Social Media Ruining Politics Analysis

Political Media organizations are obligated to sufficiently inform the American public about both global and domestic political issues. News corporations are failing to completely deliver on that obligation as a result of increasing political polarization and decreasing quality of content fueled by social media. In order to deliver the American people with unbiased facts about our government, there needs to be a reduction in the partisanship of news outlets.

This article discusses how media influence is also used in other media outlets such as Tumblr and Twitter. Usually media bias is viewed in the context of newspapers and news programs, but now politics are now being incorporated in Tumblr to influence voters. President Obama is using media outlets such as Tumblr in order to appeal to a certain age demographic and influence young voters by “playing to his audience’s preferences.” The president is not the only one to start using these tactics; many foreign governments are starting to incorporate them as well because social media is such a powerful tool.

Over the past thirty years there has been an increase in power throughout the media with regard to politics. The original purpose of the media was to inform the public about relevant events that occured around the country regarding politics in the United States. The job of the media is to search out the truth and relay that news to the people. The media has the power to inform the people but often times the stories given to the people are distorted for one reason or another whether they are good or bad for the candidates. Media is now not only Newspapers, radio, magazines, etc but now media includes social media applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc where Media is now not only used to inform but as well

Does Nicolas Carr, author of “How Social Media Is Ruining Politics” provide enough evidence that social media is ruining politics? The answer is a very obvious yes. Overtime, social media has slowly polarized the political perception of the American people. Social Networking is a new, popular medium that has changed the nature of political conversation. Therefore, it has become both a good thing and a bad thing. It has encouraged those who once did not partake in the political process to participate. Social networking is very useful to find out news and information ahead of the news media.. “It has become an easy way for political candidates to connect and communicate with the American people.” (Carr 1) While social media might provide the candidates with a form of convenience because it simplifies and speeds up the communication process, it also provides many ways for their campaigns to be easily and deliberately attacked. Unfortunately, what receives the most attention on social media is outrageous statements. Some candidates like Donald Trump know how to use this to their advantage. The danger in this is that candidates tend to use abrasive soundbites to grab the attention of the social media user. Unfortunately, the abrasive soundbites are often taken out the intended context. Other candidates like Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush did not come to this realization as quickly because they did not want to take the chance of hindering their image. They understood that a

In “There Is No Significant Media Bias”, Paul Farhi argues that political news is actually tilted towards the center, “Because that's where the people are, and that's where the [advertising] money is.” Critics such are Farhi are wrong in the sense that media bias affect certain groups of people more disproportionately than others. “There Is No Significant Media Bias” was created in 2012, a time when political scene was much milder and social media didn't have as much influence as it has currently. In 2016 alone, the popularity of fake news on Facebook has already jumped past the viewership of mainstream news media (Lee). The media scene has done miracles for conservative news outlets, as previously stated with the popularity boom of websites such as Breitbart. Even MSNBC, the news channel that has traditionally been trusted for progressive news, has come out with an ad stating, “People might accuse us of leaning too far to the right”, shifting towards more right-leaning TV programming (Christopher). If there were no significant media, there would be no budding movement in media and consumer trends that leans particularly strong to one ideology over another. Clearly, this is not the

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

In his article, “The Political Impact of Media Bias,” Ethan Kaplan states that, “In a representative system of government, policy outcomes are affected by the political preferences and the beliefs of the voters. The media plays a key role in shaping these preferences and beliefs. It collects, summarizes, and frames the information that voters use in their voting decisions”(Kaplan 1). As previously stated, the media provides us with our information, and they control what it is we receive. This information is what leads us to our ideas and our beliefs. Therefore, the media is able to shape our very mind to fit their agenda. An example of this is

"Democracy requires citizens to see things from one another 's point of view, but instead we’re more and more enclosed in our own bubbles. Democracy requires a reliance on shared facts; instead we’re being offered parallel but separate universes."- Eli Pariser. Polarization is part of life, from P.C and Mac, Pepsi vs. Coke to Xbox and PS4, humans tend to give an allegiance to the things they care about. In the past decade, the United States has seen a rise of political polarization in many aspects of life, from social networks to the election. Since the 2016 election polarization has been discussed more and more, there has been a spotlight on this current issue. This phenomena

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

Politics in The United States has been reinforced with the usage of Mass Media since the 1780s. Mass media became one of the most reliable news sources in the world because it gives people the ability to communicate each other and be knowledgeable of the latest news worldwide. Indeed, mass media has changed how the world communicate through written, visual and audible tools that are known as, newspapers, television, radio and social media. Nowadays, the Internet has become one of the most important mass media influence because of the impact it has on persuading and transmitting fast information to people around the world. Younger people not only are dependent of the internet but, politicians, businesses, adults and kids are influenced by this

In the reading “How the Mass Media Divide Us’, professor Diana Mutz argues that the mass media, in an effort to increase audience size, actually divides Americans by entertaining them with television “shout shows” that are built on bitter debate, intense disagreement, and irate confrontations. Mutz believes that this causes Americans to embrace more extreme political views. Uncivil discourse increases polarization by helping partisans think even less of their opponents. A study conducted by Mutz concluded that watching civil versions of political exchanges can lead to decreased levels of polarization. In a civil setting, where differences of opinion are conveyed in a manner which supports mutual respect, viewers are able to see differences

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.

The purpose of this essay is to explain how the media is biased and in what direction the bias leans towards. For a long time, there has been speculation that there is a liberal bias in the mass media. This is a problem because, “citizens cannot cast informed votes or make knowledgeable decisions on matters of public policy if the information on which they depend is distorted, it is vital to American democracy that television news and other media be fair and unbiased.” [1] Unfortunately, the information we receive in the news, campaigns, and other media are often portrayed to be or look a certain way, either to favor a particular political party, just make it look negative, or scare and the divide the public.

When you think of politics today in America, what is the first thing that pops into your head? If you’re like me, your first thought was about Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump. Your second thought might be about the major hot button issues in the United States today, such as Health Care, Immigration Reform, and Gun Control. Whether you’re like me or not, I’ve noticed one thing during this presidential race that cannot be avoided: media biases. The media today is a major part of politics, and often times is who we look to when deciding what candidate we want to vote for. Media biases involving politics, in my opinion, should not exist because it is unethical.

Jim Morrison, an american song writer, singer and poet, once said, “Whoever controls the media, controls the mind”. The Media have becoming one of the most dominant source of education of the 21st century. We could argue that most americans use the media as their main source of information. The side effect on that is the fact that the media is very polarized. With the ongoing polarization, we could hypothesize that people would have been more politically educated and oriented if the media was not infiltrated.