In: Psychology
Explain the level of confidence the public tends to have in the media.
Is this current level of confidence sufficient enough to ensure a strong and vibrant democracy?
Media is said to be the fourth pillar of a democracy and it was true earlier. Today most of the media is owned by the power elites in the society and these power elites control the society and government in order to force the government to act in their favour. As conflict theory suggests that the society is in a perpetual conflict for the limited resources available where social order is maintained not through consensus but through domination. This would mean that the power elites who control the government also control the media through which they shape the ideas, opinions and attitudes of people. Thus, they use media to control the thoughts and attitudes of people in order to advance their causes. Although people have lost their confidence and trust in media because various media report the same issue in different manner thus creating confusion, common people depend on the media for their consumption of information.
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