Assuming that journalism is a tool capable of instructing, educating and forming citizens, the association with democracy occurs naturally, since an engaged society is capable of making the democratic political system work efficiently. As James Carey stated in 1995, when referring to the media: “Journalism is synonymous with democracy, or, in other words, you cannot have journalism without democracy.”
In this sense, Carey's statement conveys a perception of journalism as a basic ingredient in the current general political context, since, even in systems where there are greater restrictions on the flow of information, as is the case in countries located in Asia and Africa, the press has shown signs of strengthening. According to data from the World Association of Newspapers, the Asian press, especially the Chinese and Indian ones, showed a 30% increase in their development.
One of the hypotheses that we can raise for the aforementioned latvia mobile database fact is that, with the greater use of the internet, there has been a democratization of communication throughout the world. Technology provides greater power to disseminate information, although it weakens the business model of the major press that was previously established. Therefore, the challenge for the traditional press is also to obtain resources to support the professionals who are still committed to careful and well-researched journalism.
In practice, what cannot be confused is journalism – carried out independently and serving as a guiding tool for society – with freedom of individual expression. It is extremely important that people understand the relevance of the role of journalism and that they do not associate reporting with entertainment.
It is no coincidence that journalism is also called “the fourth power ”, since investigative and denunciatory articles can change the context of institutions and governments. This is what the philosopher Norberto Bobbio said when he defined the right to information as a right that is not only ancillary to democracy, but also constitutional: “For citizens to be able to make truly free choices, they need to know the alternatives available to them.
And this presupposes a free press, as well as a plural one, since the perception of alternatives (ideologies, projects, public policies, candidates for representation bodies) is constructed through the diversity of reports on reality”.