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Andrew Benson

Jour 4721 12/8/11

Final Exam:

Part I:

1) One could have the rightto approach, interact with or make use of the media. Onecould also have the ability to do the same. The right and the ability are the two

dimensions of access.

2) To make a more democratic media, access to one or both of input and output could beextended across a wider portion of the population. It could also become more democratic

through soliciting, and/or receiving, participation by a wider portion of the population

3) The difference between representative and participatory democrats is in how anindividual should affect the whole. A representative democrat believes that individuals in

the population have too little time and knowledge to make the best choices for the

democracy. A participatory democrat believes that the best way to make society work is

to have a wide base of informed citizens, each of which discussing and voting on choices

are best.

4) There are two main definitions of public interest. The first says that the public interestis achieved by making the choices that create the most benefit, with no concern about the

distribution of such benefitsthe homogeneous view. The second takes the pluralistic

viewthe public interest is best served by actions which equalize the distribution of

benefits.

5)6) It may be hard for a media company to fairly report on its own interests. As such,

allowing them to be part of a large conglomerate is very likely to hurt the press

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functions, especially that of watchdog. It also would tend to decrease the variety of

voices, as one story may be shown across a wide variety of outlets as a way to cut costs.

7)8) Foreign news has relevance to U.S. citizens in three ways: self-interest, merit good, and

altruism. Self-interest is directly relevant in that changes and problems in other countries

may have a significant impact on Americans. Altruism is genuinely caring about foreign

events impact on the people there; relevance comes from caring about what happened

and how it affected the people in the area.

9)

The monitorial citizen is essentially a newer MOD. They are non-participatory on a day

to day basis, but stay informed and ready to act (participate), should the need arise. A

monitorial citizen would tend to be relatively centered in our chart, possibly slightly

towards the pluralistic side.

10)A global citizen would take on a more complete view of society, caring more aboutactions across the world. They may still have narrowly focused concerns, but might seek

out people with similar views across the globe. Rather than uniting behind concerns of a

local community, a global citizen would build a community around one or more

concerns.

Part II:

1) An Agency Democrat would not argue that more information is always better,while a Classical Democrat would. An Agency Democrat would prefer that the media

cover a prioritized selection of news. In their MOD, citizens need only a basic level of

understanding, as the agency which the citizen is involved with would tell them what to

do (contact senator, vote, petition, etc.) on key issues. In the Agency Democrats view,

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excess information in the media is of little use at best, and could even be damaging if the

citizen does not fully understand all implications involved.

A Classical Democrat, on the other hand, wants fully informed citizens. From

this view, it would be difficult to have too much information. They feel that every citizen

should be able to effectively discuss, and take action on, current issues. As such, there

priorities beyond enough information would shift towards the forum function of the

pressbut there is no inherent limit on how much information could be useful.

The only significant exception would be that of polling. From this view,

information on poll results is uselessit provides no real information on the issues, and

provides no context or discussion of why people answered in a particular direction. All

that leaves is a risk of swaying opinion without any factual reason.

Extra information is of no use in the Agency Democrats MOD, it is of no use to

the citizens. Once citizens needs are met, the job of the press is complete, in this view.

A Classical Democrat, on the other hand, would view this less as extra, but rather as more

information to consider and debate. By their view, the job of the press is likely to have

no endgive the citizens as much information as they wish to consume. A Classical

Democrat would be more likely to argue that more, relevant, information is always a

good thing, while an Agency Democrat would consider enough to be ideal.

2) A journalists right to keep some sources anonymous has clear advantages tosociety, especially when it comes to the medias whistleblower function. With

anonymity, citizens can freely give the press information which the press would not

otherwise have access to. This may include insider trading, poor working conditions,

abuse, etc. Anonymous sources may also bring everyday news, both governmental and

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corporate, forward before it would have been released, or the press would otherwise have

discovered it. We value the watchdog function of the media, and anonymous sources are

incredibly valuable in this role, as without anonymity, sources may be afraid to come

forward.

Anonymous sources may also, however, hurt our democracy. An anonymous

source has little or no incentive to be honest, as their anonymity protects them from any

repercussions. This has the risk of lowering the quality of the reported news, or of

increasing the amount of noise in the media, each of which would hurt citizens ability

to be well informed.

