...Running Head: Mass Media in Elections Mass Media’s Affect on Voting Trends Arthur Gibford California State University California In today’s world, the news media reaches and affects every person in the United States. The question now is does mass media such as newspapers, television, and the internet affect the voting trends of the voters? The ownership of the media (Djankov, Nenova, McLiesh, & Shleifer, 2003), targeting specific demographics (Clinton & Lapinski, 2004), the implications of the internet (DiMaggio, Hargittai, Neuman, & Robinson, 2003) and how candidates use media (Aarts & Semetko, 2003) are all important aspects in determining whether a potential bias exists (Eveland & Shah, 2003) on the part of the news media. It is hypothesized that when the mass media displays certain biases leaning towards one party over the other, the populace tends to vote in the direction of the media. The following five scholarly literature reviews will attempt to demonstrate and support the hypothesis. According to Eveland and Shah (Eveland & Shah, 2003, p. 101)there is “a large percentage of the public (that) believes that the news media are biased, and the majority of these individuals consider the direction of bias to be against their own viewpoint”. This drives the question this paper attempts to answer. This article looks at media’s credibility and integrity in the eyes of individual people. The author’s give several hypothesis to provide multiple...
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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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...The media is too influential and this undermines democracy in the UK. This paper will examine the above statement in regards to media undermining democracy. It will look at arguments both for and against, what influence the media has on our democracy, it will look in to media and government bias, refer to statistics along with some theories, this is to try and determine if behaviours and attitudes can be influenced by what we see and hear in the media. Other points that will be addressed include the effects of spin and how the media tends to deliver its information to its audience. In todays society more or less everyone knows about the media. We as a nation tend to partake in some kind of media activity daily. It has been said that we take the modern media very much for granted as we are totally immersed in them. For example “Just as fish will be the last life form on earth to discover water, because they are completely surrounded by it and know of nothing else” (the new politics, 2007:301). There for it’s hard to imagine what life would be like without the daily paper, radio and tv. Some allege that the effects of the media are strong and clearly visible, however others argue with equal conviction that the media have minimal or no direct effects (the new politics, 2007). According to the reinforcement theory the media can only reinforce attitudes that already exist and this is down to two reasons markets and personality. They believe that the effects of mass media are...
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...Media bias is studied at schools of journalism, university departments (including Media studies, Cultural studies and Peace studies) and by independent watchdog groups from various parts of the political spectrum. In the United States, many of these studies focus on issues of a conservative/liberal balance in the media. Other focuses include international differences in reporting, as well as bias in reporting of particular issues such as economic class or environmental interests. One high profile academic survey of American journalists is The Media Elite. The survey found that most journalists were liberal Democratic voters.[citation needed] Martin Harrison's TV News: Whose Bias? (1985) criticized the methodology of the Glasgow Media Group, arguing that the GMG identified bias selectively, via their own preconceptions about what phrases qualify as biased descriptions. For example, the GMG sees the word "idle" to describe striking workers as pejorative, despite the word being used by strikers themselves.[4] Herman and Chomsky (1988) proposed a propaganda model hypothesizing systematic biases of U.S. media from structural economic causes. They hypothesize media ownership by corporations, funding from advertising, the use of official sources, efforts to discredit independent media ("flak"), and "anti-communist" ideology as the filters that bias news in favor of U.S. corporate interests. Many of the positions in the preceding study are supported by a 2002 study by Jim A. Kuypers:...
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...Introduction The media is the link between the public and politics. However, while media sources are viewed as purveyors of the day's news, they maintain considerable influence on politics. It is important to differentiate the concept of media influence from the concept of media bias. While some media sources will have an undoubted bias in the way they are reporting the news and the issues they select and prioritise, this does not necessarily equate with influence. Influence can be far less obvious or overt than bias, and can lead to changes in opinion in an indirect manner. While United States news outlets such as Fox News or the New York Post may have a more direct political bias, other outlets such as CNN or the New York Times – while appearing less openly biased – will also wield considerable influence. Similarly, in the United Kingdom, while The Daily Mail has an agenda which must be obvious to many who read it, less openly biased newspapers such as The Guardian will still have the potential to influence politics and politicians. In fact, media sources with a less overt bias will have potentially more influence than others, as they could be considered to be more reliable or trustworthy than biased tabloid entertainment news. This paper will assess the issue of media influence on politics, and evaluate the methods and forms this influence can take. Discussion Media Influence The role of the media in influencing politics has been long recognised. Comparative analysis of media sources...
