The Public and Media's Influence on Government and Politics Essay

In early American history, religion and government played pivotal roles and have continued to even today. However, the size of the roles religion and government have played have fluctuated in relation to each other. Religion had more sway over the government and the people in early American society, however today it has significantly less visible power over the government, it still holds influence over many of the people both as voters and officials, as well as legislation.

6 2 8 3 10 11 13 5 Politics are, “the process by which we select our governmental leaders and what policies these leaders pursue.” In the article about Judge Jeanine, the judge thinks Obama has violated the American public’s trust and should be impeached. When a party, in this case Democrats, does things that the majority of Americans’ disagree with, like releasing terrorists, it lowers the number of people who will vote for them. Opponents of the Obama administration try to make issues seem worse than they are to further themselves. John McCain heavily criticizes Obama in another article. Obama is also hurting his own approval rates by being absent and not doing as much about current issues as is expected of him. Similarly, non politicians that strongly support one party will go after the politicians in the other party to try and draw more voters to their side as in the article where Krauthammer gives his views on Obama’s Refugee Status Proposal. They try to use keywords that will get Americans’ attention like when he talks about Obama distorting the law. The article, “President is Just

Everyone has an opinion when it comes to politics or government, but the higher status people with opinions in media tend to be the most important. People that hold a high status in media have a greater chance of influencing people compared to someone like your next door neighbor. Talk show hosts, artists, musicians, and actors usually share their opinion and can easily sway thousands of people to believe what

The purpose of this paper is intended to summarize my views on what has influenced my understanding of politics and government prior to taking this class, and how my understanding is now since completing this course.

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

Here in America, we try to pay close attention to everything that goes on in the government. Whatever decision they make we want to know when, where, why, and how. This is because whatever decision that they make will determine what will happen with this country as a whole in the long run. So what is the best way to find out what’s going on with our government? Why the media of course. The media plays a major part in every aspect of the government including what happens in elections, the reporting of major military operations and how the American people will react to certain political situations or scandals. Here are some the ways that the media affects the way we think when it comes to the government.

Many political science researchers study the forces that drive the vote. One of the earliest, and most well known, books about election studies is The American Voter. Written in 1960, the book tries to explain a model that describes what drives Americans to vote the way they do. The model suggests that social factors determine ones party identification, which determines one's issue positions and evaluation of candidate's characteristics. These forces all work together to determine how one will vote. This model may or may not still hold true today, as political researchers are not in agreement as to what exactly drives the vote. One thing that does remain true, however, is that factors such as social groups, party identification, issues,

How has media influenced public perception of political figures, issues, and institutions? Through agenda setting and framing, media has the power to set the agenda for political discussion by providing public attention to political figures, issues, and institutions. In addition, the media can frame political agendas by influencing public perception and interpretation. (Ginsberg, Lowi & Weir, 1999)

Around 50 million people watch CBS, ABC, or NBC every single night in order to obtain information from the day. Since the amount of people watching a news channel every night is so great, the media has had a great effect on the lives of everyone living in the United States. In our state and local government regions, each and every news channel or newspaper is going to take a certain view and stand-point on what the people say, think, and believe. Media effects are classified as direct or indirect, and the Media itself as well as the people behind the headlines can create positive as well as negative publicity. The media also has ways of going about their business and they even have their own terms for what they do, and how it should be

The media has always had a powerful impact on public opinion in Britain. With several different types and means of communication, such as TV, newspapers, social networking and radio, it is difficult for the public to not be even slightly impacted by the opinion of thousands that surrounds them every day. However, with newspapers spinning stories to promote the party they favour (such as the Daily Mail in favour of Conservatives or the Mirror in favour of Labour ) or to disparage the opposition, is it clear there is any obvious influence from the media towards the public in relation to reporting on British Politics?

"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

The idea of political culture is found within the state’s history. The history of the state is impacted by the people settled in the region, religious backgrounds, and geography. The history of the state influences the attitudes and beliefs that people hold regarding their political system. Daniel Elazar theorized a connection between the states’ history and attitude towards government by explaining differences in government between states. Every state is different with some common ground. Elazar’s theory divides states into three types: moralistic, traditionalistic and individualistic. The state’s constitution defines the powers of government with political culture bias. Because of the state constitution, the political culture

When the White House felt a retraction was not enough because so much harm had already been done, the media got extremely upset with the White House, due to the pressure they were putting on the publication (52-53). Begala agrees with Hewitt that the media has a bias, but argues that it is a liberal bias. He cites the media's obsession with the Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal and how, "Even when Clinton was leaving office, he was hounded and pounded by the press" (199). He argues the news coverage was unfair, brutal and unethical in the way both Bill and Hillary Clinton were treated during the scandal (200). Begala also says Al Gore was treated very poorly by the press during the election, by being misquoted. Gore made major contributions during the early phases of the internet and made a comment on CNN saying he "took the initiative in creating the Internet." Begala argues this was blown out of proportion and more than a thousand articles have been written quoting Gore saying he said he "invented the internet" (202). The people's perception that certain publications are bias can have a negative affect on journalists as a whole. While the public demands that the press question politicians, Robinson says there is public discontent when bad news is reported due to the publics distrust in news and a "kill the messenger syndrome." At times, the public will assume all media is the same and when one publication is guilty of inaccurate or 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,

How much does the media effect your choices in voting? When we first ask this question, we think of the obvious. The media informs us of canidates, their personal backgrounds, their ideology, their stances on issues, things they do in the community they represent, and the platform on which they plan to run. However, once they get past the initial introduction, they "tend to be highly critical of politicians; they consider it their job to find inaccuracies in fact and weakness in argument." (Janda et al., 192) They force the faults of politicians on us, seldom speaking of the positive aspects from that point on. This, in turn, gives the voters a negative vision of their representatives as leaders. If faults are constantly being pointed out, voters begin to think that all politicians are incompetent and unable, and therefore see no need to vote. The media does not intentionally force these negative views upon the mass public; rather they point out the faults because it makes a better story. Although the media does not directly create or change opinions, it tells the public what to think about. By using priming