Paper Topic:

national security vs. civil liberties

The book The Problem of Media : U .S . Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century written by Robert W . McChesney discusses the issue of media Reform . He argues that , The Policies , structures , subsidies and institutions that are created to control direct and regulate the media will be responsible for the logic and nature of the media system whether their content is good , bad or a combination , the media therefore presents a political problem for any society , and an unavoidable one at that (16 . He contends that there are two main issues on this

problem . The first problem is the structure that creates the content of the information and the second is the structures themselves . He believes that the way society makes it decisions on how to structure the system and how it decides to solve this needs reformation . Debates , he believes , will direct shape and create value to the media system

McChesney writes of how media will exist in all societies . But their structure and content is determined cultural , economic and political and this determines the amount of solutions each society has to choose from In different societies the controlling government decides how this is structured . He mentions dictatorships and authoritarian regimes will create the type of media that will influence and give him more power and stopping any chance of opposition . With a democratic society the problem exists between those with power and those with . In this society the power is with the media and it is this power that gives a strong support in the building of democracy making media a political tool

The problems with media being a political tool in a democracy , he states is well known . The foundation of this is that in to have a democratic society the citizens must be informed and the media is the tool for this . It is not that the media is to create the democracy but help to make it more effective to members of that society . The issue in the reform is all about content . If it is balanced with views that express both sides of the road . Giving an opposite stand to democracy equally important for the society members to make choices on how to structure their society and even more important is how media affects economics

Media 's beginning influences were in economics and soon spread to politics . McChesney believes that , In the United States the starting point for grasping the problem with media is seeing where the media fits in the broader capitalistic economic system (117 . The problem is between the role media has in the profit-making commercial structured organizations and the need for information that deals with information needed for a democracy . It is this tension that fuels much of the social concern around media and media policy making (17

The author gives great attention to the meaning of problem and how it relates to what is deemed the problem of media . I thought this to be kind of repetitious because he...

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