The Media and Public Affairs. It’s impossible to deny the two are linked. For example: an event isn’t considered news, if the media doesn’t report on it. Think about the news you receive on a daily basis. Have you ever thought about the way the media portrays the information you receive? Is the media accountable for the information they give? Are Americans properly informed of policy issues impacting the world they live in? Is the information useful? Is the media biased? At what cost is the information presented? These are questions that Arizona State University Class PAF 494: Media and Public Affairs, attempts to answer.
Today’s modern world represents a time that information is available, almost immediately, to most everyone. Technology has made it possible for Americans to be as informed or ill-informed, as they wish. Social Media is a new phenomenon linking people together in a non-traditional way. During the last century, people now have a direct communication link to our representatives, governors, and even the White House. Social Media organizes people from afar and unites them in a way that gives them power and one united voice capable of impacting issues. Egypt and the Occupy Wall Street Movement are great examples of how social media impacts the world we live in.
Since, our world is changing and media is available from multiple sources, almost instantaneously, it means voters must rethink the way they perceive information delivered to them and the amount of influence the media has on public affairs. All news mediums partake in the dissemination of information and try to influence the way people think. Take a look at the Funny or Die Video below…
This internet video pokes fun at politics and at the same time sheds light on many issues. The demographic this video attempts to reach is young-internet-savvy adults. Although the video is comedic, it provides ideas about regulations and the outcomes of government interventions.
Another example of a medium that presents news is political blogs on the internet. Political blogs are available for every dot on the political spectrum. A person merely needs to find one that represents their views or that they find entertaining, add the internet address to their favorites, and start reading. One of the dangers of political blogs is that if a person picks a blog that does not include a range of views, they risk being one-sided in their arguments and not truly understanding the view of the other side. Three popular political blogs are analyzed below to show the different information available and their impact on public affairs.
The Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
The Huffington Post is a liberal political blog, but also includes blogs and information about various other items, including: entertainment, business, and style. It is the modern day answer to a liberal newspaper.
Some of the great things in this political blog are that a plethora of information on various subjects is available. The site is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and is visually appealing. Like I mentioned before, it is a modern newspaper and acts as an environmentally safe alternative to printing mass communications.
Items requiring improvement on this political blog is the biasness of the contributors. This site does not provide a well-rounded approach to politics, so if this is what you are after, I would skip this site, as it clearly favors the left. Examples are seen at first sight on the home page of the sight. “Democracy threatened as Republicans Resort to Dirty Tricks” and “Scott Walker Recall Campaign Gets Ugly as Allegations Fly” are headlines that represent this political blogs liberal favoritism.
The contributors skew the facts of their stories to fit their agenda. If a story is in opposition of the right, it is highlighted to their opening page and they have multiple stories about the same issue. On the other hand, if a story disfavors the left, the authors justify the actions and policies of the lefts actions.
An example proving the Huffington Post is biased and not a reliable source of information is titled, “An Affair to Remember” and is found at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/03/herman-cain-suspending-presidential-campaign_n_1126331.html.
This article relates to the role the media plays in the political process. The title of the article, “An Affair to Remember” shows the bias associated with Huffington Post as it focuses on Herman Cain’s drop-out of the 2012 presidential election. The article title focuses on the allegations of his affairs and sexual harassment and portrays Mr. Cain as guilty of these items. Whether or not the allegations are true or false is still unclear, but the media (in this case the Huffington Post) already portrays him as guilty. The media grabbed a hold of this story and continued to drag-up additional information until he had no choice, but to drop out. The Huffington Post and other liberal outlets who continued to tell this story influenced politics because they eliminated an opposition candidate, thus increasing their own chances to win.
Politico:
Politico is a political website offering coverage on many issues and the stances of politicians at the state level. If you are very interested in politics this is the site for you. My favorite part of the site is that if you enjoy reading a particular contributor, they provide internet links to the author’s favorite blogs. I enjoy this because it is easy to obtain additional information to help make an informed decision. The site is highly interactive and easy to search for archives and research current events for papers. The site provides different views on many issues and it challenges me to think about things in a different way, than I did in the past. Politico is user-friendly and easy to find the information you are looking for. This site can influence politics because it provides an analysis of issues, politics, and others opinions, which readers can process and use to take their own stand on issues and to make informed decisions.
The only item requiring attention on this blog is the over crowdedness of the stories. Although there is an abundance of information, it is somewhat disorganized and you have to scroll through pages of stories of headline news. All of the headlines have the same size font and are written in the same color, so it is somewhat difficult to discern breaking news stories or important stories versus less important stories. All-in-all this is a great place to get your news, both for the political junkie, as well as the novice.
Politico proves to be a partial and reliable source of information. I pay attention to both conservative as well as liberal points of view and both parties utilize Politico’s stories as evidence to make their point. If you only want to choose one news source for your political information, I would choose Politico, because it does a good job of providing a balance to all sides of the political spectrum.
The article, “Why Occupiers Vow to Fight like an Egyptian” and found at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/66157.html relates to many discussions that occurred in PAF 394. The social media movement was discussed at length and this article presents the ideas representing the movement. The article notes the demands and wishes of the protestors and states that their organizing techniques were imported from Egypt via Skype. They watched people take down a dictator which motivated them to try to change policies at home, in America. The happening in Egypt changed the world we live in today. Protestors organized themselves via social media and prompted a change in the structure of their government. This powerful movement had profound implications that are just being realized. The news media reports on these movements and also aids the movement by providing the public with links and information to join in the movement.
