MCC-UE 14 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Media Studies

• School: New York University
• Department: Media, Culture & Communication
• Course: MCC-UE 14
• Professor: Elizabeth Heard

Document Summary

In a modern democracy, political power lies w/ the people, that is, all the citizens of a given nation. The people exercise political power through public opinion, that is, an informal, broad consensus about any matter of collective concern, in which citizens, having put aside self-interest, arrive at an agreement based on the greatest common good. The government must, in principle, govern according to public opinion, or the will of the people. Citizens must participate wisely and well in public discourse for democracies to work; only a well-informed and thoughtful public can create effective decisions concerning the common good. But media must also work well, as it is through media that large-scale public discourse takes place. In the modern, democratic public sphere, public discourse takes place primarily (but not solely) via mass-media. Newspapers, books, television, and the internet allow conversation between individuals and groups scattered across great distances.