Media Function, an Overview

The world is witnessing today a special attention to the media and its mission. We all are also witnessing the development of the media means and the diversity of their methods and updating until they reached the emergence of new communication channels, that know no boundaries or barriers. The emergence of cable TV, the Internet, and satellite communications have turned the world into what looks like a small village and enabled everybody to know what’s going on thousands of miles away from him while he is sitting in his closed room in front of the TV or computer screen. In this context comes the term of ‘global village’ coined by McLuhan in the sixties, who described the media as the nervous system that rapidly integrate the world together, as was the case when human territories were scattered in the shape of small villages. This has led to enabling the media to fulfill its mission over a broader and deeper range, reflecting a general affirmation of the importance of the modern media and its ability to play an active role in various humanitarian issues. The media with their broad philosophy and developed means are considered as the most powerful modern communication means that help the citizen to live his era and interact with it (Stewart, 2000).

Despite their ideological and perceptual differences in their representation of the role of communication in human reality, numerous models of communication as in Shannon and Weaver model of communication (1948), Berlo’s (1960) Sender- Message-Channel-Receiver (SMCR) model, Osgood-Schramm interactive model of communication (1954), DeFleur’s (2005) Transactional model, the Action model of Berko et. al. (1992), and more agreed on that the media industry is focusing on three principles main: the media mission; that could be an event or news story or theme or idea, the human element; that is represented by the sender and receiver, and finally, the technical means through which the media message from the sender to the receiver will be transmitted or aired. The information process is aimed to promote the commodity (physical or intellectual) in order to achieve the benefit of the producer and satisfy the desires of the consumer.

The communication process in this context is a deliberate link between two par- ties; the sender and the receiver, that aims to perform a specific function in the context of human activity. It is a selective, social process, and its purpose is the in- dividual and the community access to information and knowledge and understand- ing of the experiences of other individuals and groups on the one hand, while at the same time conveying one’s opinions and experiences to others, ensuring thereby the creation of a bilateral interactive process in all cases. In the context of the previous determination of this concept, it is physically associated with the formation of the social and political individual and the concepts of freedom and democracy and their application within the community, such as participation and discussion, dialogue

and expression of opinion and its choice, as well as the expression of one’s opinion on the political and economic system. This means that the communication, its meth- ods, and operations, are leading the public to the formation of the public opinion at all levels (Croteau & Hoynes, 2013, p. 299).

Media in the Context of Political Communication

The media occupy a significant position among the gauges that indicate the level of civilization and progress in any country of the world and the extent of democracy in this society or that. The media intervene in shaping people’s attitudes and per- ceptions regarding the reality in all aspects of life. There is no doubt that modern societies have become almost entirely dependent on the means of mass commu- nication in the transfer of communication messages to be delivered to the masses and, subsequently, this means the ability of the media to intervene in the formation of the public agenda, especially visual media, as it transmit intended contents that intervene in moving and identifying the trends of the public about a specific issue, such as the mobilization of masses to take a certain decision, as well as formation of convictions and notions that ultimately form a general public opinion in some way towards the intended idea or issue (Eskjaer, 2012, p. 3). The objective and profes- sional media are therefore almost rarely available today one hundred percent, but there is a disparity in the rate of approaching them.

Many recent scientific studies in the field of political communication, as well as within the scope of political science, have shown that the media have an independent power in the society and that they play key roles on the political level through the communication materials they provide. Furthermore, they play an influential role in the political decision-making process, as we play various roles in our contempo- rary political life. The media intervene in the formation of people’s concepts and perceptions regarding the reality in all ways and aspects of life. Furthermore, me- dia provide the people’s awareness with political experiences, through which public opinion in the local and international community is formed. There is no doubt that contemporary societies have become totally dependent on mass communication in the transfer of communication messages intended to be delivered to the masses. This role is played by governmental and non-governmental organizations with the assistance of sophisticated and effective systems and devices, on the top of which are the press, radio, television, movies, and others. According to McCombs (2002, p. 2):

‘What we know about the world is largely based on what the media decide to tell us. More specifically, priorities of the media strongly influence the priori- ties of the public. Elements prominent on the media agenda become prominent in the public mind’.

It is worthy to note that the governments have discerned the active role, and the im- pact of the media means, in general, and the newspapers in particular in their ability to create public opinion in the community and move and polarize it for the defense of a certain tendency or a particular concept and even to intervene in moving the course of things and guiding a certain public in the desired direction. In this con- text, Aguiar (2009, p. 16) stated: ‘a crisis will be global if the media portrays it as such as well as an issue will be newsworthy if it fits in the pre-determiners already established not only by the media but also by the economic and political institutions surrounding them’. Consequently, this means the ability of the media to interfere with the formation of the public agenda, which is what I wanted to reveal by apply- ing that to the Palestinian and the Israeli daily newspapers, the matter that brings me to clarify the role of the media in shaping the public opinion in these countries. Newspapers, for example, by publishing certain contents reflect the situation and the prevailing conditions of their communities and feed other targeted purposes. They, with these constituents, can intervene in the order of the public’s priorities; con- sequently to intervene in the formation of public opinion. The persuasion process might be either through information, facts, figures, statistics or others.