INTRODUCTION
In a democratic country, public and its opinion matters the most because democracy itself means of the people, by the people and for the people. According to lord Bryce public opinion is a term that is commonly used to denote the aggregate of the views, men hold regarding matters that affect or interest the community. Thus, understood it is a mixture of all sorts of different nations, belief, fancies, prejudices, aspirations. It is simply viewing of people on general issues. Public opinion has a very important place in democracy as government in democratic country is elected by the help of public opinion. Political parties in these countries try to make public on their side so that they get the majority of vote and win the election, as their existence is based on public. Public meetings, education television and cinemas, press, social media, religious institutions etc. are the various ways from which public opinion can be created. For a fair and good public opinion which will help in growth of a country, people should be educated and broad minded as they will be able to have a proper analysis on the issue of discussion and through that they can have a practical solution. Including education, that country should be free from issues like poverty and unemployment and media of that country should not be biased. Social media is a form of media which is via internet and in a world full of technologies it is accepted as the most because everyone is on social media and there are high chances of a person getting influenced by social media then any other form of media. The influence of public opinion is not confined to politics and election. It is a powerful force in many areas like culture, art, fashion, public relation and so on. Influencing people of a democratic country is very easy and media plays are very vital role in it.
MEDIA
Role of media is bigger than every other source which can influence public for creating a public opinion. Media plays a very vital role in informing the public of what is happening around our country and world. People are dependent on media for every news as it has a power to shape public opinion in whatever way it wants. What they get from media is what they believe as true. Media of country should be free and not biased as a biased media can influence people in a wrong way. People of a country deserve to know the true news but in the presence of biased media it is not possible. A free media will criticize government in many way but at last will get a sound and fair public opinion which will do good to the country but if a media of that country is controlled by a selfish political party, communities etc. than it will be difficult to make a sound opinion because then media will only show what these selfish parties wants public to see. It will make a huge chaos in country. Therefore, a good media is like a lighthouse to democracy. People can be influenced through media in many ways via television via radio, via newspaper, via press etc.
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TELEVISON
television is a very crucial source from which we get the news of what is happening in world every day. It has become a part of our day to day life. In television there are so many media channels which talk about every day news and tells us about the major issues happening around the world, we as our daily routine watch those channel and make our opinion through that. For example, if we take CAA case, some news channel was against it an some were for it people watched them and through that made their opinion.
NEWSPAPER
If we talk about newspaper then it is too a part of our daily life. Newspaper contains a vide range of information related to local news, state news, country news and even international news and create political consciousness. It even entertains general public via giving games like sudoku in it and even by adding fashion and Bollywood news. An individual can get everything in newspaper. Newspaper can be called as “book of democracy”. Articles are written in it, news is written in it, and by reading these things we make our opinion.
RADIO
Talking about radio, it is also a very effective source which tells us about each and everything whether it is news, weather forecast, songs, discussions, public meetings etc. people listen to radio while traveling, people who don’t have television listen to radio to get updated. In a country like India radio is much more effective as here most of the people are illiterate and can’t read newspaper or they don’t understand English so they can’t hear to news channels which speak English. It even entertains people a lot.
PRESS
It is one of the most powerful media that influences public and create their opinion. It is just a small form of media. It educates people and thus help them to create their opinion by informing people about day to day news. The editorials influence both citizen as well as government. Even citizens bring their problem to press so that it could reach to government easily. It is a link between government and citizen and that is why press of a country should be free.
These are some major sources through which an individual makes its opinion in a democratic country and to make a right opinion these sources should be free, as, if they will be free public will be able to make a just and fair opinion and through that country will get developed. Media is just like a link between public and government as when government announces new laws and policies they communicate them to public through press and if, when public doesn’t like what government has bought they start opposing it by raising their voice which is wither they protest or they right it on internet which is carried forward to government via media. Media helps general public to stay in touch with government which is very important for democracy.
