Media, digital communication companies, and other content providers play a central role in information and communication processes. They are one way of communicating information, although their role is much broader than that.
To the extent that such media are an important part of every society’s communication system, their institutional make-up is often meshed with a variety of non-media content providers, such as libraries, museums, archives, Internet communication companies, other information organizations and citizens who produce their own content.
For the purpose of this MIL curriculum, news media are normatively defined (irrespective of the nature and technologies used) as sources of credible and current information created through an editorial process determined by journalistic values whereby editorial accountability can be attributed to a spesific organization or a legal person.
This is not to ignore the realities where norms are not lived up to – such as through “media capture” cases and other normative failures, which is why critical thinking, through MIL, should be applied to the media as to all the content providers.
Media massa, idealnya berperan sebagai:
- Act as channels of information and knowledge through which citizens communicate with each other and make informed decisions;
- Facilitate informed debates between diverse social actors;
- Provide us with much of what we learn about the world beyond our immediate experience and serve as means by which a society learns about itself and builds a sense of community;
- Function as a watchdog of government in all its forms, and promote transparency in public life and public scrutiny of those in power through exposing corruption, maladministration and corporate wrong-doing;
- Be essential facilitators of democratic processes and one of the guarantors of free and fair elections;
- Be a vehicle for cultural expression and cultural cohesion within and between nations;
- Function transparently as an advocate and social actor in their own right while respecting pluralistic values.