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The role of mass media in shaping public opinion
The role of the media in politics
How does the media play a role in politics
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Introduction In this paper I attempt an in-depth analysis of the concept of agenda-building. By going beyond the examination of how media decides its’ agenda and influences the salience of issues, I explore how agenda-building plays its’ role in the process. What is important to emphasize on is the mutual influence that is found in agenda-building. I observe what the relationship between media salience and public salience is in regards to agenda-building. This is because it is what ultimately influences how media chooses to gather up information to show to the public. The media considers their own opinion in addition to the publics’ opinion. Another analysis made was the relationship and correlation between media agenda and public agenda. There are various factors to take into consideration when conceptualizing agenda-building. I found out that there were common themes in the research I carried out. As I synthesized the sources I narrowed it down to the most commonly used themes that were present in the studies. These are first and second-level agenda-building, politics, public relations/opinion, media influence and methods of going about the research. Though these elements have their own attributes it’s not always consistent as to how the authors choose to define and explain a theme and a given term. The idea of agenda-building can be broad, however it comes down to how a part of culture defined by a fundamental agenda of beliefs about democracy and society comes to make decisions. (McCombs, 2004) This is how agenda-building develops and occurs. From the research that I carried out and the sources used in this paper, I found that the idea of agenda-building is distinct but is directly related to agenda setting. According to Ki... ... middle of paper ... ...ook, M. (2007). Understanding influence on corporate reputation: an examination of public relations efforts, media coverage, public opinion, and financial performance from an agenda-building and agenda-setting perspective. Journal of Public Relations Research, 19, 2, 147-165. Kiousis, S., Mitrook, M., Wu, X., & Seltzer, T. (2006). First- and second-level agenda-building and agenda-setting effects: exploring the linkages among candidate news releases, media coverage, and public opinion during the 2002 florida gubernatorial election. Journal of Public Relations Research, 18, 2, 265-285. McCombs, Maxwell E. (2004). Setting the agenda: The mass media and public opinion. Cambridge, UK: Polity. McCombs, Maxwell E., and Shaw L. Donald. (1993). The evolution of agenda-setting research: twenty-five years in the marketplace of ideas. Journal of Communication 43:58–67.
Studies Inpolitical Culture, Organizing, And Advocacy." Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare 32.3 (2005): 81-106. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
Another controlling method that is diffused through television, radio and written publications; is any reported information about world politics and news. Powerful political groups narrow people’s views of what is going on around them by tainting and twisting information to their own device. They decide what to say and when to say it, revealing as much or little information as desired, in ‘befitting’ instances; thus enabling them to hide information they consider deleterious to themselves, from the public. It also permits them to depict opponents in overly negative terms.
The two key terms “agenda setting” and “gotcha” journalism are going to be used within this paper to show you how politicians and news organizations try to persuade the public. The “agenda setting” is a term that “involves using the news to influence what the public regards as important for them to think about in society and politics.” (Bennett, Lance pg. 23) This is a major tool for news organizations or politicians to seek a public relation toward a certain aspect that they’re addressing their agenda and framing it to formulate their partisan viewpoints. Now for “gotcha” jour...
398).It is also stated that news divisions reduced their costs, and raised the entertainment factor of the broadcasts put on air. (p. 400). Secondly, the media determines its sources for stories by putting the best journalists on the case and assign them to areas where news worthy stories just emanates. (p.400). Third, the media decides how to present the news by taking the most controversial or relevant events and compressing them into 30 second sound-bites. (p.402). finally, the authors also explain how the media affects the general public. The authors’ state “The effect of one news story on public opinion may be trivial but the cumulative effect of dozens of news stories may be important. This shows a direct correlation between public opinions and what the media may find “relevant”. (Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry, 2015, p.
Through manipulation and lies, media manages to modify objective news into biased news in order to convince the public of what the media wants them to believe. The article, “How the Media Twist the News”, by Sheila Gribben Liaugminas discusses the major influence that news has on readers based on their choice of stories and words. “How the Media Twists the News” has borrowed from multiple other texts such as the books like Public Opinion and Liberty and News, news magazine writers such as Ruderman, and news networks like CBS through Bias, A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News and CNN to make her arguments valid and prove that the news is biased and that it does influence readers significantly because of it.
The fundamental of policymaking consists of a lengthy time process that goes through many steps in becoming a Bill. The process of policymaking is introduced in the beginning step of the Policy Formulation Phase, as the problem goes through a Legislation it goes into the Policy Implementation Phase, which than forms into a law or vetoed. Many policies do not become a Bill’s, but the certain ones that do they achieve the goal to guide the society with immense decision making and balanced outcomes.
This essay focuses on how spin doctoring became a phenomenon among public relations, journalists, politician and even a massive campaign. This essay considers the tool used by the spin doctoring team to engage and steer public opinion. Spin team must have a strategy in using each tool and we will discuss how this strategy affected how well the result will be. Overall, this essay has been written to show two spin teams use different spin tools in order to change public’s perspectives. The brief explanation shows how well the strategy they use to the success of the campaign and how it can be unsuccessful.
