This essay explores pressure groups and their role in democracy and society. It also discusses how pressure groups use the media as a communication strategy to influence.
Introduction
Pressure groups are known to be small and extremely diverse formed on the basis of interest and activities, their functions give them a high public profile where minds are influenced and driven to make change. “A Pressure group is an organisation which seeks to influence the details of a comparatively small range of public policies and which is not a function of a recognised political party” (Baggott, 1995: p.2). An aim of pressure groups is to generate support which can influence political agendas; this can directly persuade the government to consider taking action. In this essay I will concentrate upon exploring on various issues on pressure groups, discussing the relationship between the groups, their use of the media and their status as “insiders” and “outsiders” in the political process. Pressure groups have two main types of groups the insiders and outsiders, which each promote a common cause with a different relationship with the media and political party making one as an unheard voice in the public sphere. To the public Pressure groups is another form where the public can engage in politics, participating directly in the political process. I will also intricate in this essay the growths of pressure groups due to the use of the media and their political engagement. The size of a group is a basic indicator of how much public support they get especially those that posse’s open membership, they mobilise through demonstrations, protest involving some non members through organised events. The different types of well known pressure grou...
... middle of paper ...
... and the communication of environmental affairs', Media,
Culture and Society (1991) Vol. 13, Issue 4, pp. 459-476
Bennie, L.G. (1998) „Brent Spar, Atlantic Oil and Greenpeace‟, Parliamentary Affairs, 51(3): 397-410.
Grant, W. (2004) „Pressure Politics: The Changing World of Pressure Groups‟, Parliamentary Affairs, 57(2): 408-419
Smith, P. (1999) „Political Communication in the UK: A Study of Pressure Group Behaviour‟, Politics, 19(1): 21-27
Waltz, M. (2005) Alternative and Activist Media, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Baggott, R. (1995) Pressure Groups Today, Manchester: Manchester University Press
Wright, A. (2000) The British Political Process: An Introduction. Pp. 138-144
Internet Sources
http://www.foe.co.uk/
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/
http://www.polfed.org/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/2443603.stm
Holmes, P, Introducing Politics for AS Level, London: Polity Press, 2008. [Chapter 8, sections 5, 6 & 7]
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.
Likewise, “neo Marxist theories” are irrelevant in today’s society (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 2012). Interest groups were highlighted by Bell, on the other hand, Riesman referenced veto groups as political power sources in the United states; however, both group are seen as countervailing power (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 2012). In other words as groups form and organize in order to promote their personal interest, equally, other groups form in opposition to block their actions and efforts for the prevention of having too much control (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 2012). In this model, policy is not mandated by the elite, however, by the same token, veto groups plays a major role making certain it goes through the legislative process (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda,
Politics is defined as “the way people decide who gets what, when, where, how, and why—without resorting to violence” (McDonough 20). The author asserts that politics is the alternative pathway for a society to make decisions besides choosing violent means to go about doing so. Instead of using force, politicians use words and the method of persuasion in order to get what they want. When a society has a group of people who feel they are not fairly represented by their elected officials, they will often turn to violence in order to implement changes to the political process that will put in place the rules and regulations they are seeking.
Upon reflecting on today's quarter projects an image came into my mind. It was a circle with a bunch of different arrows moving out from a common center trying to push out of the circle that contained them (see below). I found this to be an apt description of the individuals we discussed in class today. All of them worked to apply pressure to society in different ways. One common link I saw between Emma Goldman, Eugene V. Debs and Ida B. Wells was applying political pressure. Although they worked towards different goals I could see a common thread between the methods they used to apply pressure which often involved writing and trying to communicate their ideas to the masses. I found these ideas to be a rather efficient way to spread these beliefs
Essentially, interest groups use many different tactics to accomplish their central goals but this paper will detail 2 of them. The first being lobbying, which is the act of persuading businesses as well as government leaders to help a specific organization by changing laws or creating events in favor of that group. Interest groups use this technique by hiring someone to represent them and advocate their cause to on the behalf of the entire group. These hired representatives usually have more than enough experience within the political field and are able to persuade connections within the government for help with their concerns. This method gets a lot of criticism because although lobbyist offer their input to government officials on pending laws, they only look at what is favorable for their cause. When trying to make a difference you have to not only reflect on your argument but on the side affects of that argument as
...has so much power. The findings of this research could be used by campaigners in an attempt to swing an election in their favour, creating an unfair bias in parliament and denigrating the ideals of democracy.
First, the role of the media is to represent the public and intervene between the public and the government. The media is a mirror, which re...
When the Party of “1984” wanted to establish an idea, they did so, as they had the power to use propaganda to influence all people of lower rank. In the same way, media of today contains propaganda because of how it is delivered and accessed. Media has very little boundaries, which allows it to have very opinionated influential ideas without very much work. The media works to exploit people as they can use their power to establish their ideas. When the media is able to sway people to their side of an argument, the media’s hope is that those people will begin to influence others and sway or reaffirm their opinion. Any time a retweet, like, or share occurs on subjective information, the possibility that the information is believed and retained by more people increases. Researchers from Stanford University described the “power struggle” for influence between modern media by coining a term. They said “The Dune affect is a term we coined--after the movie Dune--which explains that those who control and have access to media have access to and potential control of public opinion (Manzaria)”. The Dune affect is the reason that media uses their power to influence society, because media professionals understand their affect. In order to manipulate the proles
(Turner and Killian 1987) cited in (Diani 1992, p. 4) define social movements as a “collectivity acting with some continuity to promote or resist a change in the society or organisation of which it is part. As a collectivity a movement is a group with indefinite and shifting membership and with leadership whose position is determined more by informal response of adherents than by formal procedures for legitimizing authority”. Turner and Killian regard a social movement as a peculiar kind of collective behavior that is contrasted to regularity and institutional behavior. Additionally, Turner believes that social movements do not necessarily coincide with movement organisations, although these organisations can carry out a large part of the movement tasks and it is often help to control and speak for movements (Diani 1992).
Pressure Groups and Their Influence on the Government Britain is often referred to as a homogenous society as the public. tend to share similar political views. However, more recently, there. has been a decline in membership to political parties and an increase. in the membership of pressure groups. In this essay I will define pressure groups, information surrounding such as the amount of power.
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 aim of this paper is to achieve better understanding of political communication by critically reviewing Jesper Stromback’s four-dimension concept of mediatisation of politics. The essay is divided into three parts as follows. The first part presents the concepts of mediation and mediatisation, which contribute to the basis of Stromback’s theories. In the second part, the concept of mediatisation of politics by Stromback is deconstructed. With the help of such a concept, political communication can be perceived as a process in which adaptations between politics and media as well as competitions between media logic and political logic are involved in. The final section of the paper points out the limits of Stromback’s concept and further illustrates the extent to which political communication can be better understood. Political communication, in this context, should be conceived of as a process conducted under the functions of different variations beyond the spheres of media and politics.
The Hidden Relationship Between Government and Media 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 structures, have always been dependent upon the media’s ability to socialize. The U.S. government generally exploits 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.
Public holders include bureaucrats and politicians, Policy influencers represent the group within or outside the government, the public as the third play are the consumers, taxpayers, audiences and voters whose opinions will impact the adoption of the proposed policy (Mary, & Melanie, 2015). The media is also a key player who influences both the public understanding of the proposed policy including their attitudes towards the policy and policy makers. Often policies seem to be driven by one or two influential parties but Millio argues that the community or organizations should be the focus analysis. Communities and organizations usually fall into policy influencers or policy