The choices voters make are deeply personal ones. The choices between candidates, when to vote, where to vote, and even whether or not vote are ones that feasibly have a number of influencing factors. In a mediated environment, there is little reason to believe that the messages and information potential voters receive from various media sources could be a part of the decision making process. Recently, there has been an increase in what are called “fact-checks” in which some purported media expert investigates the factual accuracy of statements that a candidate has made. Considering the vast amount of information that potential voters must sift through in order to make an informed decision, it would seem plausible that these fact checks could …show more content…
Put simply, does media policing influence voter behavior. The mechanism for this would be that being exposed to fact checking lowers voter trust, which would motivate voters to simply remove themselves from the political arena. It is important to note right away that the unit of analysis for this study would be individuals. The concept of media policing seems fairly straightforward, however there are intricacies that must be taken into account when defining the concept. One important thing to note is that the fact-check must come from a mainstream media source, such as television news. Further, fact checking consists of an explanation of the claim made by the candidate, and a presentation of expert evidence confirming or contradicting this claim. For the concept of voter behavior the clearest operational definition would be the simple definition of taking the voting actions of voting in general, and voting specifically for a candidate. The concept of voter trust, which is theoretically interlaced with voter behavior, can be conceptually defined is voter feelings toward the political system on one hand, and specific candidates on the …show more content…
In this case, low levels of voter trust influence voter behavior and influence the potential exposure to fact checks because voters who have less trust in campaigns and candidates would be more likely to be predisposed to seek out information that citizens the campaign process or candidates. Further, those with low voter trust may be predisposed to certain types of voting behavior. The relationship is diagramed below.
The final proposed relationship type is somewhat of a combination of the previous two. The third relationship type is a spurious and indirect casual relationship. This combines the effects of the previous two relationships and suggests they could be interacting with one another. In this relationship type, not only does exposure to a fact check decrease voter trust, which alters voter behavior, but also low levels of voter trust have an influence on fact checking exposure and voter behavior independently. The proposed relationship is diagramed
For instance, Menand writes, “The fraction of the electorates that responds to substantive political argument is hugely outweighed by the fraction that responds to slogans, misinformation...random personal association.” Mass voters mostly pursue the wrong or irrelevant information that are irrelevant to the election; thus lead them to vote for the candidates which they do not really want. Their choices mostly lack rationalities. Many voters who are slightly informative think that they are participating in a certain issue and considering the value of the candidates; yet most of them do not have adequate information and knowledge in understanding the meaning of political terms. Voters lack judgment on their government and candidates, their minds are easily being brainwashed by a small amount of people who has informative approaches in participating governmental issue, and affect their
Media concentration allows news reporters to fall victim to source bias, commercial impulse, and pack journalism. Together, all three of the aforementioned factors become known as horse race journalism, a cause for great concern in campaign media. In complying with horse race journalism, media outlets exclude third party candidates, reinforce the idea that politics is merely a game, and dismiss issues that directly affect voters and their day to day lives. Through horse race journalism, the media is mobilized in impeding an active form of the democratic debate in American politics. Even across the wide range of human values and beliefs, it is easy to see that campaign media coverage must be changed, if not for us, then for our children. It is imperative that we discern the flaws of the media and follow our civic duty to demand better media
The first and most effective discouragement to voting is exit polls that predict the outcome of an election or in modern terms "electronic forecasting." Exit polling on or before Election Day has become the predominant method used by mass media in American politics for predicting outcomes of elections according to George Bishop and Bonnie Fisher of Public Opinion Quarterly (Page 568). In most recent elections exit polling has grown into an even more complex mass survey medium with institutions such as Voter Research and Surveys (VRS) of New York who provide polling results for massive television netwo...
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.
