Audience as Citizens

Democracies often represent themselves as being ‘free societies’ where the electorate wields power, in contrast to totalitarian states where dictatorships rule. In order for a democracy to work properly its citizens need an unrestricted flow of information on which to base their vote. The press is seen to have an important role in this and journalists are thought to offer a check on potential abuses of power perpetrated by those in government; they act as a ‘fourth estate’. However, as Graham Murdock (1994) pointed out, having access to information is only one aspect of possessing ‘cultural rights’, which he sees as being crucial to citizenship.