Mass Media and Politics: An Organic Relationship

Throughout the centuries, the world has never existed without information and communication, hence the inexhaustible essence of mass media. The government has the power to either make or reject whatever that will exist within its environment. It also determines how free the mass media will be in their dissemination of information to the people. The question is in what ways has the government influenced the mass media?

The word politics has today acquired many meanings. For an ordinary man in the street, politics is a negative word connoting dubious behavior, scheming and maneuvering to secure an undue advantage over others. But for our purpose here, we shall restrict our consideration of politics to the realm of the state and government wherein it implies that aspect of human activities that deals with distribution of power, influence and authority in the state for the purpose of order and good governance of the state.

According to Haski (1926) politics can be defined as “who gets what, when and how? It is concerned with acquiring power to enable one be in a position to make or effect decision and policies”. According to Deutsch (1974), politics deals with “interplay of interest, the claiming and distribution of rewards that is the value”. Different individuals and groups, or even countries, acting in politics and pursuing their interests may co-operate or compete in regard to the allocation of values. By values, we mean things or relationship which people would like to have or enjoy. Power is regarded as the key value through which all values could be obtained.

The relationship between the mass media and the government institution can best be appreciated if we look at the classical theories of the press. These theories articulate the varying degrees of freedom existing in the media as they operate within any political system. Let us now briefly look at these theories and their basic principles.

Authoritative theory was articulated to define the relationship between the press and the authoritarian environment in Europe during the old days of monarchs and emperors. Under this political system, the mass media, (private or public) are clearly subordinate to the state and are restrained from criticizing of the government of the day or its officials or both. Furthermore, the authoritarian philosophy sees the mass media as only existing for the interest of the government and the elite in the society. To ensure the continuance of such status, a variety of methods is used to impose and legal trial. Such methods include licensing, censorship and legal trial. This theory did not allow freedom of the press. At no time is the press expected to criticize the government even when the press is privately owned.