ipl-logo

How Has Mass Media Shaped American Politics

928 Words4 Pages

How has mass media shaped american politics?

“The importance of the mass media in today's society cannot be overestimated. Especially in the arena of policy-making, the media's influence has helped shape the development of American government. To more fully understand the political decision-making process in this country it is necessary to understand the media's role in the performance of political officials and institutions. “(Oswald, Kristine A) the media plays an important role in today's society in creating structure for our governing policies creating structure to have a very organized stronger formulated governed body.this also helps instute “The importance of the media's power and influence can only be fully appreciated through a …show more content…

This also gives corporations more control over the people in today's society. “Recently, the media has gained more control over what political information is presented to the public. The world of mass media has been shrinking ever since the 1970’s and a handful of companies today have a controlling interest in what news is reported on and how that news is represented. Several media analysts point to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as one of the primary reasons behind the ever strengthening influence the media has over politics and subsequently the public. The act removed long-standing limits on the number of media outlets that any one company could own in any single market. Currently the cap stands at …show more content…

The original intention of the Telecommunications Act was to make it easier to gain access into the telecommunications business by lifting ownership restrictions. The problem with the easing of the sixty-two year long restrictions is that the new guidelines didn’t set out any boundaries for major media corporations.”(Taylor, Michael) in this they have more control over what knowledge we are allowed to have and what we are allowed to know about them and their flaws. Which leads into the freedom of press pushing new boundaries "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." This quote by A.J. Liebling illustrates the reality of where the media stands in today’s society. Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in power throughout the media with regard to politics. The media’s original purpose was to inform the public of the relevant events that occurred around the world. The job of the media is to search out the truth and relay that news to the people. The media has the power to inform the people

Show More
Related

Outrage Industry: A Summary

763 Words | 4 Pages

This gradual transformation started in the early 1980’s when President Reagan was in office. A process began where media outlets were owned and controlled under five mega corporations. Television news was and still is seen as sucessful business for profit. To maintain profit, news outlets depend on drama for ratings. Once the The Fairness Doctrine of was eliminated in 1987, conservative outrage news segments dominated.

Read More

The Braindead Megaphone Analysis

800 Words | 4 Pages

Society expect to be constantly entertained; they have become so concerned with things such as who the latest star is dating, scandals, or dumb people doing rather idiotic things. Much of society have been consumed in their personal instant gratification and what makes them “happy”. When on an off chance that news does show things that are serious and impactful(not necessarily positive things that is happening in the world) people have become so numb that the best they could do is feel sympathetic and at worst continue on with their day. The other part of the problem is that those behind what is being published and shown on the news media have been absorbed in their avarice nature, whatever allows them to make as much profit they do. “Writing thousands of hours of coverage from what could have been summarized in a couple of minutes every few weeks, a new rhetorical strategy was developed, or-let’s be generous-evolved”(6), Saunders describes the new formula formed by mass news firms that would yield the most profit.

Read More

Andrea Lunsford's Our Semi-Literate Youth? Not So Fast

872 Words | 4 Pages

The strength and effects of mass media are expressed perfectly in Denis McQuail’s article “The Influence and Effects of Mass Media.” McQuail does not really focus on the educational spectrum of mass media like Lunsford. Instead he tries to provide useful information about how mass media effects society as a whole and how there can be power gained from ownership of mass media. Instead of just thinking of mass media as a website that teenagers get on to post what they are eating for lunch or what they had to do that day, McQuail looks deeper and writes about how mass media can lead to political and economic power. One example from his article is when he writes about how mass media “can attract and direct attention to problems, solutions or people” and can also be useful in the forms of “persuasion and mobilization.”

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of The United States Government

1660 Words | 7 Pages

Making sure they see what they want them to see. The 1% has made bids to buy air time and it's being glady accepted by television executives. This leads to censorships. Tom Brokaw said“all wars are based on propaganda” (2009) Media won't cover the real stories or question the government or policies in any way that the American government and mainstream media been blended together as one. Taking a job in the media to become a real reporter isn't a real

Read More

ABC News: The Most Revolutionary Changes In The US

1005 Words | 5 Pages

Through the centuries, people have fought for their inalienable rights: life, liberty, and freedom. Most of the influential movements in history have started in the media, since it was the easiest way to disseminate information and unite nations. When demands were not met by a higher authority, the citizens unrest provided an impetus for some of the most revolutionary changes in the world’s history. The American Broadcasting Company was founded to provide the public the same chance to uphold their freedoms. Although ABC News started at the bottom of the United States’ news agencies; ultimately, their organizational structure, mission, and content has propelled them into a leading domestic and international news source.

