...Introduction The purpose of this interview was to examine the role of media in the electoral process, or during elections to be precise. The activities of the media are various, so this perhaps was just by noting and classifying some of the things the media do in elections. The interview was quite entertaining and there were no conflicting views or controversial opinions. The interview was conducted via cell phone while the interviewee was in the comfort of her home. This set a casual and comfortable tone for the interview. The topic for the essay which stood out after the interview was “ELECTIONS AND THE NEWS MEDIA.” Below is a summary of the interview: What is Media? Most journalists define media as a channel of communication through which news, entertainment, education, data or promotional messages are disseminated. Broadcasting, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, telephone, fax and internet are all considered media. Who are the News Media? News media are those elements of the mass media. Generally focus on delivering news to the public or target public. Print media such as newspapers and news magazines are part of news media. Broadcast news such as radio and television, Internet such as online newspapers and news blogs are all news media. So what is a newsreel? (follow-up question) Newsreel was a documentary film common in the first half of the 20th Century. This released a public presentation place containing filmed news stories on a regular basis...
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...Vaccari, 2008) demonstrated that the strongest media impact was upon the politically unknowledgeable and the undecided voting public. However, a few more studies (Matthijs & DeVreese, 2008; Freedman & Goldstein, 1999; Hayes, 2009; Pinkleton, Austin, & Fortman, 1998; Tworzecki & Semetko, 2009) have been conducted looking at the impacts of negative campaign or political message content on the public’s voting...
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...A. Issue Should there be mandatory rules regulating the media’s use of unrealistic body image? B. Importance of Ethical Issue The media and advertisers often use physical attractiveness and sexuality in an effort to sell their products, service, etc. Through media, companies have a more convenient way of reaching an audience but they do not have any control on how would people interpret the message that they are sending. Media has an overpowering effect on the way people see themselves and their body. It has created the way people see an ideal physical appearance, which emphasises the shape and size of a man and/or woman (Diedrichs, Lewis-Smith & Paraskeva 2015). There was a study conducted by Australian Institute of Family Studies which surveyed 4,000 children. The study found out that more than half of the children from ages 8 to 11 years old wanted a slimmer body rather than an average one (Wilson 2014). There was also a study done by the King’s college London and Harvard, suggests that some children develop early body dissatisfaction due to the pressure received from media, family and peers (Fleig 2015). Another survey conducted by the Today Show and AOL.com discovered that 80% of teen girls compare themselves to celebrities and say that the images that they see make them feel displeased with their body (Common Sense Media 2015). This is alarming because children as young as 8 years old should not have to worry about how pleasing their body looks. Media exposure...
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...will most likely agree that most people have abandoned racism. In fact, 1 in every 5 couples in the US will be interracial. Yet, despite popular belief, racism is still very prominent in America, especially within the media. The media has the power to influence the minds of many unsuspecting viewers. In recent years, the media has used its control over the American mentality to diminish the black culture by portraying African Americans on the news or on general television as various forms of degenerates such as thugs and criminals. This negative image of minorities created within production has...
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...For New Zealand’s democracy, the media plays a central role. Ideally, the media’s role is to inform the public with in-depth, accurate information about political decision-making, propose a forum for the exchange of opinions, experiences and perspectives, and act as a watchdog against the misuses of power. From both National to International level, these functions help the public to understand complex social and political issues. The media may act in a democratic role, but their ability to fulfil this role is affectedby many things such as laws protecting freedom of expression. The media had much greater freedom of expression in the 2000s. Though this was limited by a number of laws introduced to protect other rights like The Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Human Rights Act 1993 had provisions designed to avert discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, age, gender or disability. Legal recognition of the media’s crucial watchdog role is found in the Evidence Act 2006, which banned the media from publishing anyone’s name who were granted name suppression in court. (McQuail, 1992,pg 123) The media is also affected by the media accessing government information. The Official Information Act 1982 is an essential tool for the media. This act allows all official informationto be made available upon request unless there is a genuine reason for withholding it. Journalists have complained that officials and ministers use a range of methods to delay or refuse such releases of information...
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...means that only 18% of women do not need to apply makeup to increase their self-confidence. In today’s American society, we are constantly bombarded by images of flawless, perfect figured girls in the media. The media is allowed to set the beauty standard, and its presence can become harmful towards women, and society as a whole. The media reinforces its message through a number of outlets such as: advertisements, social media, and magazines, ultimately making its influence inescapable. Although it may be too late to change the media’s grip on our generation,...
