Media Democracy?
What is Media Democracy
Media democracy is a production and distribution model of media that seeks to inform and empower all members of society, and enhance democratic values by forging a media system based upon participation, open discussion, and citizen engagement.
It is a concept and a social movement that has emerged in response to the increased corporate domination of media. Democratizing the media involves reforming the mass media system to promote a greater diversity of voices, strengthening public service broadcasting, and developing independent media and participatory(citizen) media.
Media Democracy broadly encompasses the following notions:
- That the health of the democratic political system depends on the efficient, accurate, and complete transmission of social, political, and cultural information in society;
- that the media are the conduits of this information and should act in the public interest;
- that the mass media have increasingly been unable to and uninterested in fulfilling this role due to increased concentration of ownership and commercial pressures;
- and that this undermines democracy as voters and citizens are unable to participate knowledgeably in public policy debates.
Without an informed and engaged citizenry, policy issues become defined by political and corporate elites. This leads to a lack of diversity in representation, further marginalizing those already disenfranchised by traditional media discourses.
We see great promise in the open communications of the internet and want that openness expanded into every form of media. We envision a global system of communications that has as its foundation in the direct, democratic participation of citizens. To this end, we demand the timely transfer of key media sources back to the people.
Understand the problems and learn about the solutions to achieve democratic media revolution!
