(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Conference on Media & Mass Communication Osaka, Japan
“developing” democracy, public opinion has to be generated consistently and agencies are
appointed to lubricate the machinery of mass communication, which in turn, mobilises
national opinion. This is the only way that a democracy can survive.
Democracy requires for the active participation of citizens. Ideally, the media should
keep citizens engaged in the business of governance by informing, educating and mobilizing
the public. The main concern of Liberal Democratic Theory was ‘to grant individuals civil
liberties against the incursion of the state’ (Bobbio, 1987, p.10). For Italian political
sociologist, Norberto Bobbio, Liberal Democracy assumes that citizens, “once they are,
entrusted with the right to choose who governs them”, are sufficiently well-informed “to vote
for the wisest, the most honest, the most enlightened of their fellow citizens” (Ibid., p.19).
Therefore, the defining characteristics of a democratic regime comprises of
constitutionality, participation and rational choice. The political participation is typically
defined as direct citizen involvement in, or influence over, governmental process (Bucy &
Gregson, 2001). For those who participate in the democratic process, they must comprise
what Bobbio terms a ‘substantial’ proportion of the people. Here, citizens are given the
rights to participate in politics and decision-making process through elections in the country.
An election is the fundamental of a democratic society. Another condition of democracy is
the availability of choice where the citizens have the ability to exercise their choice rationally.
Democratic theory also stresses the primacy of the individual, the political process
nevertheless demands that individuals act collectively in making decision about who will
govern them.
Consequently, the five functions of the communication media in ‘ideal-type’
democratic societies are suggested such as:
• They must inform citizens of what is happening around them;
• To educate as to the meaning and significance of the ‘fact’;
• To provide a platform for public political discourse;
• Facilitating the formation of ‘public opinion’; and
• Feeding that opinion back to the public from where it came, to give publicity to
governmental and political institutions, as a watchdog role of journalism, and to serve
as a channel for the advocacy of political view points (McNair, 2007, p.20).
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In short, democracy presumes “an open state in which people are allowed to
participate in decision-making, and are given access to the media, and other information
networks through which advocacy occurs” (Cooper, 1991, p.42). From the perspective of
communication, democracy entails the freedom of citizens to articulate their views in the
public domain. It provides them the opportunity to exercise their right to engage in a
discussion or debate, and to offer criticisms that collectively contribute to the common good
of a society (Anuar, 2000).
The press in a situation of control becomes inept in playing the adversarial role of
watchdog. Consequently, this situation makes it difficult for citizens to exercise their right to
information and their right to making informed choices (Wang, 2001). Many government
leaders in the developing world justify their control over the media in terms of jealously
guarding and guiding its members toward the supposedly noble path of national development
and to ensure that the media do not fall into the “wrong hand”. In other words, state control
over the mainstream media has clearly been justified in the name of national development as
well as national security (Anuar, 2005). Therefore, the public sphere in Malaysian society
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