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...Women in the 1970’s Major social change happens when enough people strongly believe in it. The media influences public opinion and thus has the ability to support or destroy these social change movements. In the 1970’s, the second wave feminist movement was attempting to create wide spread social change. Its leading organization, the National Organization for Women (NOW), was focused on dismantling workplace inequality, such as denial of access to better jobs and salary inequity, and protecting women’s rights, such as stopping domestic violence. They attempted to do this through creating legislation and changing public opinion. The media’s representation of women overall at this time counteracted these goals. By creating a derogatory picture of the “feminist”, the media made her unsympathetic to the public. Rather than creating support for the core goals of the feminist movement, the media focused on more controversial topics, specifically gay rights. This negative media coverage of the women’s movement hurt its ability to implement meaningful legislation, such as the Equal Rights Amendment. The way in which print media degraded women, demonized feminists, and connected feminism to controversial topics damaged the progress of second wave feminism in the 1970’s. The definition of a feminist is a person who believes in the social, economic, and political equality of the sexes (Miriam Webster Dictionary). While people who believe in the equality of the sexes have been around for...
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... technological advancements have facilitated this growth in not only the popularity of media, but also the authority of media in society. In today’s society, the media stands as the ultimate source of truth to many individuals as news channels successfully influence a person’s beliefs regarding society. Furthermore, when an individual relies upon the media for valid information, he allows only one perspective to influence his beliefs, and this closed-mindedness often results in him inadvertently acting prejudicially towards minority groups. While hatred has always existed in the world, the ever growing authority...
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...Anthony J Capozzoli Jessica A. T. Gilpatrick Research Paper Final Draft October 12, 2014 How does video games affect youth negatively? One of the main concerns that have constantly been raised against video games is that most of the games feature aggressive elements. This has led many people to assert that this may have a detrimental effect on individuals who play such games. Despite continuing controversy for over 15 years, there has been little in the way of systematic research. The one consistent finding is that the majority of the studies on very young children - as opposed to those in their teens upwards - tend to show that children do become more aggressive after either playing or watching a violent video game. Research suggests that children and teens that playing and watching video games over an extended period of time tend to be more aggressive, are more prone to struggle in school, and more prone to be obese or overweight. One of the ways that the videogames affect children and teens that play and watch for an extended period of time is that they tend to be more aggressive. In “Children, Adolescents, and Television,” it has been stated that even more important than the amount of time spent playing video games is the content of games played (2001). Research shows that up to 90% of all video games contain some sort of violent content and in a survey of 213 adolescents, 99% of boys and 84% of girls said that at least one of their current video games has...
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...Introduction In mass media today, there are numerous gaps between reality and the information that is presented. Seemingly every current issue, whether it’s political, social or otherwise, is reported through so many different outlets and with so many different facts that it’s hard to grasp what the reality is. The role of media in democracy is to represent every perspective and to provide well-researched and accurate information to create an educated and involved society. Media’s representations impact our society’s perception and shared reality. The way media represents a certain topic creates a public perception. Because of media framing, they can show us certain sides of an issue or shine a light on one perspective while effectively dimming the light on another. Because of this, we create perceptions based off of information that may not be whole. With these perceptions, we begin to construct a social reality. Once this reality is created, it is difficult to change it even if we find contradicting information. Because of these reasons, the way media represents information is crucial. The issue that will be discussed in this paper is that of gay marriage, stereotypes of homosexuals, and the scientific side of homosexuality. The way media has represented this topic over the past 30 years has varied immensely. We’ve come a long way over the past couple decades and homosexuality is now widely discussed in all forms of media including news, television, advertisements, movies...
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...especially in high profile cases, happens when jury members, sometimes court officials, simply want to gain their “five seconds of fame.” Now an additional problem lies within the simple, yet complex, fight between the right of free press and the right to an impartial jury. Let’s face it, there is no such concept as an impartial jury, simply due to the media attention that trials receive these days. Within this main problem, lies many problems that interfere with the American idea of justice. Are we craving, and striving to find entertainment, or justice? One problem that stems from media that could possibly add to jury bias and court outcomes, it is what lawyers refer to as the “CSI Effect.” Named after the hit television show, this phenomenon describes the distorted view crime investigation shows cast upon forensics and criminal evidence. If a juror is an avid fan of CSI, then the case they are apart of, better be as “realistic” as CSI. This distorted view influences the outcome of a court case, simply because these television shows are giving us an unrealistic view of the court process and the American justice system. The general public needs to face it, the real...
