“The media plays a propaganda role, no matter what type of political regime.” Discuss.
The influence of the media and propaganda is intrinsic to political communication. The method of transmitting information between the government and the public is key in both the classification of governments and our understanding of their differences. The freedom of media between authoritarian regimes and liberal democracies is markedly different, in both the control that the government exerts over what is said and displayed in the media. While it is clear that propaganda does have a place even in liberal democracies such as the United States and Britain, the variety of uncensored media available counteracts this. Contrastingly, in authoritarian regimes, …show more content…
Gary King offers two theories for the oppressive censorship of material, state critique and collective action. The main aims of this include the suppression of the expression of faults with the state and/ or its leaders, with the hope to make the sum of public expression to favour the government. Governments also aim to censor groups of people who express themselves collectively, stimulated by groups other than the government and have the potential to generate collective action or expression. This is clear in the leadership of the Chinese government and the power that it exerts over the population. Throughout 2014, at least 44 journalists were arrested and sentenced to prison, for ‘crimes’ involving freedom of expression. Here we can see the repression of authoritarian regimes, whether this is for the benefit or not of the government it is important to note that people other than the governing …show more content…
While many have suggested that technology poses a crippling threat to the Chinese Communist Parties authoritarian regime, the Government have responded through measures to reap the benefits of the expansion of the internet. Through ‘networked authoritarianism’, governments are able to filter what information can appear on the internet within the given state. For example, human expression in China is censored, know as ‘The Great Firewall’, which blocks the access of certain site and searches, that either contradict government ideology and policy or allow too much freedom to citizens, which would weaken government power. Web searches such as ‘abortion’ or ‘democracy’ are blocked as well as access to a majority of mainstream social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. All which are deemed to show be too conflicting to the ideologies of the Chinese Communist Party. This again accentuates the absolute monopoly that authoritarian regimes exert over all media outlets, to the extent that media expression and government opinion are one in the same.
In conclusion, though propaganda has a presence in both liberal democracy and authoritarian regimes, its impacts on freedom are felt much strongly under authoritarian regimes. Both the concealment and oppression of private thought, opinion and expression have far-reaching impacts of the world view and actions of citizens under the regime.
The influence of the media and propaganda is intrinsic to political communication. The method of transmitting information between the government and the public is key in both the classification of governments and our understanding of their differences. The freedom of media between authoritarian regimes and liberal democracies is markedly different, in both the control that the government exerts over what is said and displayed in the media. While it is clear that propaganda does have a place even in liberal democracies such as the United States and Britain, the variety of uncensored media available counteracts this. Contrastingly, in authoritarian regimes, …show more content…
Gary King offers two theories for the oppressive censorship of material, state critique and collective action. The main aims of this include the suppression of the expression of faults with the state and/ or its leaders, with the hope to make the sum of public expression to favour the government. Governments also aim to censor groups of people who express themselves collectively, stimulated by groups other than the government and have the potential to generate collective action or expression. This is clear in the leadership of the Chinese government and the power that it exerts over the population. Throughout 2014, at least 44 journalists were arrested and sentenced to prison, for ‘crimes’ involving freedom of expression. Here we can see the repression of authoritarian regimes, whether this is for the benefit or not of the government it is important to note that people other than the governing …show more content…
While many have suggested that technology poses a crippling threat to the Chinese Communist Parties authoritarian regime, the Government have responded through measures to reap the benefits of the expansion of the internet. Through ‘networked authoritarianism’, governments are able to filter what information can appear on the internet within the given state. For example, human expression in China is censored, know as ‘The Great Firewall’, which blocks the access of certain site and searches, that either contradict government ideology and policy or allow too much freedom to citizens, which would weaken government power. Web searches such as ‘abortion’ or ‘democracy’ are blocked as well as access to a majority of mainstream social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. All which are deemed to show be too conflicting to the ideologies of the Chinese Communist Party. This again accentuates the absolute monopoly that authoritarian regimes exert over all media outlets, to the extent that media expression and government opinion are one in the same.
In conclusion, though propaganda has a presence in both liberal democracy and authoritarian regimes, its impacts on freedom are felt much strongly under authoritarian regimes. Both the concealment and oppression of private thought, opinion and expression have far-reaching impacts of the world view and actions of citizens under the regime.