Three Different Approaches To Measure Partisan Media Effects During The Election

In the United States, television has been influential in presidential elections since the 1960’s. Television has a way of “turning away from policy sphere,” it judges candidates based on their appearances, not their message. Television has shifted the key point of presidential debates: from pursuing issue to pursuing image. Therefore, television is misleading, having a negative impact on presidential elections.

The results of this research should indicate the across the board a majority of the participants would prefer the negatively presented news, rather than the positive; as demonstrated in What's Good for the Goose is Bad for the Gander: Negative Political Advertising,Partisanship, and Turnout and Editorial Cartoons 2.0: The Effects of Digital Political Satire on Presidential Candidate Evaluations. Regarding the control groups; Group 1 (those who viewed CNN regularly) would likely prefer CNN, however since CNN is a centrist news outlet, individuals in this group might lean towards MSNBC or Fox News, as well. Group 2 (those who viewed MSNBC regularly) would prefer MSNBC across the board and group 3 participants (those who viewed Fox News regularly) would prefer Fox in all the categories. However, it is a little more difficult to predict which news outlet will be most preferred by those in group 4 (individuals who never or rarely watch CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News). It is likely that they will prefer either Fox News or CNN, since those are both more popular than MSNBC (Partisanship and Cable News Audiences, 2008).

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.

Media has quite the power to change and influence politics and the way that American politics are run. Any kind of media or the information that they provide us is supposed to make it easier for people to understand how political decisions are made and know how government works. But in this period of time, the media is often used to exploit false rumors and obscure the true form of conflict or political issues from people.

Our society's focus is short and poorly aimed. An example of this, and its end result. is the current process of the presidential election. Unfortunately, many are dissatisfied with the end result of our presidential candidates. Perhaps this is simply the fault of the people. Media will only cover what the people demand to see, the people are far more likely to follow/support a presidential candidate who has significant media coverage. By demanding coverage of the most "entertaining" candidates, we have eliminated their opponents. The people have focused so much of their attention on those who provided a spectacle that worthier candidates were neglected by the media and therefore eliminated from the process.

Media plays a big role in presidential elections. One of the biggest incidences occurred in the election of 1960 with President Kennedy and Richard Nixon. President Kennedy won the heart of TV audiences with his youth, good looks, charm. VP Richard Nixon on the other hand was said to look uncomfortable and not confident. ews reporting, however, has become less objective; whole networks are dedicated to more conservative or more liberal parties. Newspapers and magazines support a particular candidate, and their reporting often favor that particular candidate. The pictures used, the questions asked, and the stories chosen for reporting all play a role in affecting the way

Bias in the media influences the public greatly. Not only does biased media change the public's perception of certain politics and events, it can also change a person's political affiliation. As previously stated, Fox News is a primarily conservative news source. Fox News has close ties to the Republican Party and has more of a conservative outlook on certain events. Due to this close relationship, a large portion of the articles and coverage echoes these beliefs. An article produced by the Oxford Journals, studied this bias and the effect it can have; they even dubbed it “The Fox News Effect” (Kaplan). This “Fox News Effect” was found to have a profound impact on political affiliation and individuals who watched primarily Fox News reports. They found that “The introduction of Fox News [to] the vote share in Presidential elections between 1996 and 2000… gained [Republicans] 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points in the towns that broadcast Fox News”(Kaplan). As this study shows, bias really does have an effect on the public, and can even influence individuals to change their political affiliation. Another finding in this report was that Fox News managed to convince 28 percent of their viewers to vote Republican (Kaplan). This data is increasingly important, especially in proving that bias

Media has changed throughout the years presenting itself in an appealing way to all generation. The media and newspapers, television, radio, and internet sources-strongly influence public opinion (Bardes, B., Shelley, M., & Schmidt, S, 2014). Which, are sources used to notify and update public on a candidate’s campaign. Giving all information needed to understand the candidate and their intentions if elected. Often bias toward candidate that receives there support and in some cases attack their opponent with information from their past and or anything that may deter the voters support. However, media in all forms raises awareness to determine if a candidate best suit personal and political beliefs. Answering the questions, “who to vote for

Scholars and researchers were under the impression that media were such a persuasive channel due to the response of consumers through presidential campaigns and elections. According to A Measure of Media Bias by Tim Groseclose and Jeffrey Milyo, based upon previous studies of media bias, most journalists are liberally biased. When researching the elections of 1992, based upon Povich reports 89% of voters voted of Bill Clinton over George H.W. Bush.(1193) “Of course, however, just because a journalist has liberal or conservative views, this does not mean that his or her reporting is slanted” (1193). One may refute the idea of political bias or slant reporting because, all of the media outlets cover elections, nominations and other political coverage. True, all outlets cover factual evidence, however it is how and the context in which the various events, and situations are

People, politics, and the channel of communication between the two all have suffered from increasing political polarization. Polarization of news channels stems from the emphasis on entertaining viewers. Most major news organizations foster either a left or right-leaning bias displayed through talk show hosts, guest speakers, or published content. As a result, the viewership of news networks is very politically divided. People who follow political coverage through any outlet are more inclined to believe stories that align with their personal views. In contrast, people are more likely to discredit stories that conflict with their personal beliefs. Business Insider published a statistic from a study that noted, “Both CNN and Fox News are among the most trusted news networks; it found 88% of its conservative participants trusted Fox News, while only 14% of the same group trusted CNN”.

In this day and age, it’s assumed that our information is unfiltered and uncut. This should hardly be a surprise in the internet era, with popularized search engines that provide unbiased information in a matter of seconds. To that end, society has numbed itself to biases found in media and tends to follow what is proclaimed to be true and ethical. This is particularly true in regard to print and televisual media. Due to society’s failure to question these media forms, it frequently becomes coaxed into converting its ideas to those made by the media. In other words, media outlets consistently have political leanings that manipulate our understanding of information, particularly in regards to the public’s political beliefs.

Since its’ inception, the media has been fiercely castigated for the substantial amount of bias it allegedly encompasses. Popular television media outlets such as CNN or Fox News have been accused of containing said bias by both sides of the political spectrum, and the introduction of news websites and programs on the internet have unlocked a door filled with criticism about the political stances that every single article contains. What indications are there that affirms these accusations of impartial information being conveyed to the public? How does one determine what type of bias each news network displays? The purpose

For this study the population of conceptual interest is partisan news organizations. For the sampling frame I have selected the three stations of FOX News, MSNBC, and CNN. These three stations were selected due to their popularity relative to other sources of cable news. MSNBC represents the channel with a perceived liberal bias and FOX

It is the year 2014 and the media plays a significant role on informing the public on elections and campaigns and politics; although, the public is in constant need of new information from the media, there is an underlying distrust in the American population on the media for false campaigning covered and which can be perceived as media bias. There are countless of misconceptions on how the government can and does influence the media and equally how the influence media has on the government. Moreover, the media aids in the persuasion of what the voters should care about in elections and what foundation they should use to evaluate the candidates. There is a reoccurring relationship between the government, media, and the public; meanwhile, the media on occasion shape the public’s opinion in their favor and it has an even more important role on influencing the voters on what issue to focus on rather than influencing them on what to think about on the issues. Additionally, the media has the power to categorize what are “important problems” and whatever they feel the public should be more concerned with. A vast majority of the public are unaware on how huge of a role the government has in the media. The media’s public officials are the sources in the news that help the government decide the media’s content. On the contrary, the media can also set the political agenda by narrowing the specific issues and persuading what issues the public and government should be more concerned