6.1 Media in a global perspective

World Press Freedom Index

produced by French organisation RSF

covers 180 countries

compiled from the responses of journalists, media lawyers, researchers and other media specialists to a questionnaire

Norway, Sweden, Finland - Good

North Korea, China, Cube - Very Bad

Democracies

fair and free regular elections, universal suffrage, civil rights respected, legislature and judiciary has some independence from the govt.

→ tend to have a diverse and independent media

→ support freedom of expression

Authoritarian regimes

superficial elements of democracies, abuse of civil liberties, govt. criticism is suppressed, judiciary not independent from govt.

→ media are often state-owned/controlled by groups strongly associated with the government

→ widespread media censorship

Democracy Index (2016 report)

all countries rated ‘Good’ by the RSF were rated as ‘democratic’

all countries rated ‘Very Bad’ by RSF rated ‘authoritarian’

Norway tops both lists, North Korea last in both lists

situation is variable - relationship between democracy and media freedom not so black and white

e.g. Japan classified as ‘full democracy’ by DI, but RSF says media freedom is ‘problematic’

Orttung and Walker

most authoritarian regimes today do not seek total domination of all means of mass communication

two reasons for this:

1. desire to avoid condemnation in the court of international opinion

2. aspirations of economic modernisation

they want ‘effective media control’

Who are the four audiences that authoritarian-controlled media seeks to influence? (Orttung and Walker)

1. regime elites

2. general population

3. political opposition and independent civil society organisations

4. regular internet users

Joel Simon (2017)

claims that strategies used by authoritarian/hybrid states to control and manage information fall into three broad categories:

1. Repression 2.0 - new forms of direct censorship

2. Masked political control - censorship is ‘democratic’

3. Technology capture - using digital means

4. (BONUS) Self-censorship because journalists get scared

MacDowall and van der Zee (2017)

govts. use the threat of withdrawing state advertising to pressurise independent media outlets to avoid criticising the govt.

Developments in media

1. capitalist globalisation

2. neoliberalism

3. deregulation

4. digitalisation

John Whale (pluralist) (1977)

‘it is readers who determine the character of newspapers’

‘media owners have global problems of trade and investment to occupy their minds’

• allegedly do not have time to think about the day to day detailed running of their media businesses or everyday newspaper content

Tim Berners-Lee (2018)

what was once a rich selection of websites has been compressed under the powerful weight of a few dominant platforms. this concentration of power creates a new set of gatekeepers, controlling which ideas or opinions are seen and shared