SELF – REGULATION FOR MEDIA
The freedom of expression is a very essential component of our individual development, to improve ourselves and this democracy. Mass media was invented for this only so that everyone could express themselves and could get better knowledge of what is happening around the world. Self-regulation is combination of standards setting out the appropriate codes of behavior for the media that are necessary to support freedom of expression, and process how those behaviors will be monitored or held to account. It is generally their own code of conduct, which guides them(media) and tell them what to do and what not. Self-regulation preserves independence of media and also protects it from those selfish government. It will be able to work more efficiently once media understand its power and don’t get scared of government as media has a lot of power through which it can influence people, even I think it’s the only power which can influence the opinion of an individual. Self-regulation tells media it’s priority which is citizen of its country. It helps media to work freely without any biasness. In many part of commercial life, self-regulation is entrusted to a body of industry professionals to administer. Inside a media organization the classic approach is to have a media ombudsman, employed by the media company to receive and investigate complains by newspaper readers, or listeners or viewers of radio and television and can work on it. Self-regulation for a media is very important as democracy is all about people and media helps those people to know what is happening and to raise a voice against something which is not good for them and their nation. Talking about how effective it has been for media, self-regulation is very effective for media as it gives media a clear path to walk on, it makes media much for stronger and independent of those selfish parties, communalist and ministers who try to buy them and show citizens fake news. They try to violate citizen’s fundamental rights but via this media does not let them do these stuffs. As we can see that self-regulation is over government regulation for media, its benefit is that increase in efficiency, incentives, reduced cost, incentive of compliance. There is a press council in India which takes care of every news house and make sure that no one is involved in some illegality. The Indian television media has its own self-regulation known as news broadcasting standards authority (NBSA), it keeps a check on news channel and make sure that no fake news, paid news or any kind of illegality happen. Though this is been made still there are cases where we get to hear that this was a paid news, journalist is absent, this was fake news so in my suggestion there should be some changes in NBSA and it should be made more stricter because if talking about this scenario of COVID-19 people are caged at home and if this time too they are getting fake news this will make a huge chaos, people will get influenced by something wrong which will be harmful for nation, not even this scenario in every scenario media should be taken care of and it should learn this that their first priority is their citizen.
When we talk about media it covers a vide range of communication methods and in this century, which is full of technology and internet. Social media is the best source through which media can do its work and help public to create its opinion.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Internet technology especially social media has made this world familiar with a new way of communication. You can get each and everything on social media, just type it you will get it. Nowadays everyone has access to social media and it is very easy to communicate with everyone. Social media apps like Instagram, Facebook, twitter etc. allows their user to post their views on what is happening around the world, it gives freedom of expression to each and every user using those apps. There are political leaders, social media influencers who have million of followers, so when they post their views people read it and then make their opinion on the topic. There are so many recent examples that proves that social media is one of the most important sources through public can create their opinion. as we all are in lockdown where we cannot go anywhere and cannot meet anyone because of corona virus which came from china. So now people are coming on social media and are posting videos, pictures, blogs in which they are telling their views about this situation and what can be done to get rid of this situation, these blogs, pictures and videos are seen my million and billion of people who read and see these and get influenced by them. Recently Sonam Wangchuk an Indian engineer posted a video in which he appealed to everyone to stop using Chinese software’s and hardware’s, he has a lot of followers and now his video is getting viral and everyone is getting influenced by him and are deleting Chinese apps from their phone. Another example is that there was a huge conflict between youtubers and tiktokers that who is best and this heat people who liked YouTube more started posting on social media to report and uninstall tiktok and by this many people reported tiktok on play store and the rating came down 1.2 star. From these examples we can see that how social media creates an opinion among general public. Apart from this there are public discussions held on app like Facebook, twitter where people can express their views and can even create an opinion. when a political leader or journalists etc. tweets something and people read it, they give their views on that. Nowadays there are several news pages which are on social media and are influencing people by posting news online. Getting update of what is happening around the world is quite easy now as people can get news by randomly scrolling in their social media. Social media is a very sensitive platform as from younger generation to old generation everyone is using it, it even make a very strong influence among people but if people post something wrong it can create a huge chaos among everyone and can create a false public opinion which can harm the entire nation so everyone has to be very careful on what they are watching and what they are reading as public opinion is all about what people of nation are getting to see and watch and for that media should be fair.
CONCLUSION
Media and social media are that much important for a democratic country as food to a person because these two sources help to create a public opinion and in democracy public opinion is everything because government is chosen by public. Through different ways of media which are television, newspaper, radio , press, internet etc. public get to know what is happening around the world and through that they make their opinion that is why it is said that media should be just and fair because if media will show fake news, public will get influenced in a wrong way and because of that whole nation can be in chaos. Media act as a link between government and general public. Media has its self-regulation which acts as its code of conduct which sets some standard for it and protects it. Social media is a form of media which is via internet and as in this era, it is totally about technologies so people are mostly staying online each and every time and through that they get so many news and discussions which help them to make their mind and create their opinion. if we conclude everything then media is the most crucial thing which can make or destroy any democratic country as
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