Blogging, Democracy and the Media

As I noted yesterday, the current political email scandal is throwing up lots of interesting new material for all students doing the media topic. Here are a few comments from Daily Mail columnist Stephen Glover.

Glover argues that an alarming aspect of the email scandal has to do with the destructive power of the internet in disseminating scurrilous stories.

“We are repeatedly told that citizen journalism on the internet will promote democracy. The evidence at the moment is the other way. Such is the power of the internet that people of little consequence can write whatever they choose and gain a spurious credibility far beyond what they deserve. When McBride, Draper and even Brown, have all moved on, we will be left with the destructive, and doubtless growing, power of irresponsible bloggers. They may see themselves carrying a torch for democracy, but they are far more likely to be its curse.”

Glover’s comments provide an interesting reflection on the pluralist argument. He is essentially arguing that pluralists are right - there is more opportunity for all and sundry to comment, but in his opinion, this is a bad thing. I like the little dig against ‘people of little consequence’! So Glover’s own position doesn’t fit neatly into a sociological perspective; he thinks media access is already quite democratic enough and shouldn’t be made too easy, because having a media voice involves having social responsibilities.

That’s all very well, but one might argue that his view of media democracy, based on a pluralist model of power, is unduly optimistic.

Good contemporary material (though not based on rigorous empirical evidence - it’s just one example) to update your textbook material.