...Lippman – Public Opinion (excerpt from Media Control – Noam Chomsky) • Concept of Manufacturing Consent – Noam Chomsky o Excerpts form the book - Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky • Case studies o WMD i.e. Weapons of Mass Destruction being used repeatedly by media • Situation in India o Media focusing on Scams repeatedly and not giving due importance to the other relevant news. • Conclusion Introduction The power of the news media to set a nation’s agenda, to focus public attention on a few key public issues, is an immense and well-documented influence. Not only do people acquire factual information about public affairs from the news media, readers and viewers also learn how much importance to attach to a topic on the basis of the emphasis placed on it in the news. Newspapers provide a host of cues about the salience of the topics in the daily news – lead story on page one, other front page display, large headlines, etc. Television news also offers numerous cues about salience – the opening story on the newscast, length of time devoted to the story, etc. These cues repeated day after day effectively communicate the importance of each topic. In other words, the news media can set the agenda for the public’s attention to that small group of issues around which public opinion forms. Origin and History Agenda setting describes a very powerful influence of the media – the ability to tell us what issues...
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...Bubble * Internet Paradox * Flight from conversation * Plasticity of Brains * Relationship between capitalism and democracy * Three main approaches to the political economy of the media Lecture 2: * Four great communication revolutions * Evolution and history of early Homo Saipan species * Common ancestor * Eight major developments in evolution * Third chimpanzee * Importance of Fire * Great Leap Forward * Surplus definition and importance to civilizations * Pre-Capitalist society surplus * C-M-C * Important developments of the Age of Kleptocracy * Second great communication revolution * Where it did and didn’t develop and why * Importance to society * Greek philosophers * Feudalism * Importance of 1492 and new world discovery * Third great communication revolution * Products of the revolution Lecture 3: * The catechism of capitalism * Change in the economic equation from feudalism to capitalism * Mindsets of society under feudalism * Mercantilism * Industrial capitalism equation * M-C…p…C1-M1 * Characteristics of the equation * Three Iron laws of Capitalism * Externalities * Role of banking and views of major economists on finance * Importance of a global system * Effect on policy * Who was the original leader in capitalism and whom were its successors * Owner-operated...
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... and argues that several features of social conduct add to the living and expanding of society and its organizations. Symbolic Interaction perspective: Positions that to understand society its necessary to understand the connotation of people’s actions and beliefs. At the moment of discussing society and its organizations, despite the sociological perspective used there are interconnected factors to be considered: Technology, politics, economy, values and beliefs. (Ray 2007) In the critical essay The Crisis of Public Values in the Age of the New Media, Henry A. Giroux’s discourse on the control of large corporations over the economy and how this affects the values of democracy, having as a result an individualistic attitude of the American people towards important factors that affect them as a society. Giroux explores the different uses of new media and its relation to the economical crisis and the essence of a democracy under a neoliberal setting, arguing that public education has to be the main instrument for a better...
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...Franklin Delano Roosevelt In this great democracy, the United States of America, there are twin pillars of our free society: individual freedoms and citizen participation. Chapters seven through twelve addresses citizen participation. Democracy is a political (governmental) system that began in ancient Greece. The early Greeks believed that all eligible voters not should, but must participate in government for there to truly be a system reflecting the will of its people. Although today few if any democracies have full participation, citizen involvement in politics is paramount. It is essential. Chapters seven through twelve examines the history, reasons and ways that citizens participate in American Democracy. Citizen participation is “front and center” in any democracy. Voting is among the many ways citizens can participate in their democracy. Voting is essential because it determines who will govern and control a society. Today across America we witness the rewrite of voting laws. Many state general assemblies/legislatures are passing laws that are viewed as restricting the “right to vote.” Such laws may require proof of personal identification when voting or prohibiting voting on Sundays. However, recently, Oregon made news by enacting a state law allowing voter registration with driver’s license renewals. This new Motor-Voter law will expand voting eligibility. Complicating the twin pillars of American Democracy is the 2010 Citizen United, U.S. Supreme...
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...Name of Student Instructor’s Name Course Title Date Social Movement Introduction The concept of participatory democracy entails direct involvement of the people in decisions concerning politics, especially those which impacts their lives. This idea underpinned the activities of most social movements between 1960s and 1970s. Its emergence was mostly characterized by establishing democracy at workplace or industries, a method regarded as useful in allowing workers to participate in decision-making. However, the concept ceased to narrow on democratizing workplace as social scientists modified it to a theory which is applicable in restoring democracy in the society (Bachrach et al. 1). The modified concept focuses on achieving egalitarian redistribution of power in the society, a process which would lead to greater effects on the agenda of democratization. Social media can be cited as one of the achievements of participatory democracy because a lot of information can be gathered and shared across the populations and countries. This article focuses on tracing the influence of participatory democracy on women liberation as well as highlighting its impact on the 21st century social media. The Influence of Participatory Democracy on Women Liberation Officially, women liberation can be traced back to 1960s and should not be confused with the women movement in United States around the same time. In fact, most social scientists regard women movement as a unique branch of women...
