Broadcast Media

The broadcast media has so much power to form opinion that it is dangerous to give politicians too much power over it. Is there something special about it that makes state ownership peculiarly beneficial, or should publicly owned broadcasters be sold off?
 
More independent media may benefit the public economically compared to state media. The media would supply more accurate information to improve the markets, which are particularly sensitive to information, allowing insight into corporate abuse of power and pricing of securities, leading to better performance and regulation. Additionally, the public are better informed as to limiting whether the government is able to hurt them economically. In contrast, higher levels of ownership of state media would show the opposite - weaker property security and lower quality of regulation. It is also common for countries with strict control of newspapers to have fewer firms listed per capita on their markets and less developed banking systems. These findings support the public choice theory, which suggests higher levels of state ownership of the press would be detrimental to economic and financial development.
 
The public interest theory claims state ownership of the press enhances civil and political rights; whilst under the public choice theory, it curtails them by suppressing public oversight of the government and facilitating political corruption. High to absolute government control of the media is primarily associated with lower levels of political and civil rights, higher levels of corruption, quality of regulation, security of property and media bias. Independent media sees higher oversight by the media of the government (for example, increased reporting of corruption in Mexico, Ghana and Kenya after restrictions were lifted in the 1990s, whilst government-controlled media defended officials.
 
The private sector will not deliver to all audiences, as it will inevitably target groups attractive to advertisers, who fund the programming. Groups with little purchasing power, such as children, the elderly and the poor are likely to be ignored. Popular programming is also likely to become simply populist, with low-cost game-shows and soap operas dominating the television schedules, and pop music and phone-ins cramming the radio waves. News coverage is also likely to suffer, as maintaining a large network of reporters is not seen as commercially viable. Free of this commercial imperative, state-owned media can aim to serve the whole of society and to concentrate upon quality broadcasting.
 
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