Partisan Media Analysis

“Since media are part of the political class and talk mostly to the political class, the myth of popular polarization took root and grew.” (Fiorina, Abrams, Pope, 2005, p. 167). Recently media has played a huge role in the country’s politic; they share information, report events, and frame opinions.

Journalists play an important part in the democratic process. Traditionally, the roles of the news media are to provide a forum for debate, represent opposing perspectives on the day’s issues and hold public officials accountable while serving their constituents. However, in recent decades, media has given way to biased forms of news— partisan media. In Matthew Levendusky’s “How Partisan Media Polarize America,” he explores if these partisan media influences viewers. The book’s second chapter, “What Do Partisan Media Actually Say?” concludes that partisan media promotes a larger agenda separately to Democrats and Republicans, attack the opposing side while denouncing compromise, and usually side with their candidate of choice during

Partisan news has recently become under scrutiny for the biasness that they hold. With CNN being exposed for their fake news and their relentlessness to undermine Trumps presidency. Despite this embarrassment, there have been some pros proclaimed by an author in the article, Public Opinion and the Media: Is Partisan Media Exposure Bad for Democracy? Sides believes that partisan news doesn’t create polarize news rather they attract already polarized people (Sides 5). Additionally, Sides states that partisans are the ideal citizens in our democracy (6). With this being said, Sides believes he is onto some correlation between partisan news and participation amongst citizens.

On the contrary, a biased media has increased its effects on American citizens from a voting stand point. It is no surprise that the media plays a major and powerful role in the lives of millions of American citizens every day. These same Americans sit before the television and computer screens and partake in ongoing debates as it relates to political values, parties, and various other pieces of data. It was seen in most recent election experiences that the media can be biased towards both liberals and conservatives. Frontline reported that by comparison, only 11 percent of the primary coverage

“Elected officials and candidates for office, especially Republicans, bemoan how the media impedes their ability to effectively govern or conduct a campaign. Bob Dole, for example, argued in 1996 that his presidential campaign against Bill Clinton was stumbling because of the news media’s leftward tendencies, particularly those of the New York Times (Kurtz,

Huge, M. and C. J. Glynn (2010). "Hostile media and the campaign trail: Perceived media bias in the race for governor." Journal of Communication 60(1): 165-181.

The media is a source of information that all U.S. citizens have access to. Either they have a cell phone, a computer, or a television, everyone can get information from the media. Mass media have been considered a powerful agent of political socialization, affecting political attitudes and behaviors of voters and non-voters. Newspaper and television news use significantly predicted internal

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.

The media has never had the extreme omnipresence it had during the most recent federal elections. For more and more people the media is becoming something habitual, and politicians were among the first to take advantage of this fact. Be it a parties usage of online social platforms, 24-hour news broadcasting stations, or circa the 1800s printed word, there is no doubt the typical citizen feels connected in some regards to this mass of media. With most third-party communication technologies surfacing within the recent decades, the general affect on citizens ' lives is not fully understood. This connection is immense and complex, but it can

News providers seem to be much divided as far as what they report and how they report it. However, there is no definite answer to the question of biasness among news channels such as Fox News and the Cable News Network (CNN). This is because an individual who is more liberal than Fox is likely to consider it a conservative bias while an individual who is more conservative than CNN is likely to consider it a liberal bias. As a result of the polarization in the major media broadcasts, people are divided and unclear where the truth lies. For instance, conservatives and liberals occupy diverse worlds when it comes to getting news about politics and government; therefore exacerbating the partisan divide of how people view their government and political leaders. This polarization extends from the media preferences to the basic lives of people including their different opinions and views. Conservatives and liberals are more likely to interrelate with like-minded individuals while discussing politics with their comrades or even congregate online (Prior, 2013).

Today's media has displayed countless ways they show media bias. Many channels have depicted a different side to one story and base information on a political party in which the channel supports. Each news source has one goal, and that is to state what will make the chosen party to have a good platform for the public to see. In the series of events that have occurred recently one can see how different news sources have pushed for what each channel believes is the main point needed to be crossed and have shared beliefs in either a liberal or conservative way.

Donald Trump’s meteoric political rise during the Presidential Election of 2016 put attention on the media and the way they covered the election and will forever change both politics and media going forward. The media was shown to be a bias, ratting chasing, and corrupt extension of the political parties. We will encompass the entire campaign from the June 2015 announcement that he was running, covering the primaries, then to the convention, along the path of the general campaign, and finally in the post-election coverage. We will look at the financials, the main stream medias role, and changes that are necessary going forward.

There are three widely accepted options for influence and power to surge from in the election process, as stated above. First and foremost, the media is widely perceived as the top dog in the election process; society as a whole holds the assumption that media sets the agenda and controls the political process. This idea is embellished by the cynics of the world and there have been a number of studies with findings disputing these perceptions. Dalton’s paper tracked over 6000 newspapers articles, during the 1992 presidential election, from a stratified sample of counties across the nation and their research points to a much weaker position being held by the media as a whole, in respect to its influence over elections within the United States (466). The research focused of the viewpoint and time given to either candidate during the election season. Overall the findings showed little to no bias, outside of the editorial section, with in the overall information of each candidate. The argument is summed up in the article stating, “Certainly, some newspapers and journalists have distinct views, but such individual biases appear small and tend to cancel out when aggregated. Moreover, a newspaper’s presidential endorsement had little impact on its news coverage of the issue themes of the campaign” (Dalton, 476). The media seems to play a part in

Media is known as the “king maker” for many reasons, such as shaping candidates in audience’s perspective. Television has been a big influence in shaping voters choice and labeling political parties, even though some believe media information can be scant in regards to candidates. Media can be anything from television to social media networks and how many people think that media is a great influence, some also think it can be a problem. “It only takes 140 characters to damage a political campaign” in which Smith is referring to social media as being a problem. (Smith, K. 2011. Pg. 9) At the state and local levels party affiliation remains the most important. “In television age, journalist became the chief influence in the selection of candidates

Another way media frames political issues is inserting media’s own position on the issue. The media’s position tends to be more liberal and promotes more democratic policies and issues. This bias coverage stems from a long growing relationship between the media and liberal forces (Ginsberg, Lowi & Weir, 1999). However, any bias can distort new coverage and influence audiences in that direction.