Read More

Formulate Public Opinion: Making President By Theodore White

981 Words | 4 Pages

In his book "Making President", American journalist Theodore White discussed the influence of American mass media, pointing out that the mass media "setting the agenda for public discussion determines what people are talking about and thinking about. " If there is no newspaper industry to lay a solid foundation for public opinion, no major congressional act, diplomatic action or major social transformation will succeed in the US. （Combs,2004）According to Philip Seib's investigation and research, he believes that sometimes the public opinion threatened by mass media is a huge engine of democratic politics (2008), which determines what the government should do. At the same time, according to Maxwell McCombs' investigation, the influence of the mass media's agenda has not been confined to the United States. Countries such as Germany and other countries and region the phenomenon of mass media setting up a political agenda also prevails.

Read More

Media Influence On Political Parties

511 Words | 3 Pages

Media and Technology have evolved exponentially and changed the operation of political parties. Since 1968, the newspapers, radio, or journalists don’t cover the political parties. Instead, the media, especially, television is influential in who becomes the nominee of a party nomination. However, prior to 1968, the media was no that significant in the nomination process. Nominees are chosen strictly by voters at the contests.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Media Conglomerates

2798 Words | 12 Pages

A media source which ignores or censors important issues and events severely damages freedom of information. Many modern tabloids, twenty four hour news channels and other mainstream media sources have increasingly been criticized for not conforming to general standards of journalistic integrity. In nations described as authoritarian by most international think-tanks and NGOs media ownership is generally something very close to the complete state control over information in direct or indirect ways. Undesirable consequences which occur due to media imperialism are: • Commercially driven ultra-powerful mass market media is primarily loyal to sponsors i.e. advertisers and government rather than to the public interest.

Read More

Media Influence On American Politics

1645 Words | 7 Pages

There are many powerhouse groups that can be said to run this country, although there is some dispute over a few of them there are in fact two that shouldn’t be denied, these include the media and the system of politics called our government. Although in many cases these two powerhouses are separate, the media tend to focus quite a bit of there attention on politics. The media is no doubt the biggest player when it comes to dishing out the news in this country. When it comes to certain political issues and the way many of the top stories are reported, people notice that there are drastically different views coming from these news sources. Studies that look into theses differences show that different media outlets do tend to cover big headlines in a different manner than others and these sources are even noted as displaying the same ideology of a certain political parties.

Read More

Media Bias In Politics

1064 Words | 5 Pages

This paper is a concentration and analogy of how the media has changed the political outlook of American political agenda and has managed to reflect certain political influences into the coverage and reporting of local and national political news that challenges our belief, norms and values and how we judge the overall media as a trusted source of information. History of media in politics started with the word of mouth from one person to another, but during the European Renaissance era, news of local and government events was handwritten and circulated by merchants, by the late 1400's Germany was able to print its first pamphlets and broadsides, and often was highly sensationalized content. In the English speaking world the first

Read More

How Does Mass Media Influence American Politics

821 Words | 4 Pages

Chapter 2: Literature Review This research study will address the problem of how mass media has the influential power of influencing individual attitude and perspective regarding national political candidates. The purpose of this study is to examine why the mass media has a voluminous impact on a person's decision making when it comes to voting for a particular political candidate. Within this chapter, the scholars use the data to examine three theoretical concepts of how American politics works in the degree of influencing the way media have in the decision-making process. This chapter is section into seven broad sections.

Read More

Mass Media Influence On American Politics

1297 Words | 6 Pages

Two of the most significant media influences upon Americans are newspapers and television; particularly television as newspapers are becoming less common for the current generation of people in the U.S.A. While the internet is a growing factor as a media outlet for the current generation, most Americans still rely on television channels for their political information. Media conglomerates are able to change how Americans perceive politics because of the

Read More

Internet Censorship In The United States

2072 Words | 9 Pages

Regulation of the media has numerous goals, to protect the public interest, encourage competition and control content standards. The media falls under two models, that of public service and the market model. The UK, Italy and the USA are key of examples of how media regulation can be partially successful under different models, although ultimately they all fail to achieve the same goals. Traditionally, the media could be successfully regulated through the state controlled public service model the expansion of the media in particular the internet has meant that states are no longer able to impose the same scale of regulations. At the same time, a concentration of ownership so called monopolies has failed to be avoided and in turn they have gained

Read More

Essay On Media Bias

1296 Words | 6 Pages

The media will pick and choose which topics to discuss according to the viewer’s ratings. The news media represent the news in a manner that will leave people coming back for more. They choose carefully what they want to report and by doing so they do not spread lies within the articles but what they choose not to tell the audience. The media shares what the people

Read More

Mass Media And Politics Paper

1182 Words | 5 Pages

This paper will be covering a brief history of mass media, explain what effects it has on politics, how media today differs from the past, and how technology is changing the

Read More

More about How Has Mass Media Shaped American Politics

Related Topics

Open Document