Media Influence On Politics

Television has been influential in United States presidential elections since the 1960’s. But just what is this influence, and how has it affected who is elected? Has it made elections fairer and more accessible, or has it moved candidates from pursuing issues to pursuing image? The media only impacts the American Society, especially for the presidential election as it increases the talks in politics and gives the president a higher role to follow. The television race captures more popularity than what a citizen is actually voting for.

Last but not least, the media does not take political elections as seriously as politicians might like. People on social media, horse-race the politicians to see who will win the election. They debate on who will win, rather than the politicians views on topics. Horse-races are where citizens vote on who will win the election and they see the race happen and they determine whether their vote was correct or not. They ‘run’ the politicians, just like how people run horses. “Lost in the media spectacle is any careful coverage of issues and policy proposals, or serious discussion of candidate background.” (bigthink). When the media horse-races politicians, they horse-race them by their party or their major decisions that they have made. Citizens can also race them by protests that they were involved in, in their young adult lives, for example Bernie Sanders and his early protests were covered all over the media.

Media plays a huge role in today's society. Media, in its many forms, can be very persuasive and can change how people view a certain topic. The past few years, media has greatly affected how people feel about topics such as: gay rights, abortion, racism, and anything political. Depending on what site, or source you are on, media can depict the topic you research however it wants. It has been argued that there are political bias in media, which is not wrong. You can find just about anything in whichever political view you want. When talking politics, there are multiple media outlets that are party-based. Even in print, you can find just about anything in favor of what you believe if you look for it. Media does a fantastic job of manipulating people to believe certain things without the audience realizing it. The media provides constant information about politics, and in more times than not, political rather than professional. In this lesson, we learned about liberals and conservatives and how political parties can be affected through media bias and public opinion.

Media has completely evolved from what it was twenty years ago and now the media plays an extremely large role in politics. Mass media refers to the means for communicating to audiences. In the past, mass media would be considered newspapers, radios, and television announcements. Now, there are social media platforms and apps that deliver news and information to the people wherever they are. Even the current President has no qualms using such platforms as he is a frequent, and not so loved, user of the Twitter app. Almost every government agency and organization has their own website, or even their own twitter/instagram account. This provides the public easy access to information and updates regarding who they follow and what party they identify with. However, this leads to the problem of “newsworthiness”. Newsworthiness is the degree in which a story will likely appeal to the public. This can have very negative consequences as many journalists will write their pieces biasedly to attract the attention of fellow supporters. They will forgo the facts and instead, pick and choose what they want to include in their articles. This leads to a misinformed public, as they never receive the full

[Hunches forward, talks nasally] Dee-da-dee, a-dee-da-dee-da-dee." [Daniels] Reverend Jesse Jackson says that the media depicts African Americans in "5 deadly ways: less intelligent...less hardworking...less universal...less patriotic...and more violent than we are." [Gibbons, 65] Gibbons, documenting Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign and the media coverage of it, also said:"American journalism - excellent when it reports the facts, but is literally incapable of informed opinion without bias when dealing with matters concerning race." [80]Indians and African Americans are not alone. All minorities are depicted inaccurately. Asian Americans, for example, are represented "as perpetually foreign and never American." They are depicted "as murderous and mysterious, as amorous or amoral... symbols of danger, refuge, inspiration, and forgiveness." "[Lipsitz]Lipsitz finds this "degrading, insulting, and implicated in the most vicious and pernicious form," as he is expected to. The problem is

Accentuating the comical nature of the media, society strongly adheres to the opinions of influential leaders imposed by the susceptible nature of public conformity and the obscure outlying opinions of the media figures.

