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What is the media?
A brief history of the media
Is the media free?
Media in today’s world
The BBC and other UK media
Can it be argued that the media have too much freedom/power?
Media Democracy

Some definitions:
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Media: An instrument for storing or communication of information
Or:
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An intervening substance through which signals can travel as a means for communication

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The media is a form of communication that comprises of three ways in which information or data can be delivered:
› The broadcast media which is the television and radio
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The printed media which the newspapers, magazines and publishing generally
The so-called “new media” which is cable, satellite, the internet and so on

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In 1215 the Magna Carta signed also known as the Charter of Freedoms
In 1516 the book “The Education of a
Christian Prince” was published
In 1644 John Milton’s “Areopagitica” published
1770, a letter written by Voltaire writes, “I detest what you write but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write”

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In 1859, John Stuart Mill’s, “On Liberty” published as is
Darwin’s controversial “On the Origin of Species”
1918-1945 saw two world wars and a rapid rise in the use of media
In 1960, Penguin wins the right to publish “Lady
Chatterley’s Lover”
In 1963 the Profumo affair scandal
In 1997 the death of Princess Diana
In 2002 a Nigerian journalist writes about the prophet
Mohammed leading to riots and 200 people dead
In 2004 a Dutch film maker is killed for releasing a film about the violence against women in Islamic societies

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“I fear the newspapers more than a hundred thousand bayonets” (Napoleon
Bonaparte)
“When communication systems are subject to formal political control as in states socialist, fascist or authoritarian regimes – the media becomes little more than a propaganda machine”
(Heywood, A, Key Concepts in Politics p211)

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“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers” The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights

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23
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25
10
11
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13
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7
9
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6
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1
17
18
19
20
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16
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Denmark
Finland
Ireland
Norway
Sweden
Estonia
Netherlands
Switzerland
Iceland
Lithuania
Belgium
Malta
Austria
Latvia
New Zealand
Australia
Japan
Germany
Canada
Luxembourg
United
Kingdom
United States of America
Jamaica
Czech
Republic
Cyprus
4,00
4,75
5,00
5,50
1,00
1,00
2,00
2,25
2,50
2,50
3,00
0,00
0,00
0,00
0,00
0,00
0,50
3,00
3,00
3,13
3,25
3,50
3,70
4,00
4,00
Reporters without borders: http://www.rsf.
org/enclassement1003
-2009.html

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The BBC is the only broadcasting company in the UK publicly owned
The BBC is controlled by a committee which is appointed by the home secretary
This board of governors also appoints a
Director General who has day to day control of the BBC
In 2003, the Iraq Dossier and David Kelly brought fresh allegations of government control of the BBC
The Question Time appearance of Nick
Griffin

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It can be argued that the media exerts too much control over the direction of the political agenda to suit the interest of the unelected bodies that control them i.e. Murdoch
They drive agendas i.e. climate change has become trendy, the chief of Social Services in
Haringey was sacked by the home secretary over
Baby P, and the growing popularity in the media of
David Cameron and his “fashionable” wife
It could be argued it is the press that the public look onto as their representative holding the government to account not the members of
Parliament

“The concept of “democratising the media” has no real meaning within the terms of the political discourse in the United States. In fact, the phrase has a paradoxical or even vaguely subversive ring to it. Citizen participation would be considered an infringement on freedom of the press, a blow struck against the independence of the media that would distort the mission they have undertaken to inform the public without fear or favour…this is because the general public must be reduced to its traditional apathy and obedience, and driven from the arena of political debate and action, if democracy is to survive” (Noam Chomsky)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K
2pLo8JV5Y&feature=related

“Let it be impressed upon your minds, let it be instilled into your children, that the liberty of the press is the palladium of all the civil, political, and religious rights.”