Media and Politics: the Influence of Journalism in the Democracy of a Country.

(This is an essay that I wrote for college a few months ago)

Giridharadas Akshobh, producer and reporter of Channel News Asia - Singapore, said:

"The journalism or other method of free press is the fourth pillar of democracy. They are determined to be the guardians that keep the institutions on the line. They are designed to inform and educate yourself, not only in what you want to know, but more importantly in what you need to know"

The media has existed for several years, which lead us to value the position that they occupy in the day-to-day of the human being. Since the invention of the printing press, the man was clinging to the news as a way to stay informed about what was happening in their environment and how this affected him directly. Before being recognized as such, the media already molded the thinking of the society and influenced the management of their country. But at what extent is the influence and impact in the development of a nation that the media has? This demonstrated that the most affected is the political sphere, since the majority of citizens are oblivious to policy studies, and so all they know enters through the media. The influence will be determined in if the note is tilted to a tendency or the other, or if it is balanced showing equally both sides of the coin.

For example, in Venezuela in the year 1998 the media played a key role in the decision of the most important decision of the life of the Venezuelan people at that time, the presidential elections. The news of that year were developed from many points of view but all with a background in common, the political future of the country. You could see at a glance how was brewing a large-scale social change and how this was going to mark the opening of the new millennium. It was the job of the media predict all of these changes as judiciously as possible for people to prepare and report to plenary and, when the time came, the best choice in view of the desired future. Journalists spoke of democracy, the basis of the republic, such as the equity in various branches that were failing in the country, as was the production, the incorporation of new technologies and modernization of enterprises, and the further development of goods and services, to name a few things.

The magazine Communication, of the Gumilla group, in an article published in 1998, makes mention of how it was key the image that the media gave of the political landscape of the time:

"A culture that requires thinking about the ways in which the media come not to replace but to constitute, to form part of the fabric of both the discourse and political action, as densify the symbolic dimensions, rituals and theatrical always had the policy, and are part of the new forms of recognition and interpretation of the subjects and social actors"

Summary perfectly how journalism is the basis of the policy of a country, in which there is freedom of communication, because they are responsible for providing the country with the information about the figures of the chess politician and investigations where present, not only the face that the political shows to sell your ideology, but go beyond, looking until the last corner and below the last stone, so that the reader and/or viewer has all the information necessary to exercise their best judgment and form a successful concept of the person will have to entrust their political thinking. Later in the same article, make reference to how the media were, and still are, the mirror of society:

"It is necessary, today more than ever; we need to understand how the media reflect us and how we reflect on the media and how the media become political. Each day is more important education for the media, as well as education for democracy"

Indeed, the media reflect us and we reflect on them, because we are part of them, we are one. The media are people who live in our society, and hence reflect our realities and opinions. It is necessary, and always has been, to have an education on the media and on democracy. What we call an education on the media and on democracy? Is it necessary that we all be journalists specialized in policy or political scientists? No, it is not necessary or practical in the construction of an entire nation, but how can I understand what the media presents me on policy or any other topic if I don't understand the role of the media nor do I have discernment? Looking at the history we can get multiple examples of how has been key for man to have discernment and ability to know the media. Trust blindly in the news, very balanced, do not form a democratic nation, because all would continue to be a single line of thought, or they would not have any thought and only would follow the leader.

Study and educate yourself about the democracy is something that goes beyond what can be learned in history class, is something that needs a lot of attention, so that they can develop as a full citizen. The media and democracy go hand in hand, because, although the country where the media are not governed in a democratic principles, must be on the basis of the communication in order to be able to present a fair and balanced information to the people and that they can be objective about the type of government in which they live. The Venezuelans who exercised their right to vote in 1998 you will have done some with full knowledge of all of the above, or some with less information. The results of this are what we have today in the present.

Juan Ulises Hernández in the article “Democracy in the Media” of the magazine Reason and Word expresses:

"Without a doubt, as expressed by prestigious political scientists, democracy is composed of a multitude of springs, levers and pipelines that are opposed in a complex balance, and one of those tools that serves to shape public awareness so that deslegitime or legitimize a political system, are the media"

In the current political landscape of Venezuela is shown how, with the information they provide the means of communication and understanding that society has, it can be legitimate or not a political system. The Venezuelan System, failed to any sample, disguised as democracy before the eyes of those communities that, despite various media and almost all based on pluralism, were not educated in democracy as before mentioned, what they do that in addition to the facts speak for themselves, yet not be able to afford a significant change in the political life of the country, without bringing up other problems facing the country.

Why, in spite of the lack of education in the media that has the majority, and then there are 2 sides of the coin as regards the acceptance of a reality or other? By that known, in political science as the "political". The Irish writer Jonathan Swift, in his book The Art of Lying Policy, explains: "The Lie policy cannot be improvised. It is estimated, it is grown, and it is distilled and weighing. Has its rules. It is an art wise, useful and beautiful". Which means Swift, is that politicians, whatever their political nature or trend, are grounded in the art of expressing falsehoods within their speeches in order to achieve the commitment of people, that by not being able to identify whether they are real or not, believe everything they hear, and therefore believe the politician.

Noel Alvarez, in his column in the page elcoroto.net, makes an article on the art of lying policy, in which he says:

"There are many who do not exercise 'the art of lying policy', but they have made of the same its onerous profession betraying democracy".

The argument of Alvarez takes us back to the words of Akshobh, how the media are a fundamental pillar of democracy and how depends on getting the right information to the people. How have to go beyond what they want to know to bring them what they need to know, even when they know that they need but may be difficult or painful or even morally unbearable, because society, today, is aware of the importance of the media in your life and how are not only what they used to learn of the outcome of the game of baseball or to find out the protagonist of the next novel.

The media and journalists behind them are responsible for the custody of democracy even if it is non-existent or is decreased by ideologies that are intended to be imposed in a society which has all the necessary tools for exercising, but for reasons of their own or outside she has not yet been able to release it.