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...epitome of democracy. As a country believed to be founded on freedom and rights we have credited our founding fathers for the constitution and its ability to structure our society. There are many democracies all over the world, many whom have recently recently experienced a democratic transition. Many political scientists have been studying this trend and have been trying to determine what makes countries choose to become democracies and what factors allow them to thrive as democracies. In order to answer this question it is important to first define the term democracy. The most common definition of democracy today is a system of government that is ruled by the people. In order for...
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...The Reality of Media in India In the by now tedious cliché, India, with a population of 1.22 billion (122 crores) and with an elected parliament, is supposed to be the largest democracy in the world. The relation between democracy and size is problematic. In small communities, voters can be presumed to have some personal knowledge of both candidates and issues arising from their life experience. But democracy in such communities in India is, to put it very mildly, slight. The various Panchayat systems set up to implement the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments are deprived of either significant jurisdiction or even minimal resources, and in most cases both. The sole exception is in West Bengal, where the Panchayat system was created fifteen years before the 73rd Amendment, and developed into real -- if flawed -- organs of local self-government. In consequence panchayat elections in West Bengal alone in all of India are truly serious matters and, as we are at the time of writing painfully aware, reflect a democracy increasingly overshadowed by gangsterism and force. But, for the rest, "democracy" amounts to periodical electoral exercises where the electors choose among candidates and programmes not on the basis of their personal knowledge or life experience but on information received from the media. If such democracy is to be meaningful, the first condition is that reasonably accurate information must be available. But the ground realities show that the ingredients...
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...ROLE OF MEDIA IN PROMOTING GOOD GOVERNANCE Media are the storage and transmission channel or tool used to store and deliver information or data. Media are (mostly) non state actors who define themselves apart from the state and from all other societal actors (what Edmund Burke described as a “fourth estate”, distinct from government, church and electorate). While this notion of free and independent media acting on behalf of the citizen against both state and other interests is a widespread ideal, the reality of most media worldwide is complex, rapidly changing and extraordinarily diverse. Media can consist of everything from national newspapers to student magazines, global broadcasters to community radio, websites and blogs to social networks and virtual communities, citizen journalists to government mouthpieces. This briefing focuses principally on media – and to a lesser extent on linked information and technologies - at a national level within developing countries. The term media refers to several different forms of communication required to educate and make a socially aware nation. The communication forms can be radio, television, cinema, magazines, newspapers, and/or Internet-based web sites. These forms often play a varied and vital role in our society. GOVERNANCE Recently the terms "governance" and "good governance" are being increasingly used in development literature. Bad governance is being increasingly regarded as one of the root causes of all evil within our...
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...Role of Media in Various Sectors Advantages and Disadvantages on Youth Pragati Maheshwari* Abstract In this paper it is observed that media includes sources like print media and electronic media. Newspapers, magazines and any other form, which is written or printed, is included in print media and in electronic, media radio, television and Internet etc. are included. When there are so many channels and newspapers we cannot ignore its importance in the society.Mediacan change opinions because they have access to people and this gives it a lot of strength. This strength can either be used constructively by educating the people or it can be used destructively by misleading the innocent people. Power of the media can transform the whole society. Keywords: Print Media, Electronic Media, Democratic Media, Educative Media, Media in Entertainment. Introduction Media is everywhere; it has become a part of our daily life. The media play a dominant role in the learning process. Media has potential to shape personalities, change the way we perceive and understand the world and our immediate reality. The term media is derived from Medium, which means a carrier or mode. Media denotes an item specifically designed to reach a large audience or viewers. The term was first used with the advent of newspapers and magazines. However, with the passage of time, the term broadened by the inventions of radio, TV, cinemas and Internet. Connecting with media means being connected with the world around...
