Mass Media Influence On American Politics

What does it take to change the way you interpret politics? It only takes money and a little lack or change of information. Most United States citizens base parts of their culture, morality, and political views from what they learn though mass media outlets. People may change what they believe according to how the media displays the way in which society thinks in present time about a significant political or moral topic. Such outlets may include: television, newspapers, magazines, or the radio. 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

Competition of media in the past had been regulated by the government and there was lack of diversity between media outlets. However, by the early 1980’s, Congress passed the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 (Govtrack, n.d.). It was this policy which practically eradicated the regulation of the cable industry and advocated for media rivalry. Congress passed this policy in an attempt to diversify and create new media outlets for these cable companies by driving competition and innovation throughout the media industry. The drive in social media competition has promoted mobile phone and internet innovation. However, this free competition also made the mass media sources, essentially American awareness, an unregulated, money driven tool. With an unchecked, capitalist-driven media, media conglomerates were now starting to absorb the other media