HUSSEIN AMIN

JUNE 2008

Innovative Strategies for Engaging the Press, Policy, Policy-Makers and

the Public: Some Debated Points

Some Debated Points

The commercial domination of both the media or press system and the policy-making process that establishes and sustains it causes serious problems for a democracy and a healthy culture.

 The media are not the only factor in explaining

the state of democracy, but they are a critical factor.

Source: McChesney

Some Debated Points

Important social issues that face the country are poorly covered by the current system. The democratic solution to this problem is to increase informed public participation in media policy making.

Source: McChesney

Some Debated Points

Media powers and their political representatives oppose this because they know that when the public understands that the media system is the result of explicit public policies and not natural law, the public will probably demand reforms.

Media do not matter that much—that they merely reflect reality, rather than shape it.

Source: McChesney

Some Debated Points

A commercial media system is “natural,” the logical outgrowth of democracy.

 The media policy has accurately reflected the

range of public opinion and public interests.

Source: McChesney

Some Debated Points

The policy makers do not have a serious input from the media.

The press, due to the competitive pressure for profit, “give the people what they want”—so the only policy option is to let the market do what it wants.

Government policies that interfere with the market substitute the wishes of the government bureaucrat, no matter how well informed or intended, with the will of the people as expressed in the market.

Some Debated Points

Government actions therefore are antidemocratic and should be kept to a minimum, largely to protect private property rights. If there is a problem with the media, it is not because of the system or the policies that put the system in place but “the people” who demand the content that the commercial media firms provide.

Technology determines the nature of media. L

ong-standing position

Nature of media technologies does indeed have distinct effects

Source: Center for Public Agenda

Some Debated Points

A democratic solution to the problem of the media, would require:

1. a large, well-funded, structurally pluralistic, and diverse nonprofit and noncommercial media sector.

2. A competitive and decentralized commercial sector. If there is not enough competition in the market because of economics, there must be transparent regulation in the public interest.

Source: McChesney

Some Debated Points

The reforms should be content neutral and viewpoint neutral.

This does not mean boring, but rather that the reforms would not favor a specific viewpoint over others.

The public is most often viewed as an audience to educate or a problem to manage. In this dominant framework, citizens are not usually viewed as a vital resource or potentially powerful partner in problem solving.

Source: Agre

Some Debated Points

The exact contours of such a media system must be determined by informed and widespread public debate. Without that, media reform and a democratic media system are unthinkable.”

“Authentic public engagement, by contrast, is a highly inclusive problem-solving approach through which regular citizens deliberate and collaborate on complex public problems.

Source: Agre

Some Debated Points

A good strategy is to invite the people to join the public dialogue surrounding a problem and provide them with the tools to do so productively.

In this way, leaders will know where the public stands as problem solving progresses, while citizens themselves contribute to solutions through their input, ideas and actions.

Source: Agre

Some Debated Points

A strong public engagement initiative will look for diverse ways to achieve realism and seriousness in the public debate and help people participation

People need to go through a variety of stages to come to terms with an issue, decide what approach they are willing to support and figure out how they can make their own contribution.

Source: Center for Public Agenda

Some Debated Points

A strong engagement initiative will be inclusive as well as iterative, giving people different kinds of opportunities to learn about, discuss, think about and act on the problem at hand.

“Social intelligence” (philosopher John Dewey) —the capacity for a democratic community to communicate and collaborate effectively in order to solve its common problems and enrich its public life.

Source: Center for Public Agenda

Some Debated Points

Authentic and effective engagement with a broad cross-section of stakeholders improves results by:

A. Bringing together a variety of different points of view in order to inform decisions.

B. Creating legitimacy and a sense of shared responsibility by involving the public and many kinds of stakeholders early and often in a change process, rather than after decisions have been made.

C. Fostering new allies, partnerships, and collaborations.

D.Stimulating broad awareness, acceptance, and momentum for change.

Sources

Agre, Phil. http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_3/agre/

McChesney, Robert. “The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century”. http://www.monthlyreview.org/problemmediaxcerpt.htm

Center for Public Agenda. http://www.publicagenda.com/pubengage/pdfs/public_engagement_primer.pdf