...Running Head: Mass Media in Elections Mass Media’s Affect on Voting Trends Arthur Gibford California State University California In today’s world, the news media reaches and affects every person in the United States. The question now is does mass media such as newspapers, television, and the internet affect the voting trends of the voters? The ownership of the media (Djankov, Nenova, McLiesh, & Shleifer, 2003), targeting specific demographics (Clinton & Lapinski, 2004), the implications of the internet (DiMaggio, Hargittai, Neuman, & Robinson, 2003) and how candidates use media (Aarts & Semetko, 2003) are all important aspects in determining whether a potential bias exists (Eveland & Shah, 2003) on the part of the news media. It is hypothesized that when the mass media displays certain biases leaning towards one party over the other, the populace tends to vote in the direction of the media. The following five scholarly literature reviews will attempt to demonstrate and support the hypothesis. According to Eveland and Shah (Eveland & Shah, 2003, p. 101)there is “a large percentage of the public (that) believes that the news media are biased, and the majority of these individuals consider the direction of bias to be against their own viewpoint”. This drives the question this paper attempts to answer. This article looks at media’s credibility and integrity in the eyes of individual people. The author’s give several hypothesis to provide multiple...
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...The portrayal of the mass media is seen to neutral and unbiased. Media is an agent of political socialization, which has created an impact on politics. Mass media has operated in a way that can affect politics in America. Today, significant factors contribute to the workers of mass media as their reports can face a high chance of influence to politician. Such influences include big corporations or the government, primarily to manipulate the mass audience for their own advantage. Mass media has a great influence on the public opinion as they can fluctuate what individuals should think, know and feel about politicians. The media supplies the general audience with information that voters can base their decisions on. From this, the media is able to manipulate the general public on extreme issues that interfere with the general publics’ rights, such as important issues regarding health or even political interferences. Although one may believe what they learn from the media may be a from an objective point of view, but in truth all information from the media has many external factors that can influence stories for a purpose. This paper will argue how the mass media has a direct influence on the general audience’s perspective and the opinions of the opinions of our political candidates. One area to notice is how certain issues in the media are given more attention in comparison where others are not. What is determined to be on the agenda of the media is a continuous competition from...
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...Cultural Theory and Popular Culture Globalization, Mass Media and Culture Table of Contents Globalization, Mass Media and Culture 1 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Modern culture, ideology 4 Globalization 5 Americanization 6 Mass Media and their Impact 7 Globalization, mass media and culture 8 Mass media and globalization 9 Globalization and culture 10 Conclusion 12 My opinion 13 Recommendations 14 List of references 15 Introduction A term globalization was used in 1983 for the first time in a history. Globalization as we know it today started at the beginning of the 20th century. It has an impact on everything and it has changed everything from its core. Economic environment, political environment and regarding to this subject – cultural environment. As everything, it brought both advantages and disadvantages. Looking back in time when this globalization started intensifies rapidly. It evokes a basic question: why did the globalization intensify rapidly? We can consider many reasons, for example lower travel cost, free movement of people, development of technologies, faster data exchange etc. These answers lead me to another possible answer - mass media. Globalization, Americanization or westernization are closely related to the popular culture. As stated in the book ‘There are two things we can say with some confidence about the United States and popular culture. First, as Andrew Ross (1989) has pointed out, ‘popular culture...
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...Analysis based on Mass Communication as a Political Economy and Culture Saad Rana ICMS Abstract Before the advent of television, radio was the form of broadcast medium to disseminate information to the masses. Broadcasters announced news, provided infotainment, as well as entertainment in the form of stories and shows with live audiences in the studio. This paper will look at radio as a form of mass communication, the proliferation of other types of broadcast media. The paper will try to understand the political economy of the industry and how it has become big business by analyzing Murdock and Golding's The Industrialization of Mass Communications. MacDonald's Theory of Mass Culture will be dissected to understand that although radio was a form of mass culture, it provided entertainment to the masses, which allows the economy to thrive. Discussion In their paper, 'The Industrialization of Mass Communications,' Murdock and Golding imply that mass communications—how people or organizations communicate to the masses—is a money-making industry, and like all other industries such as technological, auto etc.; it is susceptible to losing its value for what it was intended to be –a pure form of communicating to the masses. Their theory on mass communications focuses on the industry as a political economy which is how an economy cycles, questioning and arguing the ownership and control of media, factors that bring together media industries with other media platforms and with...
