Over the past years, the media has greatly evolved and undergone great changes also taking strides in information sharing. The information shared has made a significant impact on politics and democratic governance. New media has affected the approach in which political leaders communicate, citizen engagement, how government structures operate, and the approach by which election disputes are conducted. For government and politically related news, new political media communication forms play a significant role in the dissemination, production, and passing of political content across networks accommodating collaboration and interaction. New media have demonstrated a wide range of inferences for practical practices and democratic governance. The media platforms have drastically redefined journalists’ roles and change the political-media system for the better. New media have redefined the approach in which both the citizens and leaders engage in governance and politics.

The system of political media has been complicated with the emergence and rise of new media. Legacy media that is comprised of institutions of mass media predating the internet, such as radio shows, newspapers, are in coexistence with new media which has been a result of advancements in technology. Traditional media has maintained a relatively stagnant format. However, the list of the platforms of new media such as blogs, websites, social media, and digital apps has significantly expanded to more innovative ways. According to Stroud (2011), media platforms structured to pass the news to large audiences have been linked to vocational roots that pass the news to a distinct audience. New media can portray information to people directly in the absence of institutional or editorial gatekeepers inherent to traditional forms. Therefore, new media have brought about an enhanced level of unpredictability and instability in the process of political and government information communication.

There exists a symbiotic relationship between new media and legacy media. In strategies reporting, legacy media applies to new media. Material is distributed across new and old platforms of communication. Legacy media are dependent on sources of new media to meet the rising content demand. Although there exists competition from new media, traditional media audiences remain enormous although not as daunting as before. According to Wired Staff (2017), readers accessing websites offering political news far outnumber The New York Times print edition readers and news networks viewers. For individuals over thirty years, network and cable television remain popular sources of political information. As a result, new media leans on traditional media for legitimacy and to make their content popular.

Basically, media plays certain roles in a democratic society. Their main goal is to provide the public with the information required to arrive at wise decisions on policy and leadership. The media plays the role of whistle-blowers for government actions. The media formulates and puts in place agendas for individuals to discuss issues, also providing a political expression forum. Media platforms also pave way for community and society building by aiding individuals to arrive at common causes along with the identification of civic groups, working towards solutions to solve societal issues. Modern-era media has the capability to meet these textbook tasks. They make available unprecedented information, and may even reach the audience with little or no interest through peer-to-peer, personalized channels the likes of Facebook. In the event the public joins forces with the media to carry out the role of a watchdog, government officials are greatly scrutinized. Events and issues that may be outside the reach of professional journalists may be brought into the spotlight by citizens.

New media evolution emerged in the 1980s when platforms of entertainment undertook political roles giving rise to the genre of infotainment. This genre lines between entertainment and news, and scandalous stories. In order to get around the press’ control over the agenda of political news, politicians turned their efforts into new media. At this stage of new media evolution, the new media infotainment emphasis enabled a friendlier platform for their representation in the public eyes as compared to outlets of hard news (Moy, et al., 2009). The new fusion between entertainment and politics garnered audiences that were not previously interested in public affairs. According to political observers, new media engages the disenfranchised public and paves way for the public to have an active role in political discourse. New media enhances the public’s access to political information while at the same time fostering participation and facilitating awide range of political discourse.

The upcoming phase in the evolving of new media commenced in concurrence with the use of digital technologies of communication to politics making it possible for new outlets. The political media was greatly transformed by the new digital environment. Public participation and involvement in the distribution and production of political content significantly increased. Citizens became key witnesses to events not covered by professional journalists. The public became responsible for posting and recording content that had the potential of influencing the course of events.

The new media systems’ sophistication is evident in the wide range of content. In the modern era of new media, boundaries separating the diverse kinds of information have been jumbled up. There has been a scarcity in the number of media editors regulating information flow by applying standards and principles for the public good. Analytics and social media editors have replaced them and their main motivation is leading users to content despite the content’s news value. As a result, the audience has to pay close attention to know the difference between fiction and factual information and to set apart what matters and what doesn’t. Generally, it would be correct to assert that the press’ traditional roles have been both undercut and expanded by new media. On the bright side, the possibility of political information to reach a disinterested individual has been increased. New media paves way for the formulation of digital meeting points which enhances the open and public sharing of information. New avenues have been created for socialization and engagement making way for the public to link with the government, at the same time offering contributions to political information flow.

Consequently, the rise of post-truth society and new media has resulted in an uncertain situation destabilizing the advantages of new media. As of the present, it seems like there are not enough checks on the ever-rising cloud of non-factual information. The watchdog role of the press has been weakened by the substitution of scandal journalism for mature investigative coverage. The media’s ambiguous position as a platform for politicians to pass information has rendered journalists as part of the spread of faulty facts. Despite the many challenges facing new media, it is evident that new media has, and continues to play a vital role in informing the public on matters regarding the government and politics, and as such, it should be regulated to enhance its reliability in passing factual and correct information.

References

Moy, Patricia, Michael A. Xenos, and Verena K. Hess. (2009). “Communication and Citizenship: Mapping the Political Effects of Infotainment,” Mass Communication and Society, vol. 8, no. 2: 111-131.

Stroud, Natalie Jomini. (2011). Niche News: The Politics of News Choice. New York: Oxford University Press.

Wired Staff. (2017). “Old-School Media Is Pulling Way More Viewers Than You Think,” Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2017/02/daily-audiencenumbers-for-big-media-outlets/. Retrieved on October 14, 2019.