Significance of Media in Strengthening Democracy
Mukesh Devrari & Harsh Dobhal Abstract Known as the fourth estate following the Executive, Judiciary and the Legislative, media play a very crucial role in nurturing, preserving and deepening democracy and its various institutions and processes. The media also play a tremendous role in negotiating and democratizing the public sphere and expanding it to a wider segment of society. It is in the complex set of dynamics a democracy offers that the role of media assumes utmost significance and media and democracy enter a symbiotic relationship. Without a free media that is accessible to and representative of all, there can be no democracy, and without democracy, media can never get adequate space for proper functioning. This paper deals with four interrelated themes. Building on the assumption that free media and democracy are inseparable, the first part discusses the linkages between and the role of media in deepening democracy. The second part deals with the freedom of ...