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5.3.2. Can the public do without higher information’s quality?

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In chapter three the importance of the written press in Switzerland has been quickly described. One of the aspects covered was its significance to the democracy. The press has had a vital role to play in the Swiss democracy for a long time for one principal reason. That reason is that the Swiss press has a long tradition of quality. It is mainly the quality that helps the democratic debate.

How does quality help the democratic debate? One of the tasks that are asked to journalists is to facilitate the transmission of information from the political debate to the general public. The challenges, stakes and issues of the political agenda are often complicated and carry a lot of different meanings. So all people of Switzerland can be included in the debate it is important for the journalists to do a good work to transmit information. With low quality information the democratic debate cannot take place because most people need help to understand the political stakes, in particular in Switzerland where people are often called upon to vote.

Because of the power Swiss citizens have it is important that they invest time to inform themselves. This is particularly important nowadays for the young generation. The problem is that most of them are not interested anymore by the political aspect of their country. They are collectivized in a culture of low quality and where information is free, as stated in previous section. This socialization has to change in the future for young people in order to keep the well being of democracy. People have to understand that high quality has a price and that it is essential in Switzerland.

Another argument that speaks for the necessity of high quality is the role of the media of quality. They are very important because the play the functions of place of debate, of control and of integration. Those functions cannot be replaced by low quality media. And they are very important in every democracy of the world.

These arguments lead to an easy conclusion: the Swiss citizens absolutely cannot do without high quality information. It has too many role and implications. A particularly important challenge in the future will be to convince people that this is a necessity in Switzerland for everybody.

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