Politics, media and influences on public opinion

Now the typology of Albanian political development is inextricably linked as never before with the interference and organic mediation of the media, which possesses indisputable power based on modern broadcasting technology and diversified digital mass communication infrastructure. I believe that there is no one who is not aware of this dominant sociopolitical and media reality, of the role, power and power of the media, which today moves perhaps faster and has more comprehensive influences than the "political machine". Especially when it comes to the two-way dialectical process of informing and forming the opinions of citizens in the stable form of public political opinion.

Today in Albania there are dozens of television formats and hundreds of portals which, in the competition between them, try to give as many effects as possible in the formation of the public political opinion of the citizens. In fact, the "battle" for the most influence is undoubtedly a normal part of the deontology of the media and other digital and mass communication networks. Because we have entered an era where the source of political information and news that has an impact on the formation of public political opinion is no longer only newspapers, radio or television, but also channels, networks and numerous portals, which if two decades ago were merely complementary factors of this process, they have now become important. Even, in some aspects even decisive.

In other words, it has already become a broad social problem, quite sensitive for everyone, the way political communication is carried out, how politics is connected with the media and citizens. This, especially in the conditions when the Albanian society has taken the extended format of a "media society". In these dichotomous relations between politics and media, all political-media successes and pathologies are synthesized. The situation of relations between politics and the media has synthesized a complex problem. Because, even though we cannot speak of a union, unity or "symbiotic fusion" between politics and the media, we cannot fail to note in some instances the visible, quite distinct manifestations of media mercenaryism or vassalage to the omnipotent aims of politics, the desire her frenetic drive to bring the media under control, or as a tool in the passive service of her goals.

In appearance, a kind of pluralist identity independence of the media appears, but behind this appearance are the "sins" of subordination and interference determining in many cases the "power of politics". Which he achieves sometimes violently and other times with civil elegance, with aesthetically "galvanized" interventions by carefully combining it with the kennel of democratic behavior. It is a fact that despite the changes and improvements that have taken place, especially in the last decade in the process of democratization and professionalism of the media, it has not yet ensured true informational and editorial independence. As a result, it is still not completely freed from the pressure of political, economic and social actors, from the force of extramedia lobbies and the omnipotence of business influences.

There is an ambivalent situation in the relations between politics and the media, which is a negative factor, with multiple damaging consequences not only for media identity and independence, but especially for authority, substantial values ​​and "physical and metaphysical" authority of politics, which it has in its "blood" the disease of paternalism, the use of all kinds of stratagems and tricks to control the media, as the most adequate way to influence the construction of the unified mentality that forms the political and public opinion of the citizens.

In truth, this is a concern not only for Albanian society, but also for the politics of countries with a more consolidated democratic stature. Recently, in Albanian politics, the nervousness, aggressiveness and conflict between politics and the media is increasingly felt, in the fight for the use at any cost and the use of media tools, to realize the objectives of political manipulation, through the politics of contacts. public and personalized with citizens through "communicative policy" media. It is true that already in the Albanian media market, at least in appearance, there is a kind of independence of the media from politics, but this is not in the substantial sense of true independence, rather than the dichotomous division of the media for certain purposes and reasons of the media. left and right.

The appearance of the existence of "competing media", if it were true and the competing attitudes were independent, they would be good for politics and very good for the formation of the public political opinion of the society. But this is done when media information is sovereign, reliable and the interpretations of journalists and media intellectuals are true and reliable at the same time. The fact that the media is part of the business and appears as private property is a problem in itself. Although there is no other way, it must be accepted that this is a factor, which often causes the emergence of the social pathology of the deformation of relations between politics and the media.

The owners of "media empires" are not always impartial in this problematic dichotomy between the interests of politics and the deontology and professionalism of the media. Often, the preferences, orientations and political goals of the owners are felt in the wide intermedial network, which determine the editorial policies, and therefore indirectly interfere in the complicated process of forming public political opinion. The history of recent years has given examples of some media owner, who tried to realize his political ambition through it, using not only the newspaper he owns, but all the economic strength of his personal business to achieve his political goals. From a legal and moral point of view, there is nothing wrong or illegal to use "privately owned" media for personalized purposes.

The problem is the impact on citizens' views and the sphere of shaping their public opinion. Even more, when it is known that in the Albanian society, still politicized, the media is the most massive form of communication, perhaps the most important as an instrument that realizes the inclusion of citizens in the politics of the day. Be it in long-term strategic and militant policies or even for hobby or pastime. In these three decades of democratic life, the quality of politics and the political interference of the media have brought a very long, strong and consequential "endemic disease" not only in the often deformed relations of citizens with politics, but also in the process of the impact of the media on the formation of the individual opinion and the social characterizing mentality of the citizen about the quality, values, antinomies and "sins" of politics.

In political sociology, this is the hypothesis of the "video-malaise" disease, which originates from the fact that citizens, using the political content broadcast by the media often, if not many times, take them as genuine, guaranteed sources of public information. . As a result, it is easier for them to trust the media more, being prone to skepticism and keeping a distance from real politics. In this situation, people are often mistrustful and cynical towards him. This is the complicated process, which the philosopher Jurgen Habermas calls "alienation of citizens from politics", which according to him breeds "apathy, apathy and incomprehension". Undoubtedly, the appearance of a kind of "imperialism" of politics over the media is quite evident, either as a quantity of information or as a continuous, uninterrupted "occupation of time" of the media space.

This is part of the "video-malaise" pathology, which is easily diagnosed when you look at the dominance of politics and politicians as the main providers and influencers in the subject of journalistic, television and digital media broadcasts. I believe that looking at the amount, intensity and time density of media information with political news, which "bombard" the citizen incessantly, we must say that they are really in the role of "media privileged", with time slots and transmission limits of almost unlimited. In this aspect, in relation to politics and politicians, the position of other civil society actors is more peripheral, with spontaneous influences on the formation of public and media political opinion. It is not normal, and even has consequences for the quality of the formation of public political opinion, the fact that the relationship between politics and other "non-political" or "extra-political" actors is disproportionate.

This is why the weight of politics in creating media public opinion is extremely strong. Due to the weak involvement, shallow reflection of the role of other actors, this opinion is generally divided, fragmented, politicized, dichotomous. Mostly with strong shades of militancy and very little with blind citizens. This disproportionate report of the media in relation to politics, but also to other actors with peripheral media influences, is, in my opinion, the main reason why, alongside the militants, a wide layer of the "average citizen" is being created, who appears uninterested for politics. Be it in the fundamentally ontological sense, but also with the obvious display of typical media indifference. Despite the transitory pathologies, politics and the media in Albania could not stay out of the common bed, the postmodern flows of mass communication, which in societies with a "large national space", can never be limited or parceled by autarkic communicative concepts .