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...Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. The idea of media is to bring awareness to the people. There has been times where the media has been accurate and times where it hasn’t. There has also been times when the media was truthful. Most journalists aren’t able to cover the whole story so they pick bits and pieces of what they believe is more important, and then it goes to their editor who wants the story to be juicy, they want it to stand out under any circumstances. So then the journalist has to take two steps back and take things out that are truthful and add things for “show” or things that make the story seem more interesting to either help it sell better or increase the ratings. There are many different reasons for media bias. Advertising bias in when the journalists have to reword things to please whomever it is they want to sell the story to. Corporate bias is more or less when you work for a company and your boss feels the need to recreate an “ideal” report, something that’s more interesting and that’ll catch the readers eye or viewers ear. Mainstream bias is what I consider monkey see monkey do, every reporter is reporting the exact same thing over and over. And sensationalism is when they make one particular even more relevant than another, such as a car wreck vs a plane crash. Plane crashes aren’t heard of or seen everyday so it then becomes more...
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...By definition, media bias means, “Media bias is the bias or perceived bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered.” There are several types of sources, such as technology and articles, that is efficient at spreading information through media. However, society is negatively affected when media portrays bias and non-credible information through technology and published articles. There have been several resources on the problem regarding wage gaps due to ethnicity and genders. In the article, It’s Time We Talked About the Ethnicity Pay Gap, Sadiq Khan uses her personal experiences to prove that blacks and women have a more difficult time trying to...
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...Media Biases There are approximately 318 million people living in the U.S. today. America is often referred to as the melting pot of numerous cultures. What this means is that there are all kinds of people living in the U.S. all bringing with them something unique of their own persona that adds on to our society. How can we expect that these 318 million different people all share same opinions? Surely we share similar views with some, but there will always be at least one person opposing. With the advances of technology, we’ve had the opportunity to bring these people closer than ever. Receiving information has become a part of our daily life and we it’s present even when we’re not aware. It is known that the US has a market-based media, which...
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...article is about and that I also have plans on quoting them in the piece. It was also different for me working with other people. I took instruction from my editor regarding which angle to approach when writing my story, how long my story should be and whom it is that should be getting interviewed. From taking this approach and communicating with others, I felt confident in the story that I wrote. When it came down to accessing the credibility of the political internet sites, I used the “Drudge report” which is an American news aggregation website. This site consisted of news aggregation and blogging. The awareness of how political news reporting might influence public opinion and American values in many ways. Some form of personal bias always...
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...University of Phoenix Faculty Material Mass Communication Test Underline the best answer to the following 30 multiple-choice questions. 1. Media criticism a. is the analysis used to assess the effects of media on individuals b. should be based on well reasoned arguments c. can be negative or positive d. all of the above 2. Three reasons American media products dominate the global scene are a. diversity, the English language, and synergy b. freedom of expression, diversity, and big business c. freedom of expression, the English language, and censorship d. freedom of expression, horizontal integration, and big business 3. The American media and government are interrelated in three ways: a. Regulation, censorship, and elections b. Regulation, adversarial relationship, and broadcast media c. Regulation, adversarial relationship, and elections d. Audience, adversarial relationship, and elections 4. The theory that introducing new technology changes society, sometimes in unexpected ways, is called a. technological determinism b. vertical integration c. blockbuster theory d. technological consumerism 5. Which of the following is an example of a banned book? a. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn b. The Harry Potter series c. The Tarzan series d. All of the above 6. The medium that employs the most people to gather the news is a. radio news b. television news c. magazine features d. newspapers 7. The biggest...
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...POLITICAL vs LEGAL MOTIVATION Several medium of information, i.e., broadsheet, TV, radio, social media, and internet sites are teeming these days with news and articles about the Rappler-SEC tussle. Based on the pronouncements made by Rappler and SEC representatives, corroborated by certain legal luminaries and subject-matter experts, and on the chronology of events, it can be deduced that the Rappler case has both political and legal motivation beneath the issue. Political Motivation It seems that the SEC did not provide Rappler a level-playing field as what it had been extending to other SEC-registered entities embroiled in a similar situation. o The SEC ruling was done in haste as the decision to terminate the entity’s license...
