The Role of the Media and Communication

Media MESSAGES convey important influences

Mass media and other forms of communication TECHNOLOGY have an enormous influence in helping to shape public opinion and underlying sentiment. Newspapers, TV and radio are all important sources of basic information about other people and other places and this can itself help to engender understanding if presented in a fair, even-handed and non-inflammatory way.

The media is also an important accountability mechanism: it raises important ISSUES, corruption for example, that might otherwise never be publicly debated or addressed. The media also has an important role in stimulating governments to take action on social policy: although stories about migrants or refugees might reinforce prejudice in some quarters, they also EXPOSE problems that need to be addressed, for example poor living conditions or lack of access to services, the citizenship status of migrants, the RESPONSE of local communities to their settlement and so on.