Good Example Of Media And Its Influence On Politics Research Paper

The media of the modern world are an inherently important element of the entire political system as a whole. This fact is caused by a wide range of reasons, ranging from the process of globalization of the modern world, which manifests itself in the first place in the field of communication, and ending with the transformation of structure of the political system, institutions which are becoming increasingly blurred and related with different informational directions of political interaction.
The information in the media can affect both the current political process, and promises during the election campaign. Thus, during the elections of 2001 in Thailand Thai Rak Thai party has promised to provide universal health care cheaper by using the 30-Bath Gold Card; In 2002, the elections in Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promised to expand the program to combat hunger. Promises of this kind do their political task only if those who benefit from such initiatives, learn about them. Politicians will not going to give such promises to the electorate, if the mass of poor voters do not have access to the media, or if the media do not cover these promises as to attract the poor audience almost does not increase advertising revenue. Similarly, politicians have far less incentives to adhere to policies in the interests of voters after the election if they do not have access to the media. Such voters have less opportunity to assess what is happening and to pay tribute to politicians receptive to their needs. In other words, these voters have less opportunity to bring politicians to account for the chosen course.
Conservatives and liberals live in different worlds – in any case, the political news they receive from completely different sources. According to a new study by the Research Center Pew, discussing politics on the internet or with friends they also often interact with peers.
As part of a year-long project on the issue of political polarization in the US, researchers have figured out how Americans get the information about political life. Sociologists got interested in three information flows – media, social networks and chat with friends and family. It turned out that in all three cases, people with the most consistent ideological underpinnings – left or right – used sources of information that are distinctly different from both the sources used by people from opposite political camps, as well as from sources specific to mixed media of political views.
The sources, from which the Americans use the Internet to gain political news, vary greatly depending on the ideological preferences of the respondents. These preferences also affect the degree of awareness of the different media credibility. The list is headed by CNN and Fox News.
In general, when respondents were asked where they usually find out political news, they are most often referred to two cable TV channels: CNN (16%) and Fox News (14%). The left and right audiences greatly differ in preferences, as well as from the spread of information sources.
Consistently conservative audience is focused on a single source – it is Fox News. They take more than any other ideological groups: almost half (47%) consecutive conservatives called Fox News as their primary source of political news. Other media are far behind: second place goes to local radio with 11%. None of the remaining sources are named by more than 5% of successive Conservative. Carriers are mostly conservative and strongly attracted to Fox News (31%). Less popular among them CNN (9%), local television channels (6%) and station (6%) and Yahoo News (6%).
In the left part of the political spectrum none of the possible sources prevails. For successive the Liberal list is topped by CNN (15%), NPR (13%), MSNBC (12%) and the New York Times (10%). Among people with predominantly liberal views CNN was called by only 20%, but it still ranks first. It is followed by local television stations (11%) and NPR (9%). MSNBC and Fox News in this ideological group called 5%. In other groups, New York Times, NPR and MSNBC cited as the main source of much less.
Mostly, the media belong to the state as it gives the right to different companies and communities to media activities. It clearly shows who oversees the information flow, and thus – manipulates the public consciousness. Because information is the most important product of today’s culture, as the totality of all represented on the TV aimed at depriving the viewer the ability to perceive and evaluate the surrounding world independently. Moreover, political parties often own several TV channels and consequently broadcast the news to their own advantage line.
In such a situation, the content of the various elements of the political culture, including the inside and foreign policy orientations of citizens, that become conditioned by the media. Confirmation of this thesis is an urgent task, since, in the future, it can serve as a basis for determining the mechanisms of transformation of various kinds of orientations, attitudes, and further, behavior, citizens of modern world.

Works cited

Graber, Doris A. Mass Media and American Politics. Fifth Edition. Washington, 1997. DC: CQ Press.
Robinson, Piers. «The CNN Effect: Can the News Media Drive Foreign Policy?» Review of International Studies 25 (2): (1999): p. 301–09.
Stromberg, David. «Mass Media Competition, Political Competition, and Public Policy». Review of Economic Studies 71 (1): (2004): p. 65–84.