ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a better explanation of the role, functioning and significance of the media. The media are able to cite in defence of their undemanding approach to truth the democratic principle of 'free speech'. The role of the media in governance consequently means also that the media have a role in the conduct of an economy. The media are likely to have a much lesser commitment to 'truth' and 'facts' than a civil service. The importance of information to the assembly of support, and hence to governance, implies the importance of those who principally create the information interface accessible to ordinary people – that is, the media. The intellectual support-bargaining that is part of the process of government is concerned with matters having immediate relevance to the assembly of support and the conduct of a nation's affairs. Specialist money-bargaining agencies have a central role in the dissemination of information that determines the distribution of support in society.
