ZQMS-ARC-REC-002

ASSIGNMENT COVER

REGION: HARARE

PROGRAM: BACHELOR OF ARTS IN MEDIA STUDIES INTAKE: 28

FULL NAME OF STUDENT: ABEL MUTSA MAUNGA PIN: P1810148Z

MAILING ADDRESS: [email protected]

CONTACT TELEPHONE/CELL: 0773869845 ID. NO.: 63-2295226 T 38

COURSE NAME: MEDIA DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

ASSIGNMENT NO: e.g. 1 or 2: 1 DUE DATE: 22 SEPTEMBER

ASSIGNMENT TITLE: Examine the relationship between media and democracy. Provide
supporting examples for your answer. [100]

MARKER’S COMMENTS: ______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

OVERALL MARK: _____________ MARKER’S NAME: ________________________

MARKER’S SIGNATURE:_______________________________ DATE: ___________

Introduction
In studying the relationship between media and democracy, we find that the two involve

people and should be entirely concerned about people. Therefore we know that in examining

these compounds the one thing that creates a relationship between them is the public, the

concerns, interests, attitudes, beliefs and conditions of their wellbeing. We are able to see

how nations and states have evolved to consolidated democrats and even how some have

crumbled in this area due by the aid of media. By defining the definitions of the media and

democracy, we are able to clearly observe the relationship between the two, looking at the

roles and functions of media in democracy. A good example of a democratic nation that has

adopted and used the media to great lengths is the USA as we witness in their last presidential

elections: they used televised campaigns and debates, while in the event engaging the greater

public.

Democracy

Visiting the aspect of democracy, we learn from its definition according to the former

president of the United States of America, Mr Abraham Lincoln that it is “a government of

the people, by the people, for the people”. Researched further, according to (Becker and Dr

Raveloson 2008:4) “we can say that democracy is when a government comes from the

people; it is exercised by the people, and for the purpose of the people’s own interests”. This

means that for a nation to be declared democratic, it has to be one that regards the rights,

interests and opinions of its people as a major priority. Once governments consider the

interests and opinions of the people it governs like how we see in the majority of nations in

the world where the citizens have the right to vote for the people they want to represent them,

it means definitely shows an element of democracy.

as electing a government in a liberal democracy, if they are in the dark. We take for instance

a commercial organisation that has a board of directors and a body of employees under it; the

board is capable of making decisions that may affect its employees in a negative way without

their consent and the employees are not really able to participate in these decisions as they

would be in the dark. However, should there be an open communication channel between

these two parties; chances of them working towards mutual, beneficial decisions are more

privileged. This channel of communication is the one that distinguishes the relationship

between media and democracy. We find that the media plays a crucial role in fostering and

consolidating democracy as it communicates to the people information they need in order to

effectively and efficiently participate in it.

The ability of the government to facilitate for its people to vote also implies that the people

would be entitled to express their personal concerns: the right to freedom of expression.

According to (Praveen 2014) Freedom of speech means the right to express one’s own

convictions and opinions freely by words of mouth, writing, printing, pictures or any other

mode. In the modern era, right to freedom of speech is one of the essence of free society and

it must be protected at all time. The one thing that is able to articulate this freedom of

expression in a democracy is media. As seen in the modern day, people have the opportunity

to express themselves through media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, YouTube

and a lot more in counting, without any form of hindrance. These platforms have been an

effective media not only for purposes of expressing the many diverse opinions of people but

have also worked as a means and channel through which the government officials and party

representatives also communicate to the public.

people hold press conferences and make state addresses through social media platforms such

as YouTube and Facebook. One study shows that, Democracies are not any more basically

characterized by direct communication, but rather by media communication. It is by the way

for this reason that the media are considered as the “forth power” coming after the judiciary,

the executive and the legislative powers, because they constitute in fact the most important

controlling tools of the public opinion(Becker and Raveloson, 2008). In other words the

media has become a useful tool in a liberal democracy setup. It is that which allows the

governed to monitor the governors and keep them on track.

Media

Commonly referred to as the forth power that acts as the watch dog for democracy, indeed

the media has found itself in a position where it is able to monitor the activities of the

government. Research shows us that media might be something we hear, see, or even wear on

our clothed. Books, TV programmes, news reports, the internet and video games are also

types of media (Jennings 2018:4). Today we find the media playing active roles through such

platforms where democracy communicates itself. In periods of elections we see posters, t

shirts, caps, umbrellas, scarves and all kinds of merchandise that have colours symbolising

political parties and messages by the political leaders written on them. The other forms also

play a substantial role like having press conferences and television broadcasts of the current

affairs of government. Without them, it would be impossible to look into matters of

democracy.

An environment that allows the media to act as a watchdog over government does not only

allow and is not limited to freedom of expression but goes further to keeping the incumbent
officials in check. Study shows us that, If media does not discharge its responsibility

independently in any democratic country, the politicians are bound to behave like dictations

or even worse than them. Media carries with it a huge responsibility in a democratic setup

which it has to fulfil very carefully without any bias toward anyone by bringing out the real

facts before the public (Kumar 2016). Government officials today have learnt to be very

careful with their words and with their actions as nothing goes uncovered anymore.

