The relationship between politics and media remains fraught with tension and conflicts. Perhaps the most prominent point of contention between these two fields is the discussion about the scope of national sovereignty as it pertains to the media domain.
For decades, many questions have arisen about the role of traditional national media systems in presenting governments’ orientations and explaining them to the public.
The question of whether or not the media has the right to take positions that do not accurately reflect official directions in the field of public policy-making, or perhaps contradict them, has persisted.
With the emergence of social media platforms, the relationship between politics and media has taken on new dimensions, especially when this new media pattern demonstrated a significant ability to forge its own path in dealing with political, economic, and social developments of various natures.
This was a significant breakthrough, as these platforms opened the door to interactions and influencers that typically lack any official direction.
They create their own path and often broadcast their sharp and contradictory visions, often at odds with the official discourse. There was little doubt about the significant capability of these new mediums to crystallize specific orientations in the field of public policy criticism, which continued to grow exponentially in parallel with the degree of control experienced by traditional media systems.
Media systems need to fulfil their fundamental functions, far from guardianship. The public has the right to access media materials characterized by an appropriate level of quality, credibility, efficiency, and a distance from propagandistic use.
This ensures that the public doesn’t fall victim to external tools that might exploit this atmosphere of distrust to implement other propaganda agendas.
Finally, the relationship that connects media and politics is, according to experts, a relationship of mutual dependence. Neither of them can achieve goals without relying on the other.
Thus, it is fair to say that some forms of runaway media performance pose a significant threat to national interests and national security in many countries.
However, regulating runaway media performance and holding it to professional standards doesn’t mean silencing it or confiscating it. Rather, it means organising it through evaluation, according to sound and fair criteria that enjoy an appropriate degree of national consensus.
