Politics, Media Systems and Governance: The Battle over Public Opinion in Latin America

“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.

It being the leading source of news since the printing press. We put our faith in the media to report accurate facts unbiasedly. Between 1983 and now the media industry has consolidated from 50 individual companies to 6. That means that though the impression given is that there are a multitude of sources to attain information, the messages being communicated are all one in the same. The limitation of media sources cause a ripple effect of limited information, allowing these companies to control the public’s perception on

Policymaking is a political process which is affected by various social and economic factors (Hofferbert, 1974) and media systems play an integral role in shaping the social context in which policies are developed. Through the media, citizens learn how government policies will affect them, and governments gain feedback on their policies and programs. Media systems act as the primary channels between those who might want to influence policy and the policymakers '' controlling the scope of political discourse and regulating the flow of information. Textbook policymaking follows an orderly sequence where problems are identified, solutions devised, policies adopted, implemented, and lastly evaluated (Mazamanian & Sabatier, 1989). In reality,

|public services and citizens (P7). In the final part of your article you should present information on how the media reports |

The media is important for us the people to inform us about our government. In this paper I will show the relationship between the media and Congress. There are many forms of traditional media newspapers and magazines and TV news programs. Until recently people got most of their information and news from traditional sources. I would agree with scholars who argue that the media plays a major role as an agenda setter by focusing the public’s attention on a few issues. Public opinion is shaped in large part by people’s exposure to the media. There are two main areas of media agenda setting the first is reporting the news the second is telling us how to view the news.

Ever since the 17th century, the newspaper has been produced and blown out of proportion, known as mass media. George A. Krimsky shines his own opinion in his essay, “The Role of the Media in a Democracy.” Krimsky provides many examples, reasoning, and rhetoric devices to expand his argument even more, his argument being that; the press should send out straight facts, let people interpret them, and allow the free press to hold the government accountable.

Politicians and the media involve themselves in the lives of everyone, worldwide. Due to major incorporation in society and everyday lives, a range of opinions take place in numerous minds. People take in different ideas throughout their day, whether it deals with personal issues or issues that happen anywhere. It forms their outlook to say if they trust those who lead them, being the government. Although, any government has been guilty in the past for not being honest and the media has a way to display incorrect information. The two together lead to chaos and many citizens of a country to not trust their leaders. Thoughts go around which leads the public to display distrust in media and politicians, thanks to the way information

First of all, although Latinos have a weak linked fate their mobilization as a group when it comes to immigration can bring the Latino community together to reach a collective end (Bowler, 39). This specific election already being very controversial with a Republican candidate with strong views on immigration may give rise to increased pan-ethnic sentiments to Latino voters who are politically conscious and prepared to mobilize themselves. As Donald Trump has repeatedly made harsh comments on Mexicans for being “killers and rapists” and for blacks and Hispanics being the reason for violence in America, the Latino community has had enough of being a scapegoat per say of America’s problems. With media being such an important medium for information and debate, here too we will see the priming of Latino community to inform themselves of the candidates and vote for one whom can relate to their needs as well as supports their concerns. The Jorge Ramos incident is an example of priming the Latino vote, for he is a well-known journalist whom the Latino public trust and with his recent confrontation with Donald trump at an Iowa interview the Latino community is being exposed to political attitudes. These events create an environment in which group identity and in-group saliency increase the political attitude of Latinos

Nowadays the media is responsible for accomplishing many everyday tasks, such as it provides news, entertainment, lessons etc. In Peru, the media has a major impact in the lives of the people that have access to it. Being underdeveloped, the media affects people different than it does here. Jose Alarcon, wrote the contestant to give the reader an idea of how the media functions in Peru. He does this by establishing critical themes that are present throughout the essay, for example, money, fame, and emotion to explain how it led to Ruth Thalia Sanchez’s death. He presents the reader that the media can lead to a series of misfortunate events leading up to the protagonist’s death. This essay shows us the amount of power and influence TV shows; the news and radio stations have.

The aim of this paper is to look at the relationship between the mass media, specifically television, and presidential elections. This paper will focus on the function of television in presidential elections through three main areas: exit polls, presidential debates, and spots. The focus is on television for three reasons. First, television reaches more voters than any other medium. Second, television attracts the greatest part of presidential campaign budgets. Third, television provides the candidates a good opportunity to contact the people directly. A second main theme of this paper is the role of television in presidential elections in terms of representative democracy in the United States.

Framing is one of the strongest tools in attempting to pull the public one way or the other on numerous issues. According to Entman, government officials have to sell their versions of frames of different policy issues, hoping there pitch is great enough for the citizens to grab hold. The problem in recent years has been the role of the media, they continue to put different spins on topics which sways opinion. This potentially creates a negative effect on the public as they are being fed false or exaggerated information. Entman explains in his book that there are alternative solutions as to how information can be exchanged from government officials to the media and then from the media to the public. Such as the cascade model, in which Entman establishes that the media should provide enough information independent of the executive branch that

According to Mark Weisbrot’s article, Denis MacShane, a British former Labour Party politician, attacked the British left in 2009 for defending Hugo Chavez and his new potential media policies. Denis Macshane quotes that the new media policies would, “impose prison sentences of up to four years for journalists whose writings might divulge information against “the stability of the institutions of the state(The Guardian).” The author agrees with the fact that the new policy is detrimental to Venezuela, however, he clearly states that this is nothing new, as there are already a number of bad laws on the books in the country. Weisbrot also goes on to say that Macshane's comments are deceptive because it does not truly represent the nature and state of press freedom in Venezuela(The Guardian). The author states there is both more diversified range of debate in media and oppositional media in Venezuela than the U.S(The Guardian). According to the article, the everyday commentary and reporting in media broadcasts would not be allowed under FCC rules in the

The media influences how people experience social life. Media such as newspaper, television and film, are important sources of information, education and entertainment. It can be used to learn more about the world and the people in it. In this regard it can be said that the media represent, interpret and endorse aspects of social experience (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2005). The media are also implicated in social regulation, or in other terms, the government of society. The media are implicated in government and politics in an obvious way because modern systems of democracy are conducted through the media. But the media have a bigger role to play in government by structuring how society is controlled and maintained.

The media also influences how the public perceives issues. The placement of political issues during news coverage influences the importance of political issues on society. The ranking of media issues and society’s ranking suggest that the media influence the public (Weaver, 1996). The importance of an issue may rests on its time slot, sequence in the news story, or in the advertisement for the news.

Moreover, CEKU also states that the media exposes the loopholes in a democracy which ultimately helps the government fill the vacuums of those loopholes and makes the system more accountable