The media has taken the responsibility of giving the people whatever information it can

access to the majority of the people. Some of the information that the media releases plays a

big role in uncovering hidden truths and motives, but in any case, the public is prone to react.

Provocations of violent demonstrations and public protests have been seen all around the

world due to these information deliveries. The Zimbabwe 2018 elections ended in bloodshed

as the national army tried to disperse the public after it demonstrated based on the

information that a rigging of the elections had been taking place. The media released the

information to the masses and the masses sought out to exercise their rights.

As we look further in to the relationship between media and democracy, we learn that the

media is not just a channel of communication for the democrats but there are also a number

of roles that are played by the media in democracy.

Political education

So many times in countries do we see people in positions where they need change. A change

of living conditions, development of infrastructures, implementations of new rights and

economic standards but very few people seem to participate in activities where these changes

can be made possible even though they may be in states where democracy is applauded and

are free to participate. Looking at the population of Zimbabwe, according to statistics

provided by (world population review June 16 2018), we are able to see that of the 16, 972,
655 people that stay in Zimbabwe, 7,224,129 are eligible to vote and of those 7 million, only

about 74% of them registered to vote in the 2018 presidential elections. According to

(Election guide, Democracy Assistance & Election 2018), Of the 5 million people that

registered to vote, 1 million of them ended up not voting either. Now if people who should be

participating in democratic activities are not politically educated by the media, (Becker and

Raveloson 2008) show us that, “people get the feeling that the diverse parties do not differ

much from each other because of lack of ideas and so they are not motivated to go and vote”.

In any case, it is the media that is responsible for educating the people politically. Perhaps the

media did not efficiently reach the 26% coverage of the people who could have voted in the

Zimbabwe elections.

In any democratic state, we learn how important it is for the citizens to be politically

educated. The transmition of knowledge thereof has seen the people develop an attitude that

encourages full participation in activities like elections, public affairs programmes and

analysis of the different political parties. This education doesn’t necessarily have to be

traditional education where people gather to listen but through media programmes like

documentaries and interviews of the officials on radios, televisions and social media. The

more people know more about the different political parties and what they may have to offer,

the more people will participate towards a consolidated democracy.

Information

For the citizen to gain knowledge of all the political issues that concerns them, they need to

be fully and well informed. (Kumar 2016) found that“the fundamental concept is that in order

for democracy to be effective, the citizenry that votes in elections and engages in public
processes with government must be informed and must have the right to participate freely in

public discourse”. If the public are not informed on who is doing what and how to go about it

they will find it difficult to participate freely in democratic activities. In the last Zimbabwean

election periods, the national television channels would broadcast programmes that would

inform people as to when and where registration would take place and what kind of

credentials one would need to participate. A toll free number was also made available in

order to facilitate those who had questions and needed clarity.

The media has well been able to inform the people through the aids of newspapers, television

and radio as most of the content in these mediums exude information. From the onset of

creation of these mediums, the initial role was to provide information to the public. Even

though the introduction of newspapers by the European authoritarian governments in Africa

was to concrete their colonial rule in Africa, we find that it was through the same means that

Africa was able to reach democracy. Today the majority of Africa has become democratic

because of people like Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria and Kwame

Nkrumah of Ghana who embraced and took advantage of the press and the newspapers in

order for their states to be declared democrats.

In order for the people to receive information that is trustworthy, the media has to have the

freedom to expression as mentioned afore. For the people to be able to share opinions,

political views, know who to vote for and their constitutional rights, it proves how democratic

a nation is because the absence of this right is what choke information. According to

research, we learn from (Sheila Coronel ND: 13) that a truly democratic society requires

citizen participation. If they do their jobs well, the media keep citizens engaged in the

business of governance and prompt them to take action. As a tool for information

dissemination, the media aid the public in making informed choices, such as whom to vote
for and which policies should be endorsed and which, opposed. Looking at Zimbabwe’s

national television broadcast we find that they have been able to screen the parliament

discussions every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for at least two hours openly in order for

the whole public to be well engaged and informed on the national matters at hand. We find

that after these publications, the majority of the public comment freely on these discussions

through Facebook platforms and tweeter. Apparently these come in handy as the parliament

actually takes some of these opinions into consideration. This shows a healthy and

opinionated relationship between the media and democracy.

Socialisation

Well informed people do not find it difficult to make judgment of what they think is right for

their economy or state. Irregardless of how true this is, we cannot walk away from the fact

that no matter what may seem right to a particular group of people; there will always be

another that stands opposing. People have different views and different opinions and should

have the right to express these different views for as long as they are in a democratic state.

People associate themselves with parties that they feel align with their beliefs. The role of

media in this process of socialisation serves a fundamental purpose of engaging the people

with not only the political parties but as well as getting them acquainted with the mission and

values of the political leaders. According to (Kononova 2008:4) research in the late 1990s

showed that people tended to vary their choice of media outlets based on the needs they had.