Firstly, it is known that party affiliation is greatly influential in voter’s decisions. Because it is usually reinforced by society, party identification tends to be very strong, and typically unchangeable throughout an individual’s life. However, even though it might influence an individual’s decision on Presidential elections, it is more effective in shaping the decisions of voters on less-visible races. That is, it is more effective if the voters are not familiar with the candidates, than if they know them. After the 1960s, nevertheless, parties have become weaker on its influence to the public. This phenomenon, mostly associated to the influence of mass media, which portrays candidates by personality and not party, has made people less likely to develop a strong party affiliation. The evidence is shown on the number of people describing themselves as independents, and the rise of split-ticket voting. On the other hand, party identification among a large number of the most active voters has grown
If a nation knew an ample amount of a political candidate’s personal life, one could weed out the inadequate candidates and focus on the good ones. Many solutions have been offered to solve this problem, but most have been ineffective (as one can see by the current state of the United States). One proposed solution has been to trusts “your instincts” while voting. This solution is invalid because instincts are based
Polls and surveys are able to provide a snapshot of public opinion in a moment of time; they can be both useful and fickle, given the context, as well as the methods, of the polling. Primarily, newspapers and researchers collect data through self-administered questionnaires, telephone surveys, and face-to-face interviews (Asher 118-122). Each of these has their benefits and drawbacks that influence the reported results. For example, some respondents have non-attitudes or no opinion of the subject at hand, but will provide answers anyway, misrepresenting or skewing public opinion to appear more strongly in
left out, one fact presented strongly this can affect the public's perception of political events and
The main aim of this report is to analyze the impacts of changes in the media concerning the societal and individual view of politics and politicians. The report also describes significant milestones in mass media since the year 1960 and examines the impact of mass media on how people think politically. The report then considers the effect of technological advancements in mass media and the effect on the results of elections. The use of mass media has increased over the last fifty years in that it is a primary medium through which supporters of various campaigners share their ideas and views concerning politicians and different political parties. Through social media, behaviors and performance of several activists have brought
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.
"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." This quote by A.J. Liebling illustrates the reality of where the media stands in today's society. Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in power throughout the media with regard to politics. The media's original purpose was to inform the public of the relevant events that occurred around the world. 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 public are distorted for one reason or another. Using slant and sensationalism, the media has begun to shape our views in society and the process by which we choose our leaders. There was once a time when the government used the media as a medium to influence voters, committees, communities etc. Recently, it has been the presidents of major media outlets that have not only exercised power over the public but also made their presences felt in government and in the halls of congress. When the word democracy is thrown about it usually has to do with the rights or original intentions for a group or organization. The first group intended to be influenced by the media was the informed voter. Political parties along with the government used a variety of media resources to persuade the voter or in effect receive a vote for their cause. Returning to the thought of ?democracy? the question is, what was the original intention of the media with relation to the theme of democracy and the informed voter? To analyze this thought thoroughly one must first grasp an understanding of the basic definition of democracy.
As Americans we take pride in our liberating government. But, it is essential to ask how much we, the general public, know about our democracy. Because of the representative structure of our government, it is in our best interest to remain as knowledgeable as possible about political affairs so that we can play an active role in our democracy by voting for candidates and issues. The media, which includes print, television, and the internet, is our primary link to political events and issues. (For the purposes of this essay only print and television will be considered.) Therefore, in order to assess the success of our democracy it is necessary to assess the soundness of our media. We are lucky enough to have a media, in theory, free from government influences because of our rights to freedom of press and freedom of speech, but we are still subject to the media’s interpretation and presentation of politics, as is the danger when depending on any source for information. So, we must address how the media informs us; how successful it is at doing so; and how we should respond to it.
The current role of mass media in politics has definitely played a significant role in how view and react to certain events and issues of the nation. Newspapers, magazines, television and radio are some of the ways information is passed onto many of the citizens. The World Wide Web is also an information superhighway, but not all of the sources on the Internet are credible. Therefore, I will only focus on the main three types of media: written, viewed, and audible, and how they affect whether or not democracy is being upheld in the land of the free. The media includes several different outlets through which people can receive information on politics, such as radio, television, advertising and mailings. When campaigning, politicians spend large quantities of money on media to reach voters, concentrating on voters who are undecided. Politicians may use television commercials, advertisements or mailings to point out potentially negative qualities in their opponents while extolling their own virtues. The media can also influence politics by deciding what news the public needs to hear. Often, there are more potential news stories available to the media than time or space to devote to them, so the media chooses the stories that are the most important and the most sensational for the public to hear. This choice can often be shaped,
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. But how much influence does the mass media poses on our opinion? Guaranteed by the First Amendment in American Constitution, the media will always be there to inform us about the different events or issues they feel are important for the public. The media constantly bombards us with news, advertisements, etc, wher...
The knowledge of the fact that a targeting adversary or benighted society can easily influence people’s opinions and choices can seem quite frightening. The term bias applies to prejudice and altering or distorting someone’s opinion in either a positive or a negative way. It is connected to intuition and having a one-sided opinion against someone or something else, not wanting to agree to a neutral ground or accept opposing facts or information. Influencers can use it to affect outcomes of elections or alter someone’s opinion in their favour. People’s opinions and choices can be altered and distorted into poor choices when influenced by bias.