Dilemmas within the Media Industry

1. Introduction

Over the past few decades, nations around the world have become increasingly democratic. The media plays a large part in this process, bringing information, news, and entertainment into people¡¦s lives, and giving different communities the ability to obtain various types of information, regardless their age, race, and gender.
During the second half of the eighteenth century and in the early nineteenth century in the United States of America, a part of the commercial press became more politically independent, resulting from the growth of advertising. This extra revenue reduced dependence on political financial backing, and also encouraged the press to refuse government funding. The last paper to do so was the Observer, in 1840. The change also improved the salary and security of employment of journalists, so that they became less inclined to take government bribes. As well as this, costs and spending related to newsgathering were financed by these advertisers, ...