New Media Processes: Lapdog, Guard Dog, Fourth Estate

New media processes
Name
Institution
1 Lapdog, Guard dog, Fourth Estate, Propaganda or something else entirely? Compare and contrast two ways of thinking about the role and function of journalism in society.
Lapdog and guard dog are some of the different perspectives on the role and function of journalism. One of the similarities in lapdog and guard dog is that journalism display a lack of independence as it depends on government and elite sources for information they are supposed to provide the people of a society with. The second similarity in lapdog and guard dog is that as journalism plays its role and function in society, they do not take into consideration the opinions, and interests of any other group in a country but rather only show interest in the opinions of only the powerful people in a society (Bednar, 2012). The differences in lapdog and guard dog are that in lapdog journalism consists of journalists who do not challenge or criticize politicians and institutions as they are supposed to remain loyal to them while in guard dog journalism consists of journalists that criticize and challenge institutions and politicians without having the fear of victimization. The second difference is that in lapdog, journalism entails journalists who cover up and remain silent about the illegal deeds carried out by politicians and institutions, therefore fail to provide information to the public about the illegal deeds. .However, in guard dog journalism entails journalists who provide information to the public about the illegal deeds and all the inefficiencies so that they prevent the politicians and institutions from carrying out such actions, as they are harmful to the public. According to guard dog perceptive, the journalists provide the public with information, as they believe disclosing the information from the public would signify an action of going against the oath they took to tell the public about the whole truth.
2 Why are some critics of the news media concerned about patterns of ownership?
Critics of the news media are much concerned with patterns of ownership in media because most of them have discovered that patterns of ownership in many countries do not promote the free flow of information. They show concern about these patterns of ownership because they know that for the free flow of information to be achieved those who own and control the media must be put into consideration (Djankov et al., 2007). Critics of news media fear that most of the patterns of ownership in media limit the information the people of society are supposed to receive. The information is limited because most of those who own and control the media suppress the information passed to the public especially when the information does not serve their interests. The critics of media state the act of suppressing information is not a hea...