Lesson video

Hi, you all right? I'm Mrs. Tomassi.

I'm gonna be working through with you on your citizenship lesson today.

If you're settled and you're ready to go, then we will get going.

So let's go.

So today's lesson is why is media freedom necessary in a democracy? And this is part of the unit which is about the strengths and weaknesses of the UK democratic system.

Today's outcome is that, hopefully by the end of the session, you'll be able to explain what a free press is and the role it plays in a democracy.

Moving on to the key terms for today, remember, these keywords will be in bold throughout the session.

You can always refer back to these.

So we've got democracy, to a system of government in which citizens vote in regular, fair elections for representatives who then make laws and decisions on their behalf.

Press freedom, you might also see this as media freedom throughout the lesson, and that is the ability of the press to give information, express opinions.

And then you've got censorship, which is the control of information or ideas within a society.

If we make a start, the first outline we're gonna look at is, what is the role of the media? So thinking about that, we have different types of media, and they come under different categories.

Do you know any of what these categories might be? We've got print, we've got broadcast, and then we have new media.

So print is your traditional.

It can be printed, things like the newspaper, the books, and magazines.

Broadcast, they are broadcasted, so like television and radio.

And then we've got our new forms of media.

So this covers, like, the Internet and social media.

Now, in a democracy, the whole point of having a media is to influence and inform the public.

By this, we mean that it's being able to share ideas and also about giving the facts.

Exchanging ideas and opinions, this idea of being open and that people can come back and forth with each other and hold those in power to account.

So people like the government, it can ensure that they are doing what they say they're doing.

So when we say influence and inform the public, we're gonna go into a bit more detail here.

So this means reported news should be accurate.

So it's not only the case of just reporting the news.

It's making sure that the sources are credible and that you're finding the information, et cetera.

Giving information for citizens to make responsible, informed decisions, so it's this idea that you give the accurate information there, and then the citizens can take that information, and they can critically evaluate it themselves, and come up with a solution, and decide where they sit in a scenario.

They also report in the public interest, so this idea that they're giving information to the public that they need.

So when we say influencing, we're saying making the public aware of issues and then encouraging them to act.

So this goes back to that critically evaluating.

The citizens can then decide what they do with the information they get from the media.

Exchanging ideas and opinions, so this is where the press freedom comes in because if a country or an area, a democracy, does not have press freedom, then there is not gonna be a forum to be able to exchange ideas and opinions.

Now it promotes equality.

So it's allowing everyone to be equal.

There's a varied choice.

You can hear different opinions from different people.

It allows you to ask questions.

If you're not sure on some inquiry, you don't quite agree, then you can ask the question back.

You can find out more information about it.

And then it prevents, overall, this idea of censorship.

So censorship's one of our key terms, and censorship means, it kind of sums up there, actually, what we've talked about.

It's allowing different ideas through and making sure that the media isn't censored, and told, et cetera, or controlled on what they can and can't put through.

So quick check for understanding here.

True or false, press freedom helps promote varied choice.

That is true.

Why? Press freedom allows lots of different viewpoints, areas, or interests, and broadens perspectives, offering citizens a wide variety of choice.

Then we hit onto this third point about the role of the media, which is hold these empower to account.

In a democracy, the media should do this by performing a checking function.

What that means is, if you're told some information or given information, the idea is the media goes out, and they're checking that.

Is that credible? Where does it come from? What are the sources? And they investigate issues and expose problems. They scrutinise the government and those in power.

So can you think of any examples of when the media has held those in power to account? One example you might have heard of is the MP expenses scandal, where it was found out that MPs were claiming expenses.

So separate to their wages, they were claiming additional money that wasn't being used for what it should have been used for.

So that's one example.

Obviously, more recently, we've had the COVID-19 inquiry.

So off the back of COVID, they put in a inquiry to see what was done and independently find out if the government responded quick enough and in a timely and right manner during the pandemic.

Does the media always have to be neutral? What do you think about that? So, a lot of the time, people think that they do.

However, they actually don't.

Journalists are encouraged to have their own opinions and stances on things because this then allows investigative journalism.

It allows to uncover the hidden truths, and also it allows opinion pieces, and it allows this idea of getting different viewpoints across so that the people can then make up their own minds with that.

Which of the following are not roles of the media in a democracy? Is it A, influence and inform the public? Is it B, exchange ideas and opinions.

Or is it C, allows those in power to act without accountability? It is C.

Obviously, you want them to have accountability in terms of the roles with the media.

That moves us onto our first task for the day.

So in relation to what is the role of the media, your first task is to read through each scenario and decide which role of the media it links to.

So you've got here, you've got a TV news report shares key facts about a new government policy, a journalist questions a politician about controversial decisions, and a podcast invites guests to debate a recent public issue.

When you have decided which role of the media that links to, then you just need to pick one scenario and explain how it links to that role.

So if you take some time now, pause, and then obviously come back, and we can go through what you've done.

How did you find that task? Hopefully, for the first section, you managed to work out that influence, inform the public was the TV news report 'cause that had the key facts.

Holding those to power was being able to question the politician.

And exchanging ideas was the podcast 'cause that allows different guests on to discuss their opinions.