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...Name Professor’s name Course number Date Gender Stereotypes in Media The mass media plays a significant role in the contemporary society. It provides broadcast information at a fast race and gives entertainment to audiences from diverse social backgrounds. Mass media is made up of press, books, magazines, radio, television, and internet. The internet is the most embraced medium in the contemporary society where digital technology dominates. Nevertheless, TV also has a wide influence in the society. By creating and conveying certain type of information to the audience, media can manipulate the attitudes and opinions of people. In this study, we intend to discuss problems associated to media influence through an investigative study of its commercial structure. The study also tries to specify gender stereotypes as used in persuasive advertising technique. Humans organize their knowledge about the world sorting and simplifying the information they receive (Gu 291). They tend to establish cognitive schemes that are certain representations of reality portraying its basic elements and features (Everett 387). The schemes developed by humans are responsible for the definition of our perception and view of the world. They have significant influence our social understanding, situation, anticipation and emotional control. The most common type of these schemes used for social orientation in our environment is stereotypes (Darling 153). The stereotypes scheme represents the opinions and perceptions...
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...This study helps demonstrate greater party-issue alignment, or what Fiorina, Abrams, and Pope (2010) call “party sorting.” One aspect to consider is the saliency of issue positions of the political parties, salient issues often produce divergence from the median position. Meaning, the problem with party sorting is not knowing which issues are salient to partisans and which policy issues are polarized at any given time (Fiorina and Abrams 2008). No salience, or controversial, issues are less differentiated between the political parties. Carmines and D’Amico (2015) criticize this debate, as to whether the mass public is polarized, as unhelpful. The debate does not further the evolution of new concepts and measures of ideology,...
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...Introduction The media is the link between the public and politics. However, while media sources are viewed as purveyors of the day's news, they maintain considerable influence on politics. It is important to differentiate the concept of media influence from the concept of media bias. While some media sources will have an undoubted bias in the way they are reporting the news and the issues they select and prioritise, this does not necessarily equate with influence. Influence can be far less obvious or overt than bias, and can lead to changes in opinion in an indirect manner. While United States news outlets such as Fox News or the New York Post may have a more direct political bias, other outlets such as CNN or the New York Times – while appearing less openly biased – will also wield considerable influence. Similarly, in the United Kingdom, while The Daily Mail has an agenda which must be obvious to many who read it, less openly biased newspapers such as The Guardian will still have the potential to influence politics and politicians. In fact, media sources with a less overt bias will have potentially more influence than others, as they could be considered to be more reliable or trustworthy than biased tabloid entertainment news. This paper will assess the issue of media influence on politics, and evaluate the methods and forms this influence can take. Discussion Media Influence The role of the media in influencing politics has been long recognised. Comparative analysis of media sources...
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...In general, "media" refers to various means of communication. Media refers to communication devices, which can be used to communicate and interact among two or more people. Nowadays, the most commonly used media are Newspaper, Television, Radio, and Internet. Be it the pictorial messages of the early ages, or the high-technology media that are available today, one thing that we all agree upon, is that mass media are an important part of our lives. Entertainment and media always go hand in hand, but in addition to the entertainment, mass media also remain to be an effective medium for communication, exchange of information, advertising, marketing, and in general, for expressing and sharing views, opinions, and ideas. Mass media is a double-edged sword which means that there are positive as well as negative influences of media. Advantages : The common man gets the latest news within a fraction of seconds. The distance is not at all a barrier now. The news they get through media help them in their daily life a lot. We get the latest news in our home due to the television set. We can bring out the hidden talent, we can get public opinion about certain events, current issues. Television is quite popular because people can get easy overview from news. Television also entertains and educates people. Children’s knowledge increases by watching geographical channel, quiz programs and speeches by famous personalities of different fields. Radio has its own advantages...
