American Public 's Knowledge And Involvement

Thesis: Media bias has influenced the minds of young Americans while withholding veracious facts causing the rate of American teenagers who watch the news to go down.

Despite the fact that television is still the dominant source, there have been shifts involving the consumption of news programming. There has been a significant fall in the reliance of the networks and their national newscasts for America's news. Today more people are relying on the reports given by local news programs than on that of the networks. Several surveys have recorded this shift as early as 1993, denoting that much of America cites local news on television as their major source of information.

In chapter one, Wattenberg discusses the declining trends of Americans who regularly read newspapers between the 1960’s and present day. This can be attributed the aging patterns among generations who frequently read newspapers as well as with the use of technology rising. Reading the newspaper is a habit that either is or is not developed by the time one reaches voting age. With this, newspapers have become an older generation’s primary source of information, however, are still the best source for political matters. Younger generations tend to be more computer literate and have grown up with television and media more accessible to them than the previous generation. These trends not only reflect in American culture, but in other countries

Robert J. Samuelson’s essay, “Picking Sides for the News,” details the problem of citizens only hearing the news that they want to hear through statistics. Samuelson begins his essay by giving the reader the opinion of Americans in regards to news being reported. He goes on to say that Americans are increasingly choosing to listen to news based on “partisanship,” meaning conservatives listen to Republican news and liberals listen to Democratic news. Samuelson highlights the fact that most Americans are starting to not believe what they hear in the news, partisan growth resulting because of the distrust. Samuelson concludes his essay by describing why the reader should care. He believes the reader should care because the media’s bias’ are shaping

Most studies focused on the impact of the news but Americans today receive a lot of their information from entertainment sites and social media. The media can affect the public’s understanding of events in numerous ways it frames how people think about a particular issue or event..As Kinder and Sanders (1996) explain, “frames lead a double life . . . frames are interpretive structures embedded in political discourse. . . . At the same time, frames also live inside the mind; they are cognitive structures that help individual citizens make sense of the issues” (p. 164). When frames in political discourse

News media has a largely, overwhelming influence on Americans in this day and age. Over the years, audiences have been exposed to various types of broadcast journalism, each with their own forms of bias to generate attention towards various topics. The audience perceive bias in news media program. An in-depth analysis of bias on opinionated news compared to non-opinionated news is key to figuring out how the news media may be sensationalizing a problem.

I will begin by explaining five factors from our reading from the textbook and from our class discussions that interfere with Americans’ access to news. I will explain what each factor is and then I will explain its impact on the consumption of news. Firstly, I will show how the decline of printed press affects the quality of the investigative reporting of newspapers. Then, I will show how soft news impedes on Americans’ ability to gain factual information. Next, I will talk about

According to research obtained by Cornell University scientists, 92% of Americans watch TV, 87% read newspapers, and 81% specifically watch local or national televised news stations…

With all of the technology Americans have, it’s easier than ever to have access to the news. Patrons of the media then have to take the information given to them and decipher what’s accurate, unbiased news and what is news that

Citizens of the United States vary vastly. The exposure to media, however, is one common thread that connects the majority of the population. We trust popular news outlets to portray information we need or want to know, but do these stations always deliver it the same? CNN and Fox are two dominant forces in today's media driven society, but these two juggernauts often differ in coverage on many current prominent issues.

According to the book Celebrity Politics, approximately 10 percent of Americans get national political news from nightly entertainment shows such as the Tonight Show. For Americans under 30, the number is nearly five times as many (Orman and West 100). Citizens are looking to be entertained rather than simply educated by the nightly news. As David Schultz aptly put it, “ The new media cover politics, but only politics as it entertains, in part, because the audience the new media attract is a less politically interested audience than traditional news audiences” (20). The fact is that this American audience is less interested in hard news and more interested in

Personalized and dramatized news are two ways for the media to engage and gain a viewer’s attention to a story. Instead of informing citizens of events, the news media turns them into an entertaining melodrama. People become disengaged and desensitized to stories that get told over and over with a new spin. American media has set this up with pure intentions of entertaining to gain ratings.

The Public Occurences was the first ingenuous attempt to report news to the public. This informed people on current issues, enabling them to form their own opinions about politics. Since 1690, the media’s approach to reporting news stories has shifted. Instead of offering people the truth, forms of media like television often distort political affairs to align with their own political agendas. With the shift in the media’s tactics of tackling current events, the public’s perception of the media has transformed. Back in 1690, any form of media was a blessing because it kept the public cognizant. Today, people take for granted a constant flow of information because it is so readily available. Overall, the incessant and

Just how influential are soft news outlets in informing the american people? I approached this topic with an interest in the answer because soft news media is one of the early ways that I was introduced to politics. It is through this medium of media that I have seen many people increase their political participation. There have been some studies in this topic but I want to see how prevalent these studies are to today’s soft news media. One of the more useful resources that I had while writing this paper is that of Matthew A. Baum. He has written many studies regarding soft news in the media throughout the years. I believe that soft news outlets are a great way for the politically uninformed to become better informed rather than watching the more hard news outlets.

The belief that journalism is in decline has triggered major alarms, because society needs an informational environment that is easily available to all citizens such as newspapers. There is a large body of journalist that suggests that if television has taken over from the press as our main source of news this may limit our capacity to learn about public affairs; newspapers are believed to be far more effective than television at conveying detailed information necessary to understand complex and detailed issues. There is also widespread concern that if journalism fails as a profession it will not be able to reach large sections of the community, particularly younger or less educated readers. This may reinforce a growing gap among citizens between the information that they receive.