How are you informed about voting and elections? With the invention of television, American politics would be forever changed. Politics and television have evolved to be so intertwined that they are now almost one and the same. Since the invention of television in the nineteen fifties the media has had a substantial impact on the outcome of a highly publicized campaign in both positive and negative ways. However, the transition from campaigning in front of unions, work places, and public forums to being able to reach more than millions of homes in America with a single ad led to a drastic reform in the way a president would seek election. The presidential election of the 1960 with John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon would be the pioneering

Political scientist, journalists, and politicians alike often discuss the role of the news media’s place in affecting campaigns, and voter perceptions. Claims of media bias in political news coverage have risen over the past two decades. Scholarly research has explored concerns that broadcast and print media shape voting decisions in democratic processes.

Journalists contributed distributing of knowledge to consolidate and enrich our point view. Conversely, a new year a new presidential candidate, the Republican candidates debates have raised the level of the juvenile. Though the candidates have done a better job attacking each other on different media outlets such as Fox, Msnbc or CNN; when it comes to presidential politics are placed on the backburner; thus, the media focus on the candidate’s personalities. Who’s sacrilegious, unapologetic, hasty, courageous or shameless? Mainstream media have gradually emphasised with the economic rather for the network to inform their audience in regards to political aspect. As a result, this becomes headlines and they are meagrely repeated throughout the

Media has played a big part in elections for a long time. Im going to be talking about how the presidential election of 2008 was affected by it. The 2008 election was a great opportunity to test how much the media could influence the election. The controversy of having an African American was too much for the American people to handle so of course it was going to be picked up by the media.

The media covers everything what they think the public should be aware of. Referring back to the textbook, “presidents increasingly resist facing the media on their own” because of how words can be changed in certain way to give an opposite meaning than intended (274). There are news medias that will condemn the president, and there are other medias that will applaud the president. The media is biased, and “have values, preferences, and attitudes galore” just like anyone else (276). With this knowledge candidates or presidents take advantage of this coverage to influence the public they are well suited candidate or president. When it comes to the covering Congress or the Supreme Court is very less compared to the president. The media mostly captures the conflicts that happen between the 535 voting members (274). Which influences the public that Congress has not been able to settle down, and will not come to a certain conclusion. Deriving a negative image of Congress, that leads to the public to not have trust in

Political parties are extremely biased and the media definitely affects public opinion but regardless, our party system is what efficiently sets up our government. Without the aid of mass communication from media and interest groups, how would Americans be informed about a party's platform/ideas? The Political system needs these forms of influence in order to create diverse opinions of the governed. Citizens must be exposed to different standpoints so they can make an accurate decision on voting day that favors their views about the government.

In campaigning, media coverage plays a large role for candidates. They use the media to make their name heard and image seen. "Nearly everything a candidate does is geared toward the media, especially television" (Stuckey, 1999, p. 99) Candidates make appearances on talk shows,

How has media influenced public perception of political figures, issues, and institutions? Through agenda setting and framing, media has the power to set the agenda for political discussion by providing public attention to political figures, issues, and institutions. In addition, the media can frame political agendas by influencing public perception and interpretation. (Ginsberg, Lowi & Weir, 1999)

When the White House felt a retraction was not enough because so much harm had already been done, the media got extremely upset with the White House, due to the pressure they were putting on the publication (52-53). Begala agrees with Hewitt that the media has a bias, but argues that it is a liberal bias. He cites the media's obsession with the Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal and how, "Even when Clinton was leaving office, he was hounded and pounded by the press" (199). He argues the news coverage was unfair, brutal and unethical in the way both Bill and Hillary Clinton were treated during the scandal (200). Begala also says Al Gore was treated very poorly by the press during the election, by being misquoted. Gore made major contributions during the early phases of the internet and made a comment on CNN saying he "took the initiative in creating the Internet." Begala argues this was blown out of proportion and more than a thousand articles have been written quoting Gore saying he said he "invented the internet" (202). The people's perception that certain publications are bias can have a negative affect on journalists as a whole. While the public demands that the press question politicians, Robinson says there is public discontent when bad news is reported due to the publics distrust in news and a "kill the messenger syndrome." At times, the public will assume all media is the same and when one publication is guilty of inaccurate or bias