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...
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... and the communication of environmental affairs', Media,
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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
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.
As we have seen the media has three functions when it come to the government. These functions or roles are gatekeeper, scorekeeper, and watchdog. These roles help to change policy, help politicians win or lose elections, and keep a check on the government. Interest groups are people joined together by a common cause who wish to change policy. Sometimes the can be use for the wrong ends, but they are still a vital part of the system. True public opinion can never be certain. Though many seek this out; it is always just out of reach. It is only when these opinions are evident in interest groups and the media that it can help shape governmental policy.
(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).
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
Shapiro, Ian, Rogers M. Smith, and Tarek E. Masoud, eds. Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics. Cambridge ; Cambridge University Press, 2004.
They regroup the television, the radio, and newspapers. Aware of the power they have on us, media influence our thoughts, our acts, and our ideas in order to serve their interests. It isn't the purpose of this essay, but it would certainly not be too complicted to demonstrate that medias have a close link with politicians and that each one serve the interests of the others.
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 do not exist. Rather than creating an independent structured agenda of their 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.
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.
7th edition. London: Pearson Longman, ed. Garner, R., Ferdinand, P. and Lawson, S. (2009) Introduction to Politics. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
...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.
One of the fundamental roles of the media in a liberal democracy is to critically scrutinise governmental affairs: that is to act as a watchdog of government to ensure that the government can be held accountable by the public. However, the systematic deregulation of media systems worldwide is diminishing the ability of citizens to meaningfully participate in policymaking process governing the media (McChesney, 2003, p. 126). The relaxation of ownership rules and control, has resulted in a move away from diversity of production to a situation where media ownership is becoming increasing concentrated by just a few predominantly western global conglomerates (M...
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
Althusser (1971) explains that, as an ideological state apparatus, media doesn’t use pressure as a way to bind society together under one dominant ideology, but instead uses the will of the people to make them accept the dominant ideology. However, media is also used as a way for people to challenge the dominant ideology. Newspapers, for example, will have articles that openly criticise and oppose the dominant ideology for what it is, whilst at the same time providing perspectives and opinions on different ideologies (such as feminism) that society can believe in. Although these alternate ideological perspectives exist, they are usually overlooked and only ever reach small audiences. Ideology can also help us understand the media because of the way in which it distributes ideology.