Rather than being a neutral conduit for the communication of information, the U.S. media plays an intricate role in shaping and controlling political opinions. Media is extremely powerful in the sense that without an adequate functioning media, it is virtually impossible for a sophisticated social structure like the U.S. Government to exist. Henceforth, all known sophisticated social structure, have always dependent upon the media’s ability to socialize. The U.S. government generally will exploit the media, often times manipulating the enormous power of the printed word. Ultimately empowering the U.S. government, strengthening it with the ability to determine and control the popular perception of reality. One way in which government achieves this objective, is by its ability to misuse the media’s ability to set the agenda. Contrary to popular belief, media is in fact an enormous hegemony. In fact, separate independent news organizations relatively do not exist. Rather than creating an independent structured agenda of there own, generally lesser smaller news organizations adapt to a prepared agenda, previously constructed by a higher medium. Based upon this information alone, it is quite apparent that media functions in adherence to the characteristics of a hierarchy. This simply means that media is structured in a way that it operates functioning from top to bottom. This is also identical to the hierarchical nature of the human body, in that from the commands of the brain transferred through the central nervous system, the body responds accordingly. In order for the U.S. government to control and determine the public’s popular perception of reality, the government must shape and oversee the information that the media reports to the existing populous. This particular process of democracy is known and referred to by political scientists as cognitive socialization. However, many of us, who do not adhere to the cushioning of political correctness, refer to it as the propaganda machine. Numerous political scientists consider cognitive socialization to be the most effective form of political socialization. According to theory, cognitive socialization is doctored up information, which is strategically fragmented in such a manipulative manner, that the probability of its rationalization is highly predictable. The manipulative properties of cognitive socialization are so diabolical and Machiavellian in nature, that I consider it to be the ultimate perversion of the democratic process. In all seriousness, numerous intellectuals, and gentleman held in good stature agree, that cognitive socialization is the product of an evil genius.
(Snyder & Bellentine 1996; Wilkinson 2006) In the case of incumbents, through the mass media, over which they have privileged control, they achieve mobilization of people around a ethno-nationalist goal, and “construct” ethnic conflict. (Brass 1997) In the case of those seeking to capture votes or new political offices, a great part of their party platform and campaign rhetoric serves to do the same.
There for we say yes, media can have a sizeable political impact, especially when a politician controls a substantial share of the media. Media is therefore bad for democracy. Stated throughout this paper is the level of bias that is displayed in the media. This level of bias sways the public far right or far left. Their decisions are based on a political point of view.
“Political context includes aspects such as the distribution of power, the range of organizations involved and their interests, and the formal and informal rules that govern the interactions among different players. Political context shapes the way in which policy processes work” (Nash, R., Hudson, A., and Luttrell, C., 2006). It is important to understand the political context in which a social policy issue is embedded. When I think of context, I think of action. An advocate that is trying to influence policy would be concerned about political contexts because it would determine the likelihood, suitability, and capabilities of his/her behavior (action) and conduct while seeking to institute change. By understanding the political context in which a social policy issue is embedded, one’s strategy and approach can be outlined to understand the manner in which changes can be made. Progress can be slow without understanding the political context. An advocate may understand what needs to be changed but may not understand why the change did not occur. The advocate may also be able to institute change in social policy issues if the advocate has a great understanding of the political context. The advocate must be able to align himself/herself with those that can be recruited to change the context of a policy. The advocate can also determine the severity of instituting the change and the probability of getting the change. “The appropriate level of action and type of advocacy strategy will depend on the political, social and economic situation prevailing at a given point in time” (Rietbergen,-McCracken, J., n.d.).
Policymaking is a political process which is affected by various social and economic factors (Hofferbert, 1974) and media systems play an integral role in shaping the social context in which policies are developed. Through the media, citizens learn how government policies will affect them, and governments gain feedback on their policies and programs. Media systems act as the primary channels between those who might want to influence policy and the policymakers '' controlling the scope of political discourse and regulating the flow of information. Textbook policymaking follows an orderly sequence where problems are identified, solutions devised, policies adopted, implemented, and lastly evaluated (Mazamanian & Sabatier, 1989). In reality, the policy process is more fluid, where policies are formed through the struggle of ideas of various advocacy coalitions (Sabatier, 1991) in what has been described as a policy primeval soup (Kingdon, 1995). The policies, on which the media focuses can, and often does, play an important part in determining the focal issues for policymakers.
Salwen, M. B. (1987). Mass Media Issue Dependency and Agenda Setting. Communication Research Reports, 4(1), 26-31.
In our democratic society, mass media is the driving force of public opinion. Media sources such as Internet, newspaper, news-broadcasts, etc, play significant roles in shaping a person’s understanding and perception about the events occurred in our daily lives. As long as the newspapers, internet, network television, etc, continued to be easily accessible to the public, the media will continue to have an influence in shaping its opinions. Factors such as agenda-setting, framing and priming help shape the public opinions. Agenda-setting is when the media focuses their attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinion on, whereas framing allows the media to select certain aspects about the problem and then make them appear more salient. Similarly, priming works by repeatedly exposing certain issues to public. As the issues get more exposure, the individual will be more likely to recall or retain the information in their minds. This paper will discuss these three factors played out systemically by media and how our opinions are constantly being influence and shape by them.
There are many different theories as to what ideology is, from being about people’s beliefs and how people see themselves in the world. In this essay I shall be looking at different theorists and how each of their theories helps us to understand what ideology is, and how ideology can help us to understand media. Ideology is a set of beliefs or ideals that are followed by a group of people or an individual. These beliefs are then used as a format for political or economic systems. An example of one of these ideological systems is Republicanism, which is the belief that a Media is used by dominant powers to spread their ideological beliefs and to help maintain social control.