Media transparency

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This article is about transparency in communications. For investigative website, see MediaTransparency.

Media transparency is the concept of determining how and why information is conveyed through various means.

Media transparency deals with the way the media is viewed to the public today and concerns why the media may portray something the way that it does. Media communication can be a very powerful tool in affecting change whether it is political or social. The various implications it has on the way issues are viewed within the government and to the public affect much public policy change in the United States. Social media participation can be a key factor in whether or not something is accepted by the government. Transparency causes issues when there are many competing sources and they may be corrupt. The biased information can affect a public policy if the government is tampering with the way the information is portrayed, in order to shed a positive or negative light on it. Depending on how transparent a news article is one can determine how reliable it is and make their own assumptions or draw their own conclusions from the findings. Media transparency brings up issues concerning freedom of speech since certain governments may censor what information is conveyed in order to sway public opinion one way or another. Corruption has been a major issue in the growth and progress of certain parts of the world, due mainly to the fact that there is a lack of media transparency. Transparency, publicity, and accountability are all needed in order to produce change. Just making information available may not be enough to prevent corruption if such conditions for publicity and accountability, as education, media circulation and free and fair elections are weak.[1] Information should attempt to be reached by much of the common public if it is to catapult change in the areas being exposed. It may be helpful to strengthen people’s capacity to act upon the information they receive through transparency, in order to ensure it's effectiveness.

This is a specific case of the topic, Transparency (humanities).[2] As used in the humanities, it implies openness and accountability. It is a metaphorical extension of the meaning used a “transparent” object is one that can be seen through.

In communication studies, Media is transparent when:

  • there are many, often competing, sources of information
  • much is known about the method of information delivery
  • the funding of media production is publicly available

Aspects of transparent media include open source documentation, open meetings, financial disclosure statements, the freedom of information legislation, budgetary review, audit, peer review, etc.

Some organisations and networks insist that not only the ordinary information of interest to the community is made freely available, but that all (or nearly all) meta-levels of organising and decision-making are themselves also published. This is known as radical transparency. These organizations include: Wikipedia, the GNU/Linux community, and Indymedia.

Example

When an organization (corporate, government, non-profit, or other) holds a meeting and the proceedings are open to the public and the press, and the meeting is publicized via one or more of the following methods, there is less opportunity for the organization to abuse the system of information delivery in their own interest:

This assumes, of course, that the organization does not own or otherwise affect the media conveying the information.

Related terms

See also

References

  1. ^ Catharina Lindstedt and Daniel Naurin. "Transparency is not Enough: Making Transparency Effective in Reducing Corruption", "Sage Publications", 2 August 2010. Retrieved on 2011-2-15.
  2. ^ Openness & Accountability: A Study of Transparency in Global Media Outlets

[1] [2]

  1. ^ Naomi Sakr. "News, Transparency and the Effectiveness of Reporting From Inside Arab Dictatorships", "Sage Publications", February 2010. Retrieved on 2011-2-15.
  2. ^ Deserai Anderson Crowe. "Local Media and Experts: Sources of Environmental Policy Initiation?", "University of Colorado at Boulder School of Journalism and Mass Communication", April 2-5 2009. Retrieved on 2011-2-15.

External links

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