The third and final blog analyzed is the Daily Kos. The Daily Kos is a very strong liberal minded political blog that slams the right. I enjoy reading this political blog because they are so strong in their liberal views, and the opinions so clear-cut that there is little room for debate. I enjoy getting my information from this blog because it helps define the left end of the political spectrum. The site itself is not too fancy and is easy to use. There isn’t an overabundance of information making navigation easy. The items requiring improvement are the length and amount of information given in the story. Many stories are merely a person’s opinion and not backed by facts. This blog is not a reliable source of information and is extremely biased. If you use this as your main source of information, please remember that the reporters are very biased and believe, very strongly, in the liberal ideology.
An article entitled, “Maine Gov. Paul LePage: Democrats Efforts on Unemployment are Bullshit” is found at: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/05/1042475/-Maine-Gov-Paul-LePage:-Democrats-efforts-on-unemployment-are-bullsh*t?via=blog_1. This article relates to class discussions through the propaganda surrounding elections. The article uses strong words and presents the Republican governor as the devil, childish, and buffoonish. This political blog is clearly using liberal ideology against the Republicans to attempt to sway public opinion and impact public affairs.
The access and linkage to an assortment of people (including politicians and news organizations) that Social Media provides is changing the landscape of media and the way messages are delivered. One of these changes is that information is exchanged in real time, meaning issues do not have time to be filtered through professionals to frame the issue the way they see fit. Information is communicated at the exact moment it is happening, meaning facts cannot be skewed. Raw footage showing the exact event is available by anyone owning a cell phone. A great example of Social Media providing information in real time is Twitter. A “tweet” is a statement in 140 characters or less, and is sent to your followers. These “tweets” are meant to be sound bites on issues and news that helps to shape public opinion. Below are six tweets by politicians or news organizations attempting to use twitter to influence politics and public opinion.
BarackObama:
Tonight, Senate Republicans voted to raise taxes on millions of working Americans: http://OFA.BO/uchdTU.
This tweet attempts to sway public opinion to all of President Obama’s followers by stating that Republicans (and not liberals) are responsible for raising taxes on Americans. This statement tries to influence politics by providing evidence that Republicans are not helping the economy and are doing the very thing they accuse liberals of doing.
SarahPalin:
USA
This is outrageous. Wake up, America... http://is.gd/Uyrmb3.
This tweet is trying to influence politics by providing evidence the Obama administration approved a $529 million federal loan guarantee to Finland to build electric cars as part of the stimulus package that was supposed to help put Americans to work. It’s no secret Ms. Palin does not approve of the Obama administration and is attempting to sway public opinion to oust him from the White House.
MittRomney:
The right answer for America is to stop the growth of government & start the growth of the private sector. VIDEO: http://mi.tt/tQmwch.
This tweet is attempting to sway public opinion and help secure his bid as the republican candidate for the 2012 presidential election. Obviously, private sector job growth appeals to many Republicans as an ideology of their party.
Fox News:
BreakingFoxNews
Newt Gingrich mocks Fox News http://sns.mx/J9fFy8.
Fox News is attempting to sway public opinion about Republican candidate Newt Gingrich. Fox paid Gingrich as a correspondent and did not approve of his choice words to mock them. Fox News is providing information to millions of viewers that Gingrich mocked them and many Fox supporters will not be happy to hear this information.
NPR News:
5 Things You May Not Know About Ron Paul http://n.pr/tabL9F.
This tweet provides information about an unknown candidate. This tweet gives Ron Paul a platform to reach a higher number of people than on his own. The tweet links to an article attempting to humanize Ron Paul and even provides support that he was misinterpreted in the past. Tweets like these are important because they provide little known candidates with an expanded population base to attempt to reach and sway public opinion.
NY Times:
Democrats Look to Debate on Payroll Tax for Upper Hand http://nyti.ms/sucyG1.
This tweet provides evidence that Democrats have the upper hand over republicans. It attempts to sway public opinion into believing that democrats will win the re-election campaign. The NY Times is a liberal newspaper and generally portray a pro-democrat stance on issues. The publication is so large and so renowned that they have the ability to sway public opinion of independents or those on the fence of who to vote for.
Social Media, including Twitter, means the media is no longer delivered from only professionals. Utilizing social media, anyone can attempt to sway the public’s opinions. A final change social media will make on swaying public opinion is accountability. Since information is delivered immediately, there is no editing. If someone makes a comment, the comment must be on-point and not offend anyone…once it is delivered to the internet, it is almost impossible to remove it.
Although, the impact of social media and the internet is huge, cable television reaches the highest number of viewers. The coverage of the news stories, on television, matters because most persons obtain their information from this source. Whether the source is MSNBC, Fox News, or some other network, if the stories are not presented in a fair and balanced manner and the authors show bias, the persons watching the shows will be influenced to follow whatever ideology the media presents. Information, not based in fact, can have detrimental effects on the political processes of America.
Competition among cable news outlets is harmful to journalism, because it means network producers have control over the content of the news instead of the reporters. This is bad because most networks are not neutral and are generally aligned with one political party over