While there are clear disadvantages to anonymity, the advantages are much too

valuable to give up. Whistleblowers would be very unlikely to come forward with inside

informationpossibly allowing embezzlement, discrimination, and bribery to continue

unabated. The societal cost involved includes a further reduction in trust of government

and large companies, as well as the direct costs of such illegal activities. Anonymity of

sources allows us a chance to discover and mitigate these costs where we might otherwise

be unable to do so.

3) [Assuming that Americans are significantly self-interested]Americans tend to seek out stories which are relevant to their own self-interest,

and overlook those that only affect other parts of the world. To counteract this, CNN

should frame foreign stories mainly from an altruistic or merit good point of view. By

telling stories from a point of view besides the impact they may have on the U.S., CNN

can give Americans the chance to see the story from the other side. This can help serve

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the interests of those who would care if they saw it, as well as those who are simply

underserved by mainstream priorities.

However, citizens needs may be better met ifCNN frames foreign events in

terms of their impact on the U.S. People use the news media in order to serve their

informational needs. CNN will best fulfill the needs of their typical viewers by catering

to viewers existingpriorities. By fulfilling the viewers needs, CNN can also ensure that

they are more likely to come back more frequently, knowing that CNN covers stories

which are relevant to their needs.

I feel that the average citizen will be significantly better informed if we dont try

to shove information at them, which they dont have an existing interest in. Most viewers

have limited time, so we need to focus on the topics they care aboutthose which have a

direct effect in their lives. If the media doesnt listen to the wants of their consumers,

they may well stop using their limited time to stay informed at all.

4)5) Increasing public funding of the media inherently weakens the press watchdog

function. Anytime that a substantial portion of income comes from a single source, the

priorities of those receiving such funds shift towards those of the source. This can be

seen in even the scientific community, a place that specifically works to prevent such bias

a great set of examples are discussed at length in Gary Taubes book, Good Calories

Bad Calories. Given that even the scientific method fails to prevent bias, how can we

expect the media to avoid it?

An increase in public funding, however, is likely to mean either a larger overall

budget, or a reduction in funding from advertising. Funding from advertisers would have

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the same tendency to reduce the chance of running stories against the source of funding,

so an increase in public funding should reduce such bias. Alternatively, the public

funding could be used to hire more journalists, and therefore, the chance that a cover-up

may be found and reportedthis could offset any bias introduced by the funding.

I think that public funding would tend towards reducing the ability of the press to

perform the watchdog function effectively. While bias may already exist due to

advertising, this is spread across many individual advertisers; it doesnt hurt too much to

lose any one advertiser, so it is worthwhile to report against them. Any significant

government support would be likely to comprise a large enough portion of income that

any risk of losing it would be unacceptablemedia would be unable to effectively

provide a watchdog function over the government.

6)7)8) A Classical Democrats ideal of a good citizen is no less relevant today than it

was 100 years ago. Today, it is much easier to become well enough informed to make

good decisions. We are surrounded by news sources throughout the dayTV,

newspapers, and of course, the Internet. We can hear an interesting tidbit on the morning

news, research the issue on our smartphones while we ride the bus to work, and discuss

with our peers through forums and comments online. Today, most of the population

could stay informed about many current issues, just in their spare timeno one could

have done that fifty, let alone one-hundred, years ago.

However, there are some clear changes in society relating to a Classical

Democrats ideal. Today, most Americans just dont care enough to stay informed about

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most issues. We also tend to get caught up in the vast rivers of information coming from

the media, so much so that we rarely get beyond the surface. Finally, no one would, or

even could, make time to participate and/or vote on every issue that we as a society face.

I feel that, to a large extent, the arguments against a Classical Democratic views

relevancy hinge on that it is idealistic: wide participation, single right/best answers, and

well informed citizens. Each of these seems at least somewhat unrealistic. But thats all

we are talking aboutan ideology. It seems to me that we have made progress in

fulfilling the press functions valued by such an ideology, even if citizens are unlikely to

fulfill their endand looking on the Internet, Im not convinced that there are not many

citizens who do indeed fill such a role. If we can fulfill a good citizens needs today

better than we could have in the past, it seems clear that the ideals are still quite relevant.