The media and American politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

The media and American politics - Essay Example US media has been often criticised as being manipulated by the government and ends up serving biased and distorted news to the general people. My article will examine the role of the US media in the political scenario, in the context of the 2000/2004 elections, and will examine to find out as to whether the media does really have a slant/bias, and whether it really acts as a propaganda vehicle for the political party in power. The Media and American politics 1 Introduction â€Å"Balanced coverage [is what] plagues American journalism and ...leads to utterly spineless reporting with no edge. The idea seems to be that journalists are allowed to go out to report, but when it comes time to write, we are expected to turn our brains off and repeat the spin from both sides..."Balanced" is not fair, it's just an easy way of avoiding real reporting...and shirking our responsibility to inform readers† (Ken Silverstein, 2008). ... esidential speeches, various TV ads, press meetings, or even through the normal routine daily news, which creates a form of ‘virtual reality’ for its viewers. Though the results, as have been observed in the various elections, are quite far from being virtual, and are indeed real and turning out to be critical too, for the political parties. In the context of conducting political campaigns, the magnitude and scale of the US elections in the recent years, is something which would have been unimaginable even 60 years back. These transformations in the political field can be to a large extent laid at the door of the media and press coverage of the political policies.. John Zaller summarily defines this slowly evolving new process in the arena of US media and politics as, â€Å"the attempt to govern on the basis of words and images that diffuse through the mass media† (2009, 389). There is no denying the fact that in this twenty first century modern world, the news me dia does indeed play a pivotal role in the functioning of the political regimes, and the shaping of a nation’s democracy. In a modern democratic country, the right to information forms a vital criterion for its citizens to assess the functioning of the political party in power, and to receive this information they rely on different various news distributing agents like the television, newspapers, amongst many others. This free access to the media for information related to the actions of the political leaders, in terms of various policies and legislations and their consequential aspects, are essential for the proper functioning of a democratic country. â€Å"It ensures that citizens make responsible, informed choices... [While] information serves a â€Å"checking function† by ensuring that elected

The physical and mental effect of mass media on Humans Research Paper

The physical and mental effect of mass media on Humans - Research Paper Example The skewed relationship is based on ultimately serving the purpose of the media and encouraging its consumption. 1. The Evolution of Mass Media and High Effectiveness Prior to the emergence of any form of mass media, human was the primary medium that was used to convey messages to a large number of people (Ott and Mack 2). This method of delivery had significant flaws. The first was their dependence on slow transportation and secondly the message passed through multiple channels or humans until it reached destination and by then it would be significantly distorted. Here lies the key difference between such methods of message delivery and mass media, mass media have the potential to reach a large number of people simultaneously in remote locations (Ott and Mack 2). So the key distinguishing feature is not just the mass audience which one may observe in a rock concert too, they key feature is remote location. Ott and Mack in their book Critical Media Studies describe mass media as havi ng the ability to overcome physical distance and space (2). Harris and Harris in their book A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communications write that the revolution in mass media is not unprecedented. It started off with the emergence of photography and telegraphy in the 1840s, progressed to telephones in a few decades later followed by the emergence of cinema in 1896. This led to the progress in the field of motion pictures which drastically impacted the way humans communicated to one another. Radio emerged in the 1920s followed by television in 1950s, video technology in 1980s followed by the internet in 1990s (Harris and Harris). Following the decade of the emergence of the internet everything has completely altered in terms of communication, cultures and technology. The last decade has been phenomenal in technological development, bringing people and cultures together across the globe. According to Wells and Hakanen mass media are a product of technology (19). Historically it can be observed that technological developments in a society have had a direct impact on the media of that time. For instance, the mass media circulation of newspapers was made possible only because of the technological developments in the printing press (Wells and Hakanen 19). Presently we can observe the same trend for internet where messages can reach a number of people world-wide with the emergence of the internet. Ott and Mack in their book Critical Media Studies highlight the following key areas in technological advances and evolution of humans that have had a clear impact on media (9-10). 2. Effects of Mass Media on Humans Humans are greatly influenced by media, even more so than they realize. Today the way they behave, think and interact is greatly influenced by various forms of mass communications such as television, radio, print and the internet. Television in particular over the last 60 has had an impact on human live much greater than almost any other invention (Harris & Ha rris). Radio and print has over the years managed to retain their uniqueness. However internet is one such medium which can affect all its predecessors in terms on massage delivery and communication and will soon replace television as the invention with the greatest impact on human lives. Initially much effort was made in designing of the message with the assumption that all receivers would interpret the message in the same manner. Over a period