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...Chapter 6 The media, government accountability, and citizen engagement Katrin Voltmer The past two decades or so have seen an unprecedented spread of democracy around the globe. With the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the end of the Cold War, the ‘third wave’ of democratization, which started in the early seventies, now encompasses countries in Asia and Africa.1 And even in states whose governments continue to resist a more open and participatory form of governance, such as North Korea, Burma or Zimbabwe, the idea of democracy is a powerful force that inspires people to take on a more active role in public life. However, many of the newly emerging democracies seem to fall short of some, often many, of the basic standards that define democratic rule, with irregular voting procedures, corruption, inefficiency and autocratic styles of government being but a few of the maladies. In addition, as many of the newly emerging democracies belong to the developing world, inequality and poverty remain severe obstacles to full self‐determination of the people. The experiences of the past decades have shown that democracy is not a one‐way road and that a viable democracy requires more than the implementation of the key institutions of government. Rather, an accountable and efficient government is embedded in a complex web of interdependent conditions that ...
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...decision has reignited heated debate on the value of public versus private interests, as well as government regulation of the media and internet throughout the nation. So, why does this decision matter? In order to understand the implications of the repeal, it is necessary to understand what net neutrality itself is, its history, and the inherent link between the internet and democracy in the United States in our modern age. Throughout history, the government has struggled to keep up with the rapid advancement of communication technology. The Federal Communications Commission is “...an independent...
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...relationship between terrorism and the news media best understood? Terrorism and the Media co exist in a symbiotic relationship, meaning they both need each other. The media need terrorism to attract viewers and terrorists need media coverage for exposure. Media’s primary purpose is communication. Terrorism is a form of communication that is amplified by the media. Terrorism is outrageous violence that seizes the public’s imagination and awakens its audience to political issues and propaganda that are of importance to the perpetrators. The terrorists have a need to reach a target audience and seek publicity to display their actions and achieve exposure. Without such exposure of the acts, the goals of the terrorist have not been achieved (Lutz & Lutz, 2013 pg. 10). A terrorist act by itself achieves nothing without coverage from the media. In essence media is a terrorist’s best friend, for without the exposure given it is plausible to conceive that terrorism would cease to exist. The progression of technology such as mobile recording devices and hand held cameras has heightened the ability for terrorism to be displayed in a cinematic experience. These functions allow front seat access to world viewers of horrific terrorist acts, training camps, messages of hate or encouragement which are in turn beamed throughout the globe via specific terror home pages or through the various media outlets (Hoskins, 2006 pg. 1). Media exposure and coverage is imperative to terrorists...
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...Brooke Basham April 20 2014 Research Paper News coverage is always evolving. The media industry gets a jolt from certain events, which brings instant change on how the media portrays these events. The media is faced with extreme controversy because media outlets are bias. The media is a form of propaganda making their bias tendencies a serious problem. Fox news was the most popular news coverage during the 2003 invasion on Iraq. They influenced other media outlets to cover war in the same way. CNN and MSNBC do not cover war the same way as Fox. The media has a tendency to leave out important information while covering war. They usually only show the pro-war side and not the anti-war side. As we all know, the media is a huge part of our every day lives. Whether we notice it or not, television and the Internet is our main source to obtain information. It is commonly used and widespread because it is used in many countries. Today, most people have phones that can access the Internet making a source of media right at your fingertips. We want to believe everything the media says because they are delivering important information about our country, but unfortunately it is not always accurate. Some believe media coverage is mainly influenced by national contexts. Coverage is expected to vary from news station to news station (Gerhards and Schafer 2013). A news station has different journalist, which separates every station from each other. Each station may believe in different...
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...Principles and Criteria In Western democracies freedom of the press implies that all people should have the right to express themselves in writing or in any other way of expression of personal opinion or creativity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights indicates: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.” The concept of freedom of the press is often covered by the same laws as freedom of speech, thereby giving equal treatment to media and individuals. This philosophy of freedom is usually accompanied by legislation ensuring various degrees of...
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...Representative democracy: A Representative democracy is where the electorate elect professional politicians into the House of Commons to make decisions on the public’s behalf. The professional politicians are elected because they have expert knowledge on different parts of society and can therefore best preform decision-making process on complicated legislation. MPs are elected to represent their constituencies and constituents as well as pressure groups and associations. For example, the chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborn has a background in Economics and can therefore make good decisions on Britain’s economy. Direct democracy: A direct democracy is where the people often get consulted by the government on political issues. The public often get to be involved in the decision making process, which usually happens through referendums. The people therefor get a say in the decision making process instead of just leaving it to representatives. People may also take the initiative to propose change to political issues. Switzerland is known for its frequent use of referendums. Liberal democracy: A liberal democracy is where everyone is treated equally under the rule of law and that the minority is not supressed by the tyranny of the majority. The universal suffrage is important because it states that everyone ha the right to vote under one person one vote. The government is hold accountable by the people through regular elections. The government cannot exclude...
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