Public Opinion On Politics And Politics

1. For the most part, citizens are politically knowledgeable in some types of instances. Polls have shown that they are not very knowledgeable. Polls may only show the most ephemeral and transitory of opinion (Asher, 242). Little thought might have gone through into the response that the public has offered. Another reason is that there is no majority view of the issues. Thirdly, the poll’s results ignore the process of how opinions are formed and modified (Asher, 242). The media and political leaders also shape up the citizen’s political knowledge. Such an example like drugs might be more salient or in the popular consciousness if it is talked all the time by the media and political leaders. However, if the media

“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.

In American politics, public opinion is mostly a latent force that typically has no important bearing on national decision making unless citizens become unusually attentive to politics. Many citizens are uninformed, which leads to inconsistent opinions. In Tides of Consent, there are many factors that shift public opinion. Some changes are fast and responsive, such as spikes in presidential approval, and some changes are slow, and occur in increments that may be overlooked. Public opinion in American politics is meaningless individually, but aggregately, public opinion is meaningful.

The 2016 election has been the first election where social media has been a key player to how people got their information. Statistics say “44 percent of American adults said they had learned something new in the past week about the election from social media.” However, with social media such an important influence on the younger generation it is important for all of this information to be legitimate and truthful. Google and Facebook have recently changed their policies to try to stop fake news articles from popping up within their ad space. The spread of fake news articles skews the public's perception of the candidates. The guardian talks about how the American voter is not just one demographic (college educated individuals, white men, minorities etc. ) because of this lack of (straightforward), it's hard to get an accurate prediction on who would have won the election. Additionally, the media affected the election negatively because they did not give the general public enough information to understand the statistics that they were

The United States has a troubled history of voter suppression. Prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, many states used policies such as poll taxes and literacy tests to prevent African Americans from voting. Even after the voting barriers of the Jim Crow era were removed more than 50 years ago, some lawmakers continue to pursue policies that would undermine our nation’s progress.

In America today, most people have their own political views. Some are legitimate, and some are the cause of one main problem: media bias. Certain media outlets are promoting biased political views on television, the internet, and social media. People that watch and read these biased media sources are constantly believing more and more of the false information that they are presenting. Media bias and fake news in the United States is a major contributing factor to many citizens’ political views, especially as a result of news outlets that promote a liberal agenda.

In his book entitled Public Opinion Walter Lippmann presents some very profound arguments on how public opinion is formed and how mach value it has. He describes in great detail the decision making process and how our own stereotypes affect our perception of events. Lippmann expresses his disillusionment with mass democracy, his concerns about propaganda and how the press could not be trusted to provide unbiased information. Contrary to what one would expect form someone holding such views Lippmann also questions the trustworthiness of the chief executive to make good foreign policy, even when he has all of the "inside" information and knows the true nature

McCombs, M. (2013). Setting the agenda: The mass media and public opinion. John Wiley & Sons.

Candidates have used tools such as lies, misdirection, and emotional appeals to convince voters of a made-up reality. These tools only become powerful in the hands of men when they are used on those who lack the necessary knowledge to discern the validity and merits of such claims. In an era where information is easily available, it is disappointing to see such tools have a prevalence in our society. As it stands now, the media is the platform for which these politicians thrive. Making headlines with controversial comments, candidates manipulate information in order to appeal to the politically illiterate. Such candidates vow to remedy problems that do not exist. The propagation of such “realities” misconstrues the actual nature of the world, thus

“Public opinion is formed and expressed by machinery. The newspapers do an immense amount of thinking for the average man and woman. In fact, they supply them with such a continuous stream of standardized opinion, bourne along upon an equally inexhaustible flood of news and sensation, collected from every part of the world every hour of the day, that there is neither the need nor the leisure for personal reflection. All this is but part of a tremendous educating process. It is an education at once universal and superficial. It produces enormous numbers of standardized citizens, all equipped with regulation opinions, prejudices and sentiments according to their class or party.” – Winston S. Churchill

During the election, media has grabbed at any information regarding the candidates imaginable. The avalanche of media coverage takes away from essential facts that an informed citizen requires to make a responsible decision when

Chun-Fang Chiang and Brian Knight discuss the significance that media bias has on voters in America. They conducted a study in which subjects select a candidate to vote for after reading a biased newspaper article. After the research is conducted, they determine that media is influential in determining who people will vote for, but there are different degrees of influence. For example, people are more willing to be influenced when their source is more credible and when the voters tend to be more moderate.

The aim of my literature review is to investigate and study the hypothesis that the more a specific news media outlet prefers a particular candidate, the more likely the person viewing that media outlet will vote for that candidate. Media bias is any media outlet exposing a partisan view within news story coverage and gives one side of the political spectrum an advantage through immanent reporting by selective display of perspectives and facts. The news media is defined as a media outlet that provides political news coverage in print or television format, this includes print and outline newspapers, and broadcasting television news stations. Several liberals and conservatives write about the existence of media bias. They each express that media bias exists against the other. Whether the news media strengthens public opinion or simply shapes it, media outlets are considered to have strong effects on voters. The power of media bias is examined by scholars who show how it effects election outcomes and voter perceptions.

Agenda-setting is one of the most important factors in shaping public opinion. Agenda-setting can be defined as the ability of the media to direct public attentions toward the issues they believe are important to the public. But whose choice is it that determines which issues are more important over others? The news media can set an agenda-setting by focus attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinions from (McCombs). The media can paint a memory in your head by repeatedly repeating the issues on different media sources as Internet, network televisions, newspapers, etc. Since these sources are the cheapest and easiest to access, the information can be view by vast number of audiences. As quoted in a 1922 classic called “Public Opinion” by Walter Lippmann,

In sharp contrast to past elections when candidates campaigned in-person, the 2016 election has been significantly mediated through mass media. With such a large influence on voters, the media not only determines which issues and events are salient in voters’ minds, but also how voters evaluate candidates. Moreover, media coverage, depending on its content, can influence whether voters think about candidates in terms of campaign issues or candidate attributes.