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The Citizens’ Perspective on Media Freedom deals with the question of “freedom to”, which means, on the one hand,free access to media and, on the other hand,freedom to express through the media. In contrast to answering the question of “freedom from”, which the commonly accepted defination of

• negative press freedom:means the absence of legal controls, such as censorship
• positive press freedom:means the ability of individuals to use the media

In a democratic society, media freedom is a basic right of the citizens, which corresponds to

Some scholars narrow the concept into the “citizen voice”. In a study from Thomas Jacobson, Lingling Pan and Seung Joon Jun named “Indicators of Citizen Voice for Assessing Media Development: A Communicative Action Approach”(forthcoming), “Citizen voice” is “the expression and circulation of the full range of citizen opinions in the public sphere… “. In their definition, all citizens are able to participate in the media, they are able to express their interests in ways that the media covers and expounds upon, and that the government takes note of the plight of marginalized, especially those who require poverty alleviation, social recognition, and political representation.

The importance of the citizens’ perspective when measuring media freedom

Despite the presence of of two perspectives to analyze the degree of media freedom,three prevailing indices of media freedom exisit:

In this internet era,billions of information is now being created, distributed and accessed through the internet and mobile equipment. New media play a crucial informational role, especially in more closed societies, “not least because they have expanded both the media’s and audiences’ possibilities of accessing and acquiring content from local, national international and global sources” ^[2]. Under this context of the new media, audiences are also the producers of content, “members of the public are actively contributing and challenging the parameters of traditional notions of information access and freedom of expression.” ^[3]

Media has played a role of informing and enlightening in democratic societies.Republican concepts of democracy emphasize “the active role of citizens in exercising freedom of expression”.^[4] “Feeling free to express one’s thoughts, however, is an important facilitator of political conversation.” ^[5]The media could contribute to the democratization by informing its citizenry, increasing the awareness of the political process, providing a forum for broad engagement in public life,and etc.

In democratic societies, journalism not only has an obligation to inform the public about crucial issues, ”but also to act as a forum for the debate: the media should inspire people to participate in the public discourse, and journalism should give voice to groups that need to express themselves in public to make their cause heard.”^[6]

The existing measurements

There are some studies and reports about measuring media freedom from the citizens’ perspective:

• The field research conducted by the
  BBC World Service Trust
  ).
• The public confidence in the media research from Gallup(Gallup World Report).
• The questionnaire involving media freedom carried out by WorldPublicOpinion.org.

• Gallup World Report

Gallup, Inc., is primarily a research-based performance-management consulting company, whose world headquarter is located in Washington DC.

In 2005 and 2006, Gallup conducted a survey with the residents from 128 countries. The questions were: “in this country, do you have confidence in each of the following or not? How about quality and integrity of the media? ” Interviews were conducted by telephone and face-to-face with roughly 1,000 persons aged 15 and older. The results were quite negative: “In half the countries surveyed, less than a majority of residents expressed confidence, and confidence among residents in many of the world's leading nations is relatively low”.^[7] The survey also showed residents in Central and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia were generally likely to express confidence in the quality and integrity of media in their countries. In comparison to Freedom House's 2007 ranking,citizens in higher ranked countries tend to have less confidence in their media, other citizens may have had more confidence in the quality and integrity of their media,although press freedom in their country was rated by Freedom House as limited. When comparing individual perspectives across nations, “there are also clear differences between citizens' confidence in the quality and integrity of their media and Freedom House's measures of press freedom in that nation”.^[8] The Study from Becker L. and Vlad T. also shows that correlations between the measurements from the two organizations are quite low, which indicates that they have measured two quite different concepts.

In 2010, Gallup conducted a similar survey in 112 countries worldwide asking the question: “Do the media in this country have a lot of freedom, or not?” The results showed that 67% of those polled worldwide consider the media in their own country to be free. “This view varies, however, ranging from as low as 27% in Chad to as high as 95% in the Netherlands.”^[9]

• WorldPublicOpinion.org

WorldPublicOpinion.org is an international collaborative project, whose aim is to give voice to public opinion around the world on international issues.It is managed by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

In 2008, it conducted a questionnaire named Freedom of the Media in 20 countries. Six questions were asked ranging from the types of media present in their home country to access possibilities of various media including the internet. It drew up 4 conclutions in its report:"All publics polled support the princle that the media should be free of the government control;Nearly all publics say the government should not limit the internet access;But many Muslims and Russians say the government should have the right to prohibit publishing material it thinks will be politically destabilizing;Many publics want greater media freedom."^[10]

