Week 5 Individual Blog Task

Who owns the newspapers and TV stations in your country? Do you think this has an effect on the news that you hear?

Broadcasting is a global phenomenon. As an essential aspect of any nation’s social and cultural life, its significance cannot be overemphasized. Combining audio, vision and motion, the broadcast media’s effectiveness in communicating information with speed and accuracy to audiences has been proven over the years. Moreover, the broadcast media have helped the individual to share ideas not only within his immediate environment but also beyond his social surroundings. So by that means of broadcasting the individual can partake of ideas and experiences that can enrich his life and help him live in a complex, dynamic and humane society.

I personally think that most of the broadcasting media in Malaysia is owned by the government. This is mainly because they will have to control what is being published or broadcast to the public. Government ownership of the media, perhaps even as a monopoly, is desirable for two reasons. First, information is a public good, once it is supplied to some consumers; it is costly to keep it away from others, even if they have not paid for it. Second, if consumers are ignorant, and especially if private media outlets serve the governing classes, then state media ownership can expose the public to less biased, more complete, and more accurate information than it could obtain with private ownership.

The very reason that newspapers and broadcast outlets are under one owner makes economic sense, which is the ability to maximize the productivity of news staffs by sharing resources, reducing competition, and cutting costs. But that means it often fails to serve the public interest when it reduces the amount of independently produced news and information available in a local community. Because of that, a government-owned media outlet would distort and manipulate information to protect the necessary politicians, preclude voters and consumers from making informed decisions, and ultimately undermine both democracy and markets. 

A responsibility of the media is to ensure fair, accurate and impartial reporting. A set of codes of ethics is essential to maintaining standards for media professionals and organizations. Everyone in the organization should uphold the standard with a sense of responsibility, equality and accountability. Information ethics is not just a matter of written values for the broadcasters; it must be practiced in their day to day operation.