1.

The high rate of media consumption & the saturation of contemporary societies
by the Media.

2 The ideological importance of the media , & their influence as consciousness

industries.

3 The growth in the management & Manufacture of information, & its

dissemination by the media.

4 The increasing penetration of media into our central democratic process.

5 The increasing importance of visual communication & information in all areas.

6 The importance of educating students to meet the demands of the future.

7 The fast growing national & International Pressure to privatize information.

. The high rate of media consumption & the saturation of contemporary
societies by the Media.
. Statistics of Media Saturation

“…there is not only a physical deafness which largely cuts people

off from social life; there are also a “hardness of hearing” where
God is concerned & this is something from which we particularly
suffer on our own time. Put simply, we are no longer able to hear
God- there are too many different frequencies filling our ears…”
Pope Benedict XVI (Homily -Munich, Sunday,10 Sept 2006.
 “We Complain that through media young children are Put into the world of
violence, pornography, a shallow vision Of life. But we do almost nothing to
make something against That, to recommend good and sound production.
This is lack Of media consciousness.”
(Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini)

“Involvement in the mass media ... is not meant merely to strengthen the preaching of the
Gospel. There is deeper reality involved here: Since the very evangelization of modern
culture depends to a larger extent on the influence of Media, it is not enough to use the
media simply to spread the Christian message & the Church’s authentic teaching. It is also
that message into the “new Culture” created by modern Communications” (RM. 37)
2 The ideological importance of the media , & their influence as consciousness
industries.

Not only the time spent with Media that makes them significant. They are important shapers of
our perception & ideas. They are conscious industries that provide not only information about
the world, but ways of seeing & understanding it.

“”As social groups & classes live …increasingly fragmented & sectionally
differentiated lives, the mass media are more & more responsible :
(a) For Providing the basis on which groups & classes construct an “image” of
the lives, meanings, & practices & values of other groups & classes;
(b) For providing the images & ideas around which the social totality, composed
of all these separate & fragmented pieces can be coherently grasped as a
whole.
This is the first of the great cultural functions of the modern media; the provision
& the selective construction of social knowledge. Stuart Hall
3. The growth in the management & Manufacture of information, & its dissemination by
the media.

Manufacture of information is one of the growing

industries in many countries.
Multi -national cooperations, government agencies
& departments, the political parties, the armed
services, & even quite small institutions like locally-
based companies & universities now have their
own public relations departments.
Sri Lanka: Media-capture
“Just hours after the sudden reinstatement of Sri Lanka’s strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa
on the afternoon of 26 October, his supporters took over state-owned media outlets, literally
over night. These events illustrated, most visibly and in real time, the main findings of the
Media Ownership Monitor (MOM), a research project carried out in Sri Lanka by Reporters
Without Borders (RSF) and Verité Research (VR) over the past four months and presented
in Colombo just on the day prior to what is widely considered as a cold coup d’Etat.”

The strong role of the state, as a player, referee and rule-maker in the media sector,
combined with a number of regulatory shortcomings, is mentioned as a main threat
to media pluralism in the country, in addition to high levels of concentration and
political affiliations of media owners.

"Transparency of media ownership is crucial for democracy as it helps us

understand to what extent information we receive is monopolized. Political
affiliations or state capture of media can only result in producing biased
information. The public has a right to know who controls the audience”,
Deepanjalie Abeywardana, Head of Media at Verité Research.
 Media Ownership - Sri Lanka

The state owns and controls the following media entities:

• Publishing house – Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL / Lake

House)
• Television broadcasters – Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLRC) and the
Independent Television Network (ITN) Limited
• Radio broadcasters – Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) and the
Independent Television Network (ITN) Limited
• Online media– news.lk operated by the Department of Government
Information and the online editions of the ANCL's publications.

Meanwhile, the state has the power to regulate the media landscape through the following institutions:

• TRC – National regulatory agency for telecommunications

• SLBC – Maintains radio stations and issues licences
• SLRC – Maintains television channels and issues licences
• The Sri Lanka Press Council (SLPC) – registers and regulates print media
 4 The increasing penetration of media into our central democratic process.

What is the role of the media in the democratic process?

The media has given political parties the tools to reach large
numbers of people and inform them on key issues ranging from
policies to elections. The media can be seen as an enabler for
democracy; having better-educated voters would lead to a more
legitimate government.