A vast deal of effort has been done in comparative analysis in the field of political communication. However, following Pfetsch and Esser (2014), it is clear that this area of study is still under construction and several questions remain open. At the same time, an important part of the research in this area has been done in industrialized countries. A enormous region of more than half a billion people as Latin America represents a challenge to undergo appropriate inquiry in order to understand the close relationship between politics and communication and its effect on governance and public opinion.
In this context, we are interested in seeing how the media relate to politics in Latin America. Moreover, we want to study how this relationship interferes with democratic governance. So far in this century, we have witnessed a struggle between politicians and the media for building the public agenda and thus attract the attention of the public. This debate between politics and media revolves around issues reflecting the interests of both sectors.
In countries like Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela governments confront the media in several cases aggressively. The majority of governments in the region have enacted laws or rules that regulate the function of the media. Behind such laws or regulations, we could find the political will to limit the actions of the media in the field of politics. The media is seeing like lobbying, either their own interests or those of a sector of the population in particular.
People disaffection from the political parties that we found in numerous countries, could explain how the media have come to fill a space of mediation between the population and decision-making centers. This leads...
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... politicians and the media we share certain interests , we will be in a cooperation scheme . If there is no competition for a given topic and does not seek the imposition of an interest, we will be in a position of neutrality in which the topic is not even mentioned by any of the two entities. If interests are opposed , then most likely we are facing the adversarial model that will put the politicians and the media to compete for the favor pupular . This favor measured in terms of perceptions in favor or against the message issued by both actors .
It should be expected that the political culture moderate the impact of the message to the public. Therefore, both the politicians and the media design their communication strategies within the values and principles of society. To the extent that actors can synchronize the message with the expectations of the population.
Since the presidential goal is to lead the public opinion, the media’s aid is needed in order to reach out for the people and persuade them with any desired adjustme...
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.
Since the television appeared, the entire world changed the way of communicating and the means get data about the issues that occur around us (Beggs J., 2013). But what happens if we only have one media to communicate all that information? How does this affect the existence of only one way to get the information to the veracity and the objectivity? That is exactly the situation in México, a country which prevails in a Monopoly in Television, and this control manipulate the information according to its interest.
1. Parenti, Michael. "Mass Media: For the Many, by the Few." Beyond Borders: Thinking Critically About Global Issues. New York: Worth, 2006. 60-74. Print.
The influence of the mass media on the electoral process in the western democracies, specially the television in the last years, can get to crush the daily life during the electoral period. Some maintain that the selection are won or are lost based on the performance of a party in the television and print media and, to a lesser extent, in the radio. Since the media nowadays dominates the selections in some countries, he is surprising that the regulation of the information has a low profile in the electoral legislations of the world.
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...
The media can set the image for a political figure or candidate, sealing their approval or disapproval for them and cementing that image toward the audience. The media can make certain political figures or candidat...
Media houses and News channels in particular, were originally founded to keep the masses informed of what was currently going on in the world around them. Over the years, media has evolved to be a selling tool. The fact that there are so many media houses out there today does not make the issue better but worse. With the competition between media houses growing, the way news and entertainment is transmitted to the consumer has changed, as also the consumer base has grown. The power of media is gigantic when it comes to influencing the minds of people. With its ample power, Media has the capability to incorporate a specific bias in news by molding or shaping its contents to portray a desired impression. However, the general public still yearns for the real unbiased news content and seeks multiple opinions from various media channels available. This tendency has aggravated the competition between the media channels as every other channel endeavors to present a different angle of incidence with a specific bias.
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.
Mass media is a growing business, normally controlled by giant corporations. In fact majority of national news in only covered by few sources known as “Big Media” consisting of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, and United Press International. (Mary 6). Because the media is so big often the corporations determine what is to be given national attention such as the presidential elections. Leaving the opinions of others to change american politics. Mass media has shaped the political system by using the method “Share This” a social media tactic, televising campaign ads or other political views, and by integrating “Live Media Debates”.
Hallin and Mancini’s conceptual framework comprises structures of four dimensions development of media markets, political parallelism or “the extent to which the media system reflects the major divisions in society”, the development of journalistic professionalism , and the degree and nature of state intervention in the media system; furthermore aspects of the state role; degree of pluralism, type of democracy, and degree of rational-legal authority with associating to the political contexts of media systems. Hallin and Mancini conceptualized the three models of media and politics when referring characteristic configurations within these dimensions. These are Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist Model, North Central Europe or Democratic Corporatist Model, North Atlantic or Liberal Model. The principal features of Mediterranean or Polarized Pluralist Model are high political parallelism, low newspaper circulation, weaker professionalization, strong state intervention; North Central Europe or Democratic Corporatist Model consists high new...
The purpose of this research is to examine the pros and cons of electronic media used for political press agentry, which may help expose more politicians to the public about the political candidates, themselves and their campaign approaches. This will conceivably enlighten and further the knowledge base of the American citizens on the strategies that are used to create the governmental foundation of democracy. This research also will help further acknowledge the good and bad effects of press agentry within the political process, beginning with some of the earliest forms of politics.
However there is tremendous demand on news organization to make a profit. This is only achievable is by selling their audience to advertisers, mainstream large markets then cater to the mass audience. Fearful of losing their market shares these organizations tend to reduce their coverage of serious political debate, and thus abandoned their responsibility for educating and informing citizens, the favor of material intended for entertainment (Heywood, 181). In addition news organizations targeting niche markets instead opt to provide alternative information to unsatisfied audiences with whatever they can find in the mainstream media. Usually mainstream journalists are inclined initially to censor information to avoid unpopular or controversies. And it is that information which niche media has an incentive tackle, especially stories about human rights violation. In Lawson’s book he discusses how Mexico’s media led to increased coverage by niche media, then by mainstream media of the corruption by its government he
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,
"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.