When people wanted information about different partisan policy stances, they turned to

newspapers, but when they wanted to learn about the personal qualities of candidates,

television was the medium that provided voters with the required information and

frameworks for visualizing candidates as ‘individuals’.

influence behaviour over a period of time. Study shows that” the mass media are the only – or

even the primary – mechanism for political socialisation in democratising countries” (Jebril,

Stetk and Loveless 2013: 20). Of course this view may be advocated by few but is worth the

consideration. A good example is seen in Zimbabwe’s politics where the majority of the

citizens believed their government to have been a pseudo democracy for thirty eight years. In

these years, political beliefs were being moulded and distributed among the people until they

all took the stand and marched together with the army in solidarity, for a change.

Motivation

Issues of democracy and human rights strongly require the full participation of people

because the issues are basically concerned about the well being of the majority. We however

we uncover in many cases that because of many factors, or in some cases the insufficiency of

media participation, the public may lose interest in political affairs. We are able to examine

the role of media in changing this mentality through research: we learn that, “the process of

watching or reading about public affairs (for whatever reason) increases our interest in, and

knowledge about, government and politics, thereby facilitating political participation. The

more we watch or read, in this interpretation, the more we learn” (Norris 2000). In basic

terms, the more the media educates, informs and engages the public in political issues, the

more the people are motivated to participate in democratic activities. A good way of

assessing the efficiency of this role is by looking at the voters’ statistics in Zimbabwe where

we find that in the last ten years the people who turned out to vote were 42% of the

population compared to the recent elections where we saw a 70% average of voters

participating. These prove increase in media efficiency.

between media and democracy as it fuels this attitude to know more and get acquainted with

political affairs. According to (Livingstone and Lunt 1994) “The idea of citizens’ political

participation suggests a democracy where individuals have a responsibility to act in the

political process beyond their personal interest.” This suggests that individual effort plays a

significant role in democratic activities. It takes 1 vote to change a whole nation’s

government, that’s why any political party values votes, more than anything else.

Plurality

We note from the beginning that one of the strong elements that play a fundamental role in

the relationship between media and democracy is the right to freedom of expression. This

means that the diversity in opinions and ideas of the people can be aired freely without

hindrance. Looking at it from a media study perspective, a diversity of opinions and ideas

expresses plurality and this plays a big role in strengthening the democratisation of the

people.

However, looking at the setup in Zimbabwe’s media, we find that the amount of media

houses in the country may portray external pluralism because of their diversity in ownership,

but it is not so much because all of these media houses have a single voice. The media houses

that are in legal operation have to do so within the constraints of the government of

Zimbabwe, which monitors their content for reasons of their own prioritisation. This is

evident when we look at the Zimbabwean news: the first priority is given to political issues

affairs and the people who belong in that class; where as the rest of the public affairs are not

as recognised. A true example of this was seen during the Zimbabwe’s 2018 election period

where 6 people died two days after the elections due to violent caused by the political
conflicts between parties and government. The state media maintained their preponderance of

focus on the election procedures even though the lives of the citizens had been violated and

lost during this same period.

We also learn that in order to get a license to operate legally, the applicant has to go through

the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) which is itself an arm of the government.

According to one newspaper article, strongly noted was the fact that “BAZ itself has not

sought, this far, to free itself from political control by stating its developmental goals. BAZ is

therefore seen as a political tool of control” (Newsday Zimbabwe January 21 2014). By this

cause, we can conclude that the media is not doing enough to promote democracy because

governments still have some form of influence on the information that is consumed by the

people.

In a world where media is no longer limited to one source of communication channel, we find

that the people are no longer singly dependent on national television nor are they on state

owned newspapers. Even though governments may try to interpret information and fine tune

it to their favour, the people who long to see a fully democratic state have sourced out other

means to express themselves and access information. According to (Ndlela 2010: 87) In a

situation where a society's communication structures are heavily tilted toward mainstream

discourses, oppositional forces and reformists often resort to alternative media, hence

creating an alternative public sphere. We find in Zimbabwean politics that the main

opposition party of the incumbent party is not given enough air time on the national channels,

which means whatever the national channels may say about them is what the people will

believe. However, the opposition parties have resorted to using other forms of alternative

media to speak for themselves, air their views and make their addresses using platforms like

Tweeter and YouTube. The majority of the Zimbabwean people have also turned to these

alternative media in order to assess for themselves and make sound democratic judgments.
Conclusion

By defining media and politics we were able to note that the two work hand in hand and

largely involve the participation of people in one way or the other. Through the examination

of the relationship between the two, we saw the functions and roles of media in democracy

giving examples of that has taken place and that could be taking place in real time. Things

like elections, political decisions and national alerts require the aid of media and are strongly

concerned with human rights and democracy. Therefore the determining factor in examining

the relationship between media and democracy is the people’s right to freedom of expression.

Without freedom of expression, the ideology of a democratic state is dismissed altogether.

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