Then for the second part, obviously, you could just pick one.

So if you did pick scenario one, then you could have said something like the TV news report influences, informs the public because it provides clear, unbiased information people need to understand the policy's impact.

If you picked scenario two, you might talk about the journalist questions hold the government to account because they challenge those in power.

Obviously, it gives them the chance to actually discuss them with them and then justify why they've done that.

And then the third one, it's inviting different perspectives to be heard.

So obviously, that's encouraging public discussion and critical thinking, both for those guests on there and those listening to the podcast.

So that brings that first section to a close, and we move on to our next point, which is why is the media controlled? We've looked at free press very briefly or press freedom.

Also, we might kind of call it media freedom.

It is vital to a healthy democracy, but it comes with responsibilities.

So it could be controlled to ensure protection, integrity.

It's important to ensure that people are protected, that we have integrity, and that there is fairness.

So it should be protected, but it must ensure that information is true.

So journalists should report with integrity accurately and with facts that can be verified.

Fairness means allowing people the chance to respond to what is being reported.

That brings us onto this idea of censorship.

Now, in a democracy, the media may be censored.

So it's that idea of withholding certain information or controlling some information, and that can happen.

Linking back to the idea of protection, the reason we might do that is things like age restrictions.

So obviously, if you think, you know, games and films, some might be 15, some might be 18 because the content is not appropriate for the children.

So they are protecting them with that.

Can you think of any other reasons why the media might have to be censored? So if you did things like state secrets, it could be in order to protect the public.

Military information, again that could be important for protection.

The watershed, you might not have heard this one, but so this is the idea that TV programmes, if they've got an age restriction on or if they're not appropriate, they can't be broadcasted before 9:00 at night.

So think it's that idea that children would then be asleep, and they wouldn't be watching them programmes.

Now censorship is there for protection, but it could be ensured for fairness, so, like, protecting the right to a fair trial.

So if somebody has been maybe accused of a crime, part of censorship can also be fairness, such as to protect the right to a fair trial.

So in this country, you're innocent until proven guilty.

So with this, then it allows somebody, without the media giving off information about a case, and people making their mind up without all the facts, and that person having the right to be in the courtroom, and have that decision made of whether they're innocent or guilty.

So why might the media be censored in a democracy? Is it A, to control public opinion, B, to limit choice and ideas, or C, to protect children, e.

g.

age restrictions on games? It is C, so that idea of protecting, and Alex has said there, "So the others are examples of censorship but not how it should be used in a democracy." We've got now laws and media control.

So the media is regulated by laws to protect people's rights and ensure fairness.

They help prevent unfair treatment and harm to individuals.

Examples of this is defamation laws, so things like libel and slander.

It protects against false information that could damage someone's reputation.

So libel and slander are these ideas that either somebody's given information that's incorrect and they've written it down, or they've spoken about somebody.

This tends to happen a lot maybe in cases of celebrities as well, and the false information can give the wrong impression, et cetera.

Next is the media being controlled.

And we have this idea of regulation.

Now regulation, this is the integrity side because it's making sure reporting is accurate.

Things tend to be regulated by an independent body.

That would be ideal because it's somebody completely separate who is then having an oversee to see what's going on, but they're not involved.

So hopefully, it then allows the correct procedures to be followed.

An example here, we've got Ofcom.

So they're the UK's communication regulator.

If you ever hear about TV complaints, and people have complained, it's probably gone through Ofcom.

To give you a bit of an example, in 2023, according to Ofcom, they received 69,236 complaints, opened 57 investigations, and found 35 cases to be broken.

So again, it's this idea that they are independent, and they are there purely just to make sure there is integrity there.

Another example, so Ofcom's more for the broadcasting, whereas we have the Independent Press Standards Organisation, which is for the print and digital news regulator.

Again, they are separate, and they aim to protect the public and freedom of expression by upholding high editorial standards.

IPSO, who are there to uphold the standards by having their own editors' code of practise for editors to follow and journalists and make sure they're accountable.

Now obviously, we've got the new form of media, which is then social media.

It's helped ordinary citizens to share information and ideas, offering more diversity of opinions.

However, it's not regulated in the same way as other forms of media.

So what can mean here is that there could be a spread of harmful information or misinformation.

So people might just be sharing 'cause it's quite quick and easy to do without fact checking the information that they've got.

And then this can obviously increase or spread misinformation because the original post was incorrect.

You also have an idea that could also be spreading disinformation, where people know that it's incorrect, but they wanna get the word out there.

So there's the downsides to social media as well.

Check for understanding now.

How has social media affected the sharing of information? A, it allows sharing of ideas but is regulated differently.

B, it restricts the spread of opinions and ideas online.

Or C, it is heavily regulated, preventing any harmful content.

It allows the sharing of ideas, but it's regulated differently because there is limited regulation there.

But it does allow opinions to get out and people to share their ideas quickly.

So our second task for this session is Laura and Jacob.

They are debating if the media should be controlled during public health emergencies.

Laura says, "I don't think the media should ever be controlled in this situation.

People need to get information quickly to keep safe." Whereas Jacob says, "I think it should get controlled.