The study from Becker L. and Vlad T. showed a high correlation between WorldPublicOpinion.org and Freedom House, which means, “the WorldPublicOpinion.org measure of press freedom taps from the point of view of the citizens the same concept as what the expert evaluations of Freedom House and Reporters without Borders are assessing” ^[11]

Criticisms

• Mesured dimensions

The questions from Gallup and WorldPublicOpinion.org are quite ambiguous and could not expound on the core concept of media freedom itself. One question from WorldPublicOpinion.org exemplifies this: “Do you think: The media should have the right to publish news and ideas without government control or The government should have the right to prevent the media from publishing things that it thinks will be politically destabilizing?” Here political attitudes are highlighted instead of the degree of media freedom. With reference to the confidence and dignity question from Gallup, to what extent do confidence and media freedom correlated? Singapore is an excellent example; here the media is strictly controlled by the government and ranks 154th in the Freedom House list, but the highly educated and informed citizenry have more confidence in the media than even in Finland, which ranks 1st in the Freedom House list.

• New Media Consideration

New media has undoubtedly provided citizens more platforms to get the information they desire and enabled them to participate more actively in public discourse.The Australian scholar Terry Flew has “pointed out the high hopes for the internet as a means of revitalizing politics through its impact on the public sphere”.^[12]The vast growth and intensity of use of the internet has changed the profile of how and whether citizens are informed. In China, despite filters , active censorship and thorough controls, there is a vibrant and pervasive use of the internet. More and more people in China tend to express and exchange their public opinions on the internet. Could this active internet usage be considered as a dimension of media freedom? “The rise in Information Communication Technologies is having an influence on the structure and appearance of a country’s media environment and therefore deserving of its own analysis”.^[13]

External links

• Quality and Integrity of World’s Media Report from Gallup

http://www.gallup.com/poll/103300/Quality-Integrity-Worlds-Media-Questioned.aspx#1

• Freedom of the Media from WorldPublicOpnion.org

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/may08/WPO_PressFreedom_May08_quaire.pdf http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/dec08/WPO_UDHR_Dec08_rpt.pdf

See also

• Concepts of Media Freedom
• Economic Constraints on Media Freedom
• Media Sustainability Index (MSI)

Notes

References

• Price, M., "Press freedom measures: an introduction", in S. Abbott,L. Morgan& M. E. Price (ed.), Measures of Press Freedom and media contributions to development. Evaluating the evaluators, New York: Peter Lang, pp. 2–19 {{citation}}: Text "2011" ignored (help)

• Becker, L.; Vlad, T., "The conceptualization and operationalization of country-level measures of media freedom", Measures of Press Freedom and media contributions to development. Evaluating the evaluators, New York: Peter Lang, pp. 23–41 {{citation}}: Text "2011" ignored (help)
• Godfrey, A.; McCurdy, P.; Power, G., "When theory meets practice: critical reflection from the field on Press Freedom indices", in S. Abbott, L. Morgan& M. E. Price (ed.), Measures of Press Freedom and media contributions to development. Evaluating the evaluators, New York: Peter Lang, pp. 47–66 {{citation}}: Text "2011" ignored (help)
• Burgess, J., "Evaluating the Evaluators. Media Freedom Indexes and What they measure", Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance, pp. 38-40) {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Text "2010" ignored (help)
• Trappel, J., "Why Democracy Needs Media Monitoring", in J. Trappel, H. Niemienen,L. Nord (ed.), The Media for Democracy Monitor. A Cross National Study of Leading News Media, Göteborg: Nordicom, pp. 11–27 {{citation}}: Text "2011" ignored (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
• Piccard, R.G., "The Press and the Decline of Democracy:The Democratic Socialist in Public Policy", Westport: Greenwood Press {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Text "1985" ignored (help)
• "World Public Opinion and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights", Washington,DC: WorldPublicOpinion.org, pp. 22–27 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Text "2009" ignored (help); Text "WorldPublicOpinion.org" ignored (help)
• Voltmer, K., "The Media,Government Accountablity and citizen engagement", in Norris,P. (ed.), Washington DC: The World Bank, p. 137-162 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Text "2010" ignored (help)