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...underpinning mass communications research. It worked on the assumption that the ‘media offered an unproblematic, benign reflection of society’ (Proctor, 58). Mass communications research became prevalent after the Second World War and was funded by commercial bodies with a desire to know how audiences could be influenced more effectively through advertising. According to the mass communications model, the sender (mass media) generates a message with fixed meaning, which is then communicated directly and transparently to the recipient (audience). Hall’s paper challenged all three components of the mass communications model ; arguing that – (i) the message is never transparent to the audience (ii) meaning is not simply fixed or determined by the sender; and (iii) the audience is not a passive recipient of the meaning. Hall’s encoding/decoding theory focuses on the different ways audiences generate (rather than discover) meaning. Hall’s theory re-addressed the themes of the Uses and Gratifications theory : examining audience power over the media, rather then the media’s effects on the audience (Katz: 1959). Such theoretical study later concluded that audiences use the media to fulfil their own needs and gratifications (Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M.: 1974). Hall's model focuses on groups rather then the individual, which is more useful when looking at mass communications dominance due to broad issues such as social class and cultural heritage. Both the political and theoretical...
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...1990s the world’s networked population has grown from the low millions to the low billions. Over the same period, social media has become a fact of life for civil society worldwide. Regular citizens, companies, activists, NGO’s, software providers and last but not least government and politics use social media as a new form of communication (Foreignaffairs, 2011). One of the most famous politicians who started to use the power of social media in his political campaigns was Barack Obama. The key differenc of Obama’s campaign strategy in contrast to his competitors was that Obama used social media to communicate and organize individuals by using social media. By using technologies such as computers, cell phones, web sites and many more he reached the goal of every politicians to connect his followers, delivered them with interesting news as well as to build up a strong community. Nevertheless not only Obama tooke advantage of the undeniable power of Social Media and its technologies. Over the past years our society realized it’s power, and there might only be few companies left in the western world that are not represented on at least one Social Media Platform (Obama Buch). But maybe one of the most important topics when we’re talking about Social Media is the reachability of Mass and therefore the political Mass Movements that keep emerging from Social Media Platforms. We might only think about the Occupy Movement, Arab Spring or the most recent example Kony 2012. Those Movements...
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...Brown COM 702 3/18/2010 Final Paper In his paper entitled Idolizing and Monetizing the Public: The Production of Celebrities and Fans, Representatives and Citizens in Reality TV, Yngvar Kjus explores audience participation theories and new media by analyzing both the Norwegian and American versions of Idol, a popular reality musical competition series. His exploration of the program via the analysis of collective participation, idolization, and production tactics ultimately unveil a well thought-out and persuasive spectacle that is not as real or grand as it comes off in societies around the globe. While Kjus does touch on theories like massive participation and voter behavior, there is certainly room in his paper for expansion on these topics as well as room for the inclusion of others. Over the course of multiple seasons of the Norwegian version of Idol, Kjus attends nine tapings and multiple production meetings in an attempt to answer his two main research questions. His questions set to find out how reality programs increase the participatory scope and empowerment of audiences and everyday people, as well as how television industries are reinventing themselves as new forms of media emerge, namely online and social media. Kjus starts the paper by presenting these research questions and then explores the history of reality TV and studio audiences, touching on game shows, talk shows, and docusoaps. He then gets into Idol, a show created by Simon Fuller, which...