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...The portrayal of the mass media is seen to neutral and unbiased. Media is an agent of political socialization, which has created an impact on politics. Mass media has operated in a way that can affect politics in America. Today, significant factors contribute to the workers of mass media as their reports can face a high chance of influence to politician. Such influences include big corporations or the government, primarily to manipulate the mass audience for their own advantage. Mass media has a great influence on the public opinion as they can fluctuate what individuals should think, know and feel about politicians. The media supplies the general audience with information that voters can base their decisions on. From this, the media is able to manipulate the general public on extreme issues that interfere with the general publics’ rights, such as important issues regarding health or even political interferences. Although one may believe what they learn from the media may be a from an objective point of view, but in truth all information from the media has many external factors that can influence stories for a purpose. This paper will argue how the mass media has a direct influence on the general audience’s perspective and the opinions of the opinions of our political candidates. One area to notice is how certain issues in the media are given more attention in comparison where others are not. What is determined to be on the agenda of the media is a continuous competition from...
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...Hunter Bailey Instructor Ploessl CO 225-01 5 September 2014 Mass Media: Headlines or Bottom Lines? There may have been a time when one could open a newspaper and not have to worry about cross-referencing and fact checking every story that was read. Those are the days of the past. Ever since the collapse of healthy competition in the mass media industry, the motives of stories and the intentions of the news outlets are being brought into question. Oftentimes, one can find that when watching one news station, the listener gets a completely different side of the story being told when the channel is changed to another with the same story. This causes some questions to arise as to which station is telling the truth, how do listeners know which station to listen to, and is the for-profit motive of news stations affecting their rationality? The only way to know the answers to these questions is to take a comprehensive look at the differences between for-profit and non-profit media sources. To start off, the for-profit news stations will be examined to see what kinds of bias, falsehoods, and contradictions they may or may not be portraying to readers. The former CBS anchor Walter Kronkite warned the public that this day would come. He said that media sources are facing “rounds and rounds” of job cuts, pay cuts, and budget cuts in order to stay competitive in the industry (Lagorio 2007). Basically, he is saying that the companies are having to do much more with less. In today’s...
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...Controversial issues in the media Controversies are a part of the American if not global landscapes. The thought makes one wonder if our value and belief systems are shaped by mass media. That may be close to the truth. With computers, laptops, cell phones, I-pads we are connected to the media in some form and want our news as fast as possible. The more horrific the story, the more interest is generated in knowing the outcome. Nature of the controversy In 2009, a young dating couple had a physical fight that made national news. The couple in question- music superstars Chris Brown and Rihanna. Every paper covered the assault and had pictures of the bloodied Rihanna with blackened eye, split lip, and bite marks. The scandal percolated to an all-time high and Chris Brown was charged with assault. Later the public would discover the charges were for sexual assault. Many celebrities have misunderstandings and some have been victims. Controversy sells and we want to know what happened- the media is willing to oblige. Traditional journalism The traditional factors of newsworthiness include proximity, future impact, prominence, conflict, human interest, and timeliness. According to John Vivian “ not only do people in their contemporary lifestyles need mass media, but the industries that have built up around media need an audience” (Vivian, 2011, p. 6). News for the public has the following ideology, “news is based on some inherent bias: the media role as watchdog, and a lack...
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...The Media in Canadian Politics 1956 words Media has always been a center of interest of different political intellectuals in Canada. They always tend to use media as a powerful platform to convey their message to the all the stakeholders of Canadian politics. Common people, on the other hand, also use media to transmit their concerns and feedback to their political representatives. Be it the print media, broadcast media or social media, they have always played a significant role in Canadian politics. We have seen the active role of media in the longest election campaign of Canada in recent federal elections. Media influence Canadian politics by serving as an intermediary between the government and the common people, by acting as a public representative, and by shaping people’s perception of the political environment around them. As a common carrier of information for both government and common people, media plays a significant role in Canadian politics. The important part of this role of media is that most of the media act independently to provide unbiased information for both government and common people. This, however, is not always the case. We will discuss biased part of media later in this essay. As an intermediary between government and common people, media reports the news, helps determine the critical issues to be discussed, and enables the transparency in the political structure. Reporting the news is most basic and essential function of media. Common people and...
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