The Media's Watchdog Role In Today's World

THE MEDIA’S WATCHDOG ROLE Name Course Institution Affiliation Date The Media’s Watchdog Role The news media entails the simplest or essential parts of the mass media that major on delivering information to a targeted public or the general public. These include the broadcast news, the print media, and the internet which is the most recent one. It should also be noted that there are two distinct forms of communication media, analog, and digital communications. The analog media comprises of the telephonic and television transmissions and not forgetting the conventional radio which is widely spread all over the world. The digital media includes the communications that are computer-mediated, networking and telegraphy CITATION Peg02 \l 1033 (Parks, 2002). The Impact of Media in Today’s World In today's world, the media has proved to be of paramount significance as food and clothing are to people. It has played an essential part in strengthening the society. The media is now being regarded as a ‘mirror' to the contemporary society, in fact, the media helps in shaving our lives. The primary purpose of the media is informing people about the present, new affairs and to reveal about the latest gossip and fashion. Another upcoming role of the media is trading and marketing of commodities and prejudices. Righteousness and equity are among the very many virtues that the media has claimed to be governing them, however, self-aggrandizement and greed has poisoned these virtues. As a whole media is in charge of, entertaining, advertising, educating, informing and correlating the parts of the society. The media has great influence on the society in so many ways. It is a media for the masses that assists them to acquire information about a lot of things and at the same time to create opinions and make judgments that concern various issues CITATION Mar13 \l 1033 (McLuhan, 2013). It has also been noted that media has inflicted bad effects to the present generation, mostly the youths are the ones very much influenced. In many cases, they dwell on the bad part of the media and try to be part of it. The Watchdog Concept The media is now being portrayed as the watchdog of the society and the fourth estate of the kingdom. This is actually among the many beliefs of journalism practice; the concept expects the media to be in charge of monitoring the government activities. Edmund Burke is believed to have come up with this concept in the eighteenth century so as to put the England government in check CITATION Dar16 \l 1033 (Issa, 2016). It was also used by the press of that time to indicate possession of their political powers. In accordance with Burke writings, the other three estates which had power, comprised of lords, churches, and commons, were at the same level with the British press. The growth of watchdog position goes further than the borders of the government investigation to take note of many different societal organizations with powers and also the powerful individuals who may lack an official relationship with the public office. Some democratic countries and in societies like Nigeria where there is a high level of political culture, the watchdog role of the media is highlighted very strongly. In countries that are democratic like Nigeria, the watchdog role is really taken seriously since there is a high level of political culture. It is awaited to uncover the abuse of the state authority and keep safe the democratic and constitutional rights of every citizen. Just like the literal guarding dog that usually barks on observing an intruder, a watchdog's duty includes alarming others when an anomaly is discovered. The frequent subjects to be looked out are the illegal activities, immorality, environmental degradation, processes incorporated by the government in making decisions and consumer protection issues. It performs its duties by fact-checking statements, interviewing the known public figures and sometimes antagonizing them with problems and public concerns. The Media as a ‘Watchdog' It is true to say the people's perspective can be changed by the media due to its great intervention in everything people do. It is also described as a ‘watchdog' even in the political field such as democracy. In the recent times, prominence of media on news has been disguised. The media comes in and attempts to eye the news, which could aid them to sell the information collected worldwide so that they could pave way and fame of their corresponding channels. The newspapers, knowledge found on the net, FM radios and television are the mass Media's that help reduce the communication gap that exists between the audience, viewers and the world of media. The relevant figures and their lifestyles are commonly targeted by the media for the sake of publicity and making their extensive sales. This has made significant, economic and sociological news at times get disregarded and slowly lose their importance since irrelevant news is given priority hence they end up getting into the minds of the viewers CITATION Kir09 \l 1033 (Prasad, 2009). Cases That Depict the Watchdog Role It is highly expected for the journalists to watch over the public interests and to guard it against, corruption, incompetence, and misinformation. According to the empirical evidence available it has been noted that in many countries, transparency is often realized by the free press and journalists frequently face solemn constraints and impediments in this regard more so in autocracies. The best journalism experience on watchdog experience is on Obama’s national security policies. This is a case depicting war on terror. Obama had organized a team that successfully brought down the notorious terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Daphna Linzer, a Republican reporter, also recommended this time article as being a seminal piece on the case of Osama Bin Laden chase CITATION Dor07 \l 1033 (Graber, 2007). Another great instance of the where the press serves as a watchdog is the Watergate experience. This is a research article that was supported by a fund from the investigative journalism. This news had hit the headline as being the largest in history. It took place on August 9, 1974. This was the date that indicated the end of Richard Nixon as a president and at the same time, the starting of three full decades of the debate about the role played by the journalism in unmasking the Watergate scandal. This led to Nixon being driven from office. The questions that finally arose was, how did this Watergate experience influence journalism, did a president of the united states actually go down by the muckraking of the media and finally has there been any change in the politics and investigative reports. The answers to these questions seem to have been left polarized since Nixon's day. Watergate continues being taught in journalism schools as a heroic deed of the press masterpiece coverage. Expelling Nixon from office was the best modest duty played by the press as some scholars say. Watergate has now resulted to be part of our folklore, that is, men wearing business suits and surgical gloves being arrested during the peak of the night while possessing illegal bugging devices while at the Watergate building which is a democratic party headquarter in Washington, D.C. These burglars ended up being part of the wide-ranging political spies hence weakening the operation led by the Nixon's top assistants. This one resulted in a major cover-up by the White House since it was governed by the president himself. After the cover-up was unsnarled, a number comprising more than seventy people which included some members of the cabinet and others being the White House assistants were found guilty of different crimes such as criminal abuse of authority. Nixon himself was spared since he was pardoned by his successor, otherwise, he would have been in history for being the first chief of the executive to betoken for felonies carried out in the Oval Office. Stanley Kutler who is a known for leading historian scandals, he believes that since from the time of the civil wars, Watergate devoured and agitated the nation and challenged the constitutional and political system as they had not been initially tested. As significant as Watergate was in the political arena history, so was it in the journalism field of history. Woodward and Bernstein have been credited as being among the most recognized reporters in American journalists as a result of these marked experience. These two reporters being part of Nixon’s downfall is also accepted by even the conservative critics CITATION byA10 \l 1033 (Zver, 2010). Press Failure to Watchdog It is true to say that all seems to be good to our eyes sometimes it can bring disappoint in our lives, the news media is not an exception to this neither. No matter how efficient and reliable the news media is some shortcomings do arise that are worth noting. Devastating consequences arise when the press fails to perform its core duties to the general public. Sometimes the failure of the press to be the public's watchdog might go unnoticed. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstein present their stand in The Elements of Journalism by writing that it is a watchdog’s that led to Madison phrase which signifies the libe...