral role in the globalization and socialization of the world to what it is today . It has been very instrumental in its functioning to earn the status of the fourth arm of the government i .e . the fourth estate . It has acted as a means of check and balance to the executive , judicial and the legislative arms of the government . Hence the media has come to be part and parcel of any civilized society for that matter . Hence being the mirror and the fourth pillar

of the society

Mass media is the broad term commonly used that incorporates both the print and the electronic media . Whereby under print media falls the newspapers like the New York Times , journals , magazines , books billboards while under electronic we have commonly the radio and television and now the growing internet

The institution of the media has evolved from a very crude setting to the competitive and refined art of science of what it is today . With the coming of the international media like the CNN , BBC , Al Jazeera , ABC and the likes , the institution has gained much dominance and credibility in the recent past . It has come to be known for the purposes of information , education , entertainment and enlightenment . Therefore , the media as it is structured now cannot be wished away so easily because of the sole importance it upholds in the society . It has been viewed as an agent of change if change is a desire...