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...of information, the U.S. media plays an intricate role in shaping and controlling political opinions. Media is extremely powerful in the sense that without an adequately functioning media, it is virtually impossible for a sophisticated social structure like the U.S. Government to exist. All known sophisticated social structures have always been dependent upon the media’s ability to socialize. The U.S. government generally will exploit the media, often times manipulating the enormous power of the printed word. This exploitation ultimately empowers the U.S. government by strengthening it with the ability to determine and control the popular perception of reality. One way in which government achieves this objective is by misusing the media’s ability to set the agenda. Contrary to popular belief, the media is in fact an enormous power in society. Separate independent news organizations do not exist for the most part. Rather than creating an independent structured agenda of their own, 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 has the characteristics of a hierarchical rule. In order for the U.S. government to control and determine the public’s popular perception of reality, the government must shape and oversee the information that the media reports to the people. This particular process of democracy is known and referred to by political scientists as cognitive...
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...modes of dress to language, aesthetics and ideologies. From Japanese punk to Australian hip hop, youth subcultures are seen as being implicitly rebellious, born as much from a desire to reject the generation that went before them, as from an identification with what they have become. Exactly how accurate this widespread impression may be is difficult to assess. What is certain, however, is that the age of globalization, more than any other age before it, is an age that has both exerted great effects upon, and been greatly affected by, young people. Adolescents undergo the process of identity formation as one of their foremost development challenges. This paper addresses what role the mass media play in this process. One avenue of exploration would be to examine how the media can impact the adolescent’s perceptions of social reality, which could lead to the internalization of certain attitudes as the adolescent struggles to develop a stable core repertoire of attitudes, beliefs and values. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY GLOBALIZATION Globalization, which also has been called global...
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...www.iosrjournals.org Home Video Films and Grassroots’ Relevance in Nigerian Political Process 1 1,2 Alawode, Sunday Olayinka (Ph.D), 2Sunday, Uduakobong AdebolaAdegunwaSchool of Communication, Lagos State University, 21 Olufemi Street, Off Nathan St, Surulere - Lagos Abstract: The Nigerian home video films have been used to address a myriad of existing and emergent problems because of its distinctiveness and popularity;as a popular art in Nigeria, this study was undertaken to investigate the consideration of the grassroots in the Nigerian political process from the eye of the home videos. The theoretical framework employed was agenda setting with content analysis as the method of research. The results reveal that the grassroots are not given credence as a key factor in the films except as means to justify the ends of the political class and players in the political process. The roles of the grassroots in the political arena are mostly depicted significantly as thugs, assassins, villains, prostitutes and others who are involved in different kinds of undesirable practices and vicious acts. Such portrayals could be contributory to politics often being described as ‘a dirty game’ with the grassroots increasingly having apathy to political processes and creating the divide of ‘them’ and ‘us’; where ‘them’is the political class and ‘us’ being the grassroots. Key Words: Grassroots, Home Video, Political Process I. Introduction The home video is a narrowcast medium through which...
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...later-the mass media has honed the power of this technology, and become more pervasive than anything humanity has ever encountered. Looking at antiwar movements over the last 60 years, the media has been used to influence the mentality of millions in two very dichotomous ways. Meaning, the media has helped shape public opinion to be either for or against these movements depending on the pressures and demands of the times. Traditionally, print media industry has treated antiwar protestors as if they were disobedient children. In movies such as Across the Universe, protestors are portrayed as young hippies who do not fully understand the rationale and benefits behind war. Often the media presents us with one-sided information that is meant to persuade us to accept a message that we are not familiar. In the case of antiwar protests back in the Vietnam Era, the media while covering the issue equally with government/military administration, often only covered the more colorful aspects of the antiwar movement. While articles have been published about the tendency of the media during this time to be in favor of the antiwar sentiment, many scholars believe that print media in particular impacted the success of the movement. Antiwar movements are often conceived by the media as a form of dissent, and are further admonished by the government, and labeled as unpatriotic. While the Antiwar movement of the 1960s was ultimately extremely Mass Media Messages 3 successful, the media scrupulously...
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