If people get incorrect information, it could create everyone to panic unnecessarily." Obviously, both them points are valid.

So you've gotta decide who you agree with more and give a reason why.

If you take some time now just to pause and then come back, and we can go through both scenarios and answers.

So how did you find that one? If you decided to agree with Laura, it could have been something like this.

So, "I agree because in emergencies, unrestricted access of information is crucial for public safety, allowing people to make informed decisions and respond rapidly to protect themselves and others.

The media might need to be censored to prevent the spread of misinformation and panic," whereas if you agree with Jacob, you could say, "I agree because, in a crisis, misinformation can fuel fear and confusion, leading to poor decision making and widespread panic, which can make the situation worse.

The media might need to be censored to prevent this spread of harmful or dangerous content, such as false health advice." So which one did you go for there? Did you have something similar, or did you have a little bit different? That moves us onto our final point today, which is, why is media freedom necessary in a democracy? Here we have a map.

Now this is according to the World Press Freedom Index.

Having a look there, what do you think the colours might show? So we've got the colours in blue, which suggests a good situation.

So what that's suggesting in terms of press freedom is that there is a good level of press freedom in those countries.

If you go to the lighter blue, that's a satisfactory situation.

Yellow, we start to see problems. Orange is difficult, and red is a very serious situation.

So that's all in terms of the press being free and having the ideas that they can share their opinions, et cetera, without interference from the government.

Having a look there, can you work out which country is in the darkest blue or has a very good situation? So the country with the most press freedom is Norway.

Now Norway is also the highest-scoring democratic country according to the 2023 Democracy Index.

So it's that idea that press freedom and democracy can link hand in hand.

So by allowing a free press, we also having higher democratic countries.

On the other end of the scale, we've got China that ranks 172 out of 180 for press freedom.

Now this is because their major media groups are owned by the state or the government.

They have social media platforms that are censored.

And also, the other side, China is classed as an authoritarian regime, and it scores low on the democracy index.

So you've got the flip side to this, where if a country has less freedom in terms of the press, there also tends to be more control in the country.

Here we have the UK.

Now the UK ranks 23 out of 180 for press freedom.

Is that high, low? Did you have any ideas where you thought that the UK might come? So it actually comes under a satisfactory situation.

Now it comes under a satisfactory situation because, although the media's not controlled by the government as such, there aren't many people that control the media.

So there's not a huge, widespread amount of different people producing different papers, et cetera, and different for sources of media there.

The UK is also classed as a full democracy.

So again, they do score fairly high on the press freedom, and again, they're seen as a full democracy.

So we're having a bit of correlation here between democracy and press freedom.

What is the UK's press freedom situation according to the World Press Freedom Index? Is it A, a good situation, B, satisfactory situation, C, noticeable problems, or D, a difficult situation? It is B, satisfactory situation.

So the role of the media in a democracy is to, we went over this earlier, inform and influence public, exchange ideas and opinions, hold those in power to account.

Now having media and press freedom allows this to be free from interference.

So this is the idea that we're saying that if it's controlled by the government or individual person, then it is not allowing ideas to get across.

It's not allowing the influence to the public or holding people to account because it's controlled by a individual or a group.

The media and press freedom allows it to be transparent and clear on how they operate and ownership.

So you can see where people are affiliated to, et cetera.

And it allows people to be held accountable and responsible for their actions.

By making sure it's free, people have an option to find out what is going on, which links into it being transparent as well.

True or false, press freedom means the press is censored by the government.

That is false.

Why? Press freedom means it should be free from government interference, and people should be able to express their own opinions.

So we are onto the final task for this session.

So if you can, give two reasons why media freedom is essential in a democracy and explain why each reason matters.

Take some time now, pause, and then come back on, and we can go through and have a look at the reasons.

Now you could have had something like this.

So here have put, "It's essential in a democracy 'cause it allows communication with government representatives.

This is important because they can make change on citizens' behalf, so hear, listen to what their constituents have to say, and they can be held accountable for what they do.

Another reason that media freedom is essential in a democracy is because it means there's an open sharing of ideas.

This is important because everyone can hear different viewpoints and can collectively discuss, which can help to promote positive change in laws.

Now you could have linked it to other roles of the media, such as reporting on facts, et cetera, because obviously that's important because it's giving all the information to citizens, and then they can make an informed decision and choice.

There are other ones as well.

So as long as you've linked it into any of the ideas and roles of the media.

So that brings us to the end of the session today.

I hope you have managed to find out a little bit more about media freedom, what it is, and why it's necessary in a democracy and had a little think of different viewpoints on this.

To summarise, we've got the role of the media in a democracy is to influence and inform the public, exchange ideas and opinions, and hold those in power to account.

Now the media might be censored to ensure protection, integrity, and fairness.

So this is when we looked at the age restrictions and watershed to protect children, and the media freedom is necessary in a democracy.

So the media remains free from interference.

It's transparent and clear on ownership and operations, and those in power are held accountable and take responsibility for their actions.

Yeah, and that brings us to a close.

So hopefully, you've enjoyed the session today and understand a little bit more about the media freedom in a democracy.