What are the functions of the press?

Answer 1

AnswerThe purpose of a free press is to guarantee free and open debate and discussion. If the media is too cautious, then people come to think the press should make them feel good and bring consensus. There should be a level of discomfort; if no one is ruffled, then the media has failed. The purposes of the press include:

1 To Serve the Economic System

The United States economy is fueled by advertising, which brings buyer and seller together. Both the media and advertisers earn profits, and both are highly criticized, yet they help keep the economy moving. The media in some countries are financed or partially financed by the government, such as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); some are totally owned by governments as a way to influence what is published, as the newspaper Pravada was in Russia.

2 To Entertain

This is the biggest function of American mass media. Television is the nation's No. 1 entertainment medium, and film and radio are not far behind. Blockbuster movies such as Lord of the Rings , Star Wars, and Spiderman, remind us of the entertainment power of the media.

Interestingly enough, the print media also succeeds or fails in terms of its entertainment value. What kind of entertainment do you see in the print media? Comics, humor columns, feature stories, crossword puzzles and other word games, and, one of the biggest, sports coverage, draw millions of readers every day. The Internet also provides countless hours of entertainment for today's society.

3 To Inform

The most important function of a free press is to inform. Without current information about government, there can be no representative democracy; therefore, this is the most important information available. The power to inform is incredible, particularly today, with television, radio, newsmagazines, newspapers, and now the Internet.

This isn't a new phenomenon, however. On Nov. 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Within one-half hour two-thirds of all Americans knew, within one hour 90 percent knew, and by early evening 99.8 percent knew. By the next day, the average TV set was on about eight hours a day.

Some hear news directly from the media; others hear through what is called the 2-step flow. What this means is that those who hear important, often earth-shattering news from the media immediately inform others. This happened, for example, when Kennedy was assassinated, when the Challenger, which carried the first civilian into space, blew up shortly after takeoff in 1986, when former football player O.J. Simpson took his famous freeway ride in his white Bronco after his ex-wife was found murdered.

The power to inform has changed countries and their cultures. Italy, for example, was a country with two different populations, a wealthy, metropolitan north and a poor, rural South. They even spoke different dialects. Within a few years of the advent of TV in 1954 Italy became a more homogeneous nation. They saw the same things, heard the same things, learned from the same sources.

4 To Influence

Although the power to change people's minds directly is limited, the media does influence our lives and our thinking, usually in more subtle ways rather than what we could call a "hypodermic effect," which, like a shot, would bring about immediate change, in this case a change of opinion or call to action. For example, the likelihood that an editorial that advocates a three-day work week would sway people to that point of view is slim. In addition, the media is more likely to influence those who are on the fence, those without strong opinions. Even less effect occurs with controversial topics, such as abortion, where the audience is likely to have strong views already.

One example of more subtle influence in American history is the climate of war fever created by William Randolf Hearst in the New York Journal in 1898. Slanted news coverage and sensational writing, particularly when the battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor, helped bring about the Spanish-American War.

Another is the 1968 presidential campaign of Richard Nixon, who engineered a series of TV ads that crystalized American frustration into a Republican vote.

The most obvious example of mass media influence, however, is advertising, with its colors, graphics and slogans to help make you remember. Advertising appeals to our needs and wants, such as wanting to be accepted (better use the right toothpaste), to be more attractive and sexy (better buy the right kind of jeans), to be successful (better buy a prestigious car), and to our thirst and hunger (better get that sparkling, sizzling soft drink trickling over shimmering ice cubes). Ads are persuasive; if they didn't work, there wouldn't be any. Advertising is one of the most criticized aspects of mass media, whether it is the tobacco industry targeting young people through cartoon ads such as Joe Camel, shown here in a spoof Joe Chemo ad, or a Calvin Klein ad (one of the first being Brooke Shields in 1980) using teens and sexuality to sell everything from jeans to fragrances.