by charles kulwa n reg no 42688

Media convergence, diversity, and democracy by Neil Shister

The complexity of democracy is both its defect and virtue. As an idealized conception, democracy promotes equitable social order through the counter play of interest while the rule of law protects individual citizens from the arbitrariness of the state. In practice, matters are considerably more ambiguous. Contradiction exists between theory and action, the power and privileges of some people invariably make them more equal than others social equity being a relative term. Even so, belief that democracy renders the greatest good for the greatest number constitutes that the orthodox faith of contemporary civil religion

No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise, noted Winston Churchill in his oft quoted observation. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst from government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time

What happens to this delicately poised mechanism, however, if public channels of communication cease to provide the free flow of substantive information deemed critical to keeping democracy’s inner working lubricated? The elegance of the system resides in the ultimate authority of a rational citizenry to restrain unwise action. For this fail safe, check to work- whether the political model is of a plebiscite of individuals or coalitions of pluralistic interest groups – the voters need to know the facts. As we enter the

In the intervening centuries since locke, Montissquieu and Jefferson poised the intellectual foundations for modern democracy, history has shown how thin is the social membrane that separates civil rule from tyranny. Securing the vitality of democracy process is an ongoing challenge; each generation faces unexpected developments that put at risk the orderly processes of the preceding era. In our day, unprecedented advances in communication technology are rewiring (literally and metaphorically) the social landscape. Formats, transmission modes, and even media that we no longer consider novel were largely unheard of recently as decades ago. In the sake of instantaneous ubiquities transmission of voice and data, new issues arise. Some are economic, some legal and some moral. The way the political system- itself being affected by new technology – respond will have profound implication on how democracy evolve

Although we are in only age fist stages of this communications transformation, prophets foresee it unleashing revolutionary change. The internet isn’t just another media delivery system, like television and radio before it, write Katherine Fulton in the Columbia journalism review. It is the catalyst for a historic transition from one era to another. In the same way that the steam engine produced the train, which accelerated the shift to an industrial age so will the internet or what we know over the next few decades and abolish old notions of time and space , at the same time, a s technology converges the structure of the communication industry is in the throes of consolidations. Both dynamics affects how the media function. The issue is whether these changes bode ill or well for democracy. The question is open ended