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...Political Science 201 June 7, 2012 Media’s Negative Effect in Politics The media plays a heavy negative role in American politics. During the past few years, society’s judgment has been based on what was given to it through the media. People rarely specifically research on candidates or propositions anymore. Much of the mass media is biased by trying to persuade viewers into believing what they want them to believe are true. Media is created for consumption by a large number of people watching it. The media has a remarkable impact on politics, which is not always good or beneficial. The data collected from the media can either be used for or against a politician. If a politician is favored by a certain network, such as CNN, NBC, or FOX, then the network can help his or her career reach new heights; however, if a politician is disliked then the network is capable of destroying the politician’s career. The media has the desire to make decisions for itself and in return try to convince people of its rightness and distort its viewers’ perspectives. There are many different types of media that can have a different influence on society’s political view. The four biggest forms of media are radio stations, newspapers, the internet, and television. People could tune into radio stations or talk radios to listen to political candidates being interviewed. An example would be in 1992 when "President George H. Bush interviewed with conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh" (Curl). Non-political...
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...Chapter one 1.1 Introduction The issue of the social media and its impact on society became even more apparent after the Arab Spring that spread through North Africa and most parts of the Middle East. The fact that the social media played an active role in mobilizing the people to fight perceived injustice has brought to the fore the need to assess the impact public reliance on the social media has on traditional news media, that is the thrust of this study. This chapter of the research will provide a background into the study, vis-à-vis its aim, objectives, problem statement, significance, limitations and delimitation. 1.2 Background to the study The Arab Spring that rocked most of North Africa and the Middle East was a wake-up call to...
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...reasonable to segregate AIDS victims, otherwise the whole of mankind could be engulfed. (The Daily Star, 2 December 1988) Although an extreme illustration, the above quotes serve to set up the creation of a 'moral panic'. Just as Hitler's 'facts' were unfounded, so too were The Daily Star and what resulted from both incidents was, in effect, the persecution of two minority groups within society. Hitler's quote stemmed from the use of propaganda, and although it would be fair to say that the essence of what is termed 'propaganda' does not exist in such a force today, it is nevertheless evident that what was quoted from The Daily Star is tantamount to propaganda. Throughout history, the mass media industry has been utilised as a tool to appeal to the public at large, particularly in the field of politics, where people in a position of power can tempt society into believing what they want them to believe. As Eldridge describes "The media, wittingly or unwittingly, reproduce the definitions of the powerful." [Eldridge 1997: 65] This document will examine not only the essence and origin of the term 'moral panic' but the very important nature of the media's involvement in the whole process of creating a 'moral panic'. It was Stanley Cohen, in his work, Folk Devils and Moral Panics. (1987) who first coined the term 'moral panics'. He defined the concept as a sporadic episode which, as it occurs, subjects society to bouts of moral panic, or in other terms, worry about the values and principles...
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...Does media effect a women’s body image? Rational The rationale of this experiment is to study the effect media has on a female’s body image and self-esteem. “Popular media barrages women with images that portray what is considered to be the ‘ideal body’” (Serdar, 2014, para.7). Society tells women what kind of body image they should strive for. The media portrays the ideal body as accentuating features such as eyes, breasts, bottom and legs. This image is based of the look of an average fashion model that is 5’10” and weighing around one hundred twenty pounds. These features do not apply to the average day women when in fact the average Canadian woman is only 5’4” and weighs about one hundred seventy pounds (Linken, 2009, para.3). These ideas are pressured upon women of all ages through every source of media. Television, bill boards, newspaper, radio, magazines etc. are all guilty of applying such pressures to females. Media is also guilty of creating a “cult of thinness” known as cutting girls down to size, infantilizing so grown women appear as children and objectifying women by turning them into objects, cutting out body parts and attaching them to objects in ads. It’s important to understand that the ideal body image that is presented by the popular media is not healthy or realistic. Should a female actually achieve this body image or weight, she would be classified as underweight. Risks associated with being underweight include anemia, nutritional deficiencies...
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