W. Lippmann's Public Opinion

In his book entitled Public Opinion Walter Lippmann presents some very profound arguments on how public opinion is formed and how mach value it has. He describes in great detail the decision making process and how our own stereotypes affect our perception of events. Lippmann expresses his disillusionment with mass democracy, his concerns about propaganda and how the press could not be trusted to provide unbiased information. Contrary to what one would expect form someone holding such views Lippmann also questions the trustworthiness of the chief executive to make good foreign policy, even when he has all of the "inside" information and knows the true nature

The media in American society has a major influential impact on the minds and beliefs of millions of people. Whether through the news, television shows, or film, the media acts as a huge database for knowledge and instruction. It is both an auditory and visual database that can press images and ideas into people's minds. Even if the individual has no prior exposure or knowledge to something, the media can project into people's minds and leave a lasting impression. Though obviously people are aware of what they are listening to or watching, thoughts and assumptions can drift into their minds without even realizing it. These thoughts that drift in are extremely influential. The massive impact

Agenda Setting Theory describes how the mass media affect the public salience of issues, especially those of political importance, through the prominence and style of reporting on those issues (McCombs & Shaw, 1972, p. 177; Shaw et al., 1999, p. 14).  The degree to which a person is vulnerable to the agenda-setting function of the mass media is related to need for orientation, or the degree to which one feels compelled to have an opinion on a subject.  If one is uninformed on an issue of great interest, there is a greater vulnerability (Shaw et al., p. 10).  An individual’s assessment of salience appears to be influenced by the degree of emotional reaction to a subject, with strong negative emotions indicating that an issue is of great importance (Miller, 2007, p. 712).  Agenda Setting Theory maintains that the media provides an imperfect reflection of societal issues, often incorporating bias (McCombs & Shaw, p. 184).  For complex

Politics are a noticeably controversial and complex topic of discussion for the majority of the American people. The political opinions of the American people are ultimately developed by their collective culture, lifestyle and political ideology. The majority of the American people are undeniably influenced and informed, directly and indirectly, by multiple sources of media on a daily basis. In this day and age, technology has allowed national political news to spread throughout the country virtually immediately via the internet, television, and radio. Many people might believe that popular news companies share and release politically biased information to the public with intentions to directly persuade the citizen’s opinions. The politically shared values and opinions of the American citizens strongly influence the executive decisions made within the United States government. Although, people that share conservative values believe that most news companies have a liberal bias, on the controversy, most people that share liberal values believe that most news companies have a conservative bias. This being said, all media released to the public, inevitably shares some kind of political bias and opinion that contains qualities of an opposing party.

Thus we see that media not only sends out ideological messages to the public but media systems actually make and exacerbate the ideological frameworks present in a society. It has been seen that with continuous exposure, media tends to have an influence on identity, beliefs and personal value.. Even though values, identity and beliefs are controlled by other factors like schools, teachers, friends and family, media does play a significant role in setting values. The content of a media in a country can give rise to a value or a feeling which can then adapt to the cultural environment in that region. Due to this reason, social comparisons are created that lead to ideological change in a community and a nation in the long wrong. It should be noted that economic theory influences political ideologies and these ideologies are then portrayed through the media. Whenever a government is in

Society today receives almost all of its information from the media. Since the media is mostly owned by just a few companies, views and ideas can be shaped by what one sees on the internet, television, and in newspapers. Because of the monopolizations from those few corporations that own what is viewed and read, it becomes fairly easy for the general public to instantly believe what is seen just because “the newsman said so.” Mass media not only has a huge and dangerous impact on the way society views politics and members of society, but also how media can affect the youth.

It is no mystery that the media has much influence in constructing social norms and shaping political dissertations. The expeditious growth in the media, during the previous years, has meant that individuals are able to get many distinct perspectives on the news and with all these opinions thrown at the audience, it is safe to believe that it aids the public to create their own opinions. But is it? Is the media even trying to be informative to the public anymore? It doesn’t seem so. People rely on all media sources to report factual information which helps the public obtain a much different understanding of what’s going on in the world. Except in today’s era, most of the information is altered to fit a desired narrative. Their widespread exposure empowers them to convey their notions to the public, regardless of the public's awareness. In my analysis on the bias in mainstream media, I strongly believe that it is almost impossible to get a sincere nor forthright answer on any important topic, because the media seems to target a specific audience with expectations of creating an imbalance in dispersing information, sustaining rivalries, maximizing profits and increasing racial tension.

What distinguishes man from animal is the fact that we’re aware of ourselves and others, that we can consciously control how we think and what we think out. We’re constantly exposed to media, whether we choose to be or not. The media frames issues and sets the agenda of what topics get discussed, creating a narrow scope of what “informed” means today. Technology has grown to dominate our lives, and has allowed media to have extreme amounts of influence on the opinions that the average person holds. The internet’s power and influence is often underestimated in its influence on the populus. The simple availability of different news outlets with different biases doesn’t necessarily mean people will care enough or have the time to take advantage

We as a society tend to do everything we see or hear on the media, constantly being controlled like puppets. Just about from everything we read online or view is a wrap. I think we easily believe everything we read online because it is promoted by people we look up to, for example celebrities. If the celebrity we admire and want to be like is doing it, we want to be doing it as well. Media manipulation has been going on for a long period of time but it seems to becoming a huge problem recently. Not everything we see or hear is true, we have to trust our instincts also. Media manipulation is cause through famous celebrities, the government, and our emotions.

It has become common for the modern day society to rely on different sources for their news. Because of the internet and other technological devices that have developed over the years, our access to the news have greatly increased. However, along with this comes the familiar issue of media distortion. In the beginning of the year, I decided to study the power of media in depth—specifically media bias and its influence on public opinion on current events. I chose the media as my subject not only because it affects all aspects of our lives, but also because many people can identify themselves with it, like me. Eventually, I realized that I did not want to limit my research solely on bias in the media, so I decided to also focus on influence on the public as well. Throughout my research, I analyzed diverse but relevant articles in order to better my understanding the effect of the media.

Nevertheless, in its set media expresses all political range as is the main channel of the broadcast of information and images. People form their opinion and make the decisions based on what they have received from the media, variously processing the received signals.

Perceived opinions can be manipulated through media coverage which leans towards one direction or another instead of reporting the plain facts. It is widely thought that the more any individual’s perceived public opinion changes on a particular issue, the more likely they are to adhere to this way of thinking as well. It is not a herd mindset as some people might refer to it, but merely a

Throughout history, mass media coverage, which is most common in developed nations, has been a key benefactor, among several factors, that has influenced science, public policy, knowledge, and aptitude. A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and Press found in the United States that television ranks number one as the leading source of daily news followed by newspapers, radio, and the internet. Knowledge has never been so easily accessible than it is now, with the latest news being available to us, whenever and usually wherever. We are able to communicate with others on opposite hemispheres and learn about another country’s values and customs without actually going there. Regrettably, due to the media’s extensiveness and accessibility it inevitably bears certain problems as it reports information that is inadequate or creates bias. As a society, we should rethink some opinions and investigate numerous perspectives before making judgments in order to avoid prejudice.

Mass media coverage, which is most common in developed nations, has been a key benefactor that plays a significant role in the modern world by broadcasting information quickly. A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and Press found in the United States that television ranks number one as the leading source of daily news followed by newspapers, radio, and the internet. Knowledge has never been so easily accessible than it is now, with the latest news being available to us, whenever and usually wherever. An unforeseen consequence looms over us because of this convenience. The media’s extensiveness is so great that it inevitably bears certain problems such as reporting inadequate information or creating bias. As a society, we should rethink some opinions and investigate numerous perspectives before making judgments in order to avoid prejudice.

With the fantastic spur both in industry and economy in the world, the spread of media is on the rise. In general, ‘media’ refers to the implement of mass communication, it consists of newspaper, magazines, television, the internet and so forth. There is a huge amount of media users around the world which means the number of audiences is large. As generally acknowledged, nowadays, the spread of news, entertainment has a rapid speed through the media and mass communication. The public opinions and thoughts can be easily affected by the spread of media, also, mass communication of the news media may provide some bias and prejudice of the news. In this sense, to have a powerful communication tool, the agenda setting theory demonstrates that it is better if shaping the various news in order to create a moral society (Kiousis and McCombs, 2004). In general, agenda setting describes the effects of the media on the general public, the ability to choose important issues (Moon 2011, p.699). The sense of agenda setting has been deeply accepted by the public a long time ago. In 1992, Walter Lippmann (1992), a newspaper columnist, argued that the mass media has the ability to produce images of events that can be present to the public. Since 1948, Lazarsfeld and Metton (1948) acknowledged that the function of the press to give specific status upon events it emphasizes. Till 1959, Norton Long (Long 1958) also illustrated that media will grasp specific attention from the public on certain