Abstract 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. How Media Influences Public Opinion 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... ... middle of paper ... ...r attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinions on (McCombs). Framing is an important factor by allowing the media to select certain aspects about the problem and then make them appear more important in the text, which results in enhancing the meaning or interpretation of the situation (Scheufele). Last, but not least, priming also played an important role in shaping public opinion. Priming works as the media repeatedly exposed certain issues in the public viewers. The more exposure an issue gets, the more likely an individual will recall or retain the information in their minds. With these three factors played out systemically the media, our opinions are constantly being influence and shape by them. As quoted by Walter Lippman, “what we know about the world is largely based on what the media decide to tell us” (McCombs).
In United States politics, it is evident that media helps persuade or dissuade peoples’ perceptions of those who run for public offices. Traditionally, news media cohere to a baseline ideology or platform and cover news, politics, and stories by the beliefs of the chosen ideology. For instance, a very liberal news outlet could characterize a story about Bernie Sanders in a very appealing fashion while a very conservative news outlet could cover the same information negatively. Framing is how media and other groups organize and perceive events in daily society. Framing is an important tool that is used to bring people to a common similarity and ideology. Liberal and conservative news stations use framing to daily, either promoting the candidate
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.
To begin, one must realize that there are not several different media outlets. Multiple channels are owned by the same company and these companies, in turn, are subsidiaries of a parent company. The popular media today is controlled by only five major corporations: Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Viacom, and Bertelsmann – which owns most English language publishing houses. Inevitably, biases will be present; but the lack of exposure to other lesser known sources which may counterbalance these biases causes a shift in public opinion, one that is largely controlled by the popular media. One of the most powerful ways in which people are influenced is through language. The positive or negative connotations and repetitive use of specific terminology bring up certain emotions or depart messages into the subconscious mind. One may refer to them as trigger words think, for example, of words such...
Currently, the office of the United States Presidency is one of the most powerful positions in the world. The President has the power to influence Congress, the nation and the free world. However, the US Media, which is also the freest and most powerful press, has had control over the presidency. The advent of CNN, ABC, NBC and others has had the effect of being able to sway the population of the United States, either garnering support for a president or destroying his credibility. The media has permitted the spread of information, allowing the people to take a more active role in politics making the general will better known, but it has also made politicians and the public hostage to the ideas and opinions of reporters, who are often only after a gripping story and a large profit. The media has the power to sway the American public by reporting favorably or with disfavor on a candidate, thus making a presidential candidate the prisoner of entertainment companies. Thus it could be said that the American people lose their ability to truly know a candidate because of the media. Instead they vote according to what they are told by major publications rather than what they believe. In this paper, I will explore whether the Media is a valuable resource or a does it have an undue influence over the President and the American public?
Being that respondents may feel pressured to give a popular answer and respondents not giving accurate responses in their true beliefs, these polls can easily become questionable. For example, people may be reluctant to admit their true beliefs on sensitive issues like same-sex marriage, which may not reflect the true measure of opinions of the population. But the inaccuracy of these polls can easily be prevented by the proper requirements being met. All in all opinion polls are very influential. Which brings me to priming and framing. Priming is bringing an issue to the attention of the public while keeping other issues salient. Priming is an important concept in the media effects as it influences people in decision making. For example, a person who is unaware of what’s going on in the elections will base their decision on the information the media has provided when choosing a candidate. Framing is the media’s way of influencing how the people interpret information on certain policies and events. Framing is commonly used by advertisers to present information to the audience, to see how they will interpret the
Uscinski, J. E. (2009). When Does the Public's Issue Agenda Affect the Media's Issue Agenda (and Vice-Versa)? Developing a Framework for Media-Public Influence. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 90(4), 796-815. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00663.x
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.
The media presents "one minded" views that have the ability to reflect societies moods and influence the balance of power.
McCombs and Shaw fully developed the theory of agenda setting in respect to public agenda in a study in the early 1970’s. Their cross-sectional study involved the effects of media agenda setting on public opinion. They revealed that there were indeed correlations between the two, which backed the ideas of Cohen (Brosius 5). They derived that, “the basic agenda-setting hypothesis asserts that the issues and information presented on the media agenda become over time the issues and information on the public agenda (Leckenby).
Salwen, M. B. (1987). Mass Media Issue Dependency and Agenda Setting. Communication Research Reports, 4(1), 26-31.
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.
By highlighting the events around the world and their significance for the society, media plays an instrumental role in forming the opinion of the masses.
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,
“Through the ongoing interaction of theorizing and empirical research consistent with the scientific method, agenda-setting theory has evolved from a tightly focused perspective to a broad theory. Initially, the focus was on the way media affect the public’s view of which issues are important. Later the theory broadened to encompass five distinct aspects of public life: basic and attribute agenda-setting effects, the psychology of these processes, and the consequences of these effects for opinions and behavior. The participation of scholars worldwide has been central to the continuing productivity of the theory” (Maxwell McCombs).
Malcolm X, a human rights activist, once said, “The media´s the most powerful entity on Earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent, and that´s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Through numerous studies and considerable amount of research, it has become clear that the media has a significant effect on society and its perception. This applies to all topics, but mostly to issues that are difficult for the mass to experience for themselves. For example, our views of government and social institutions are largely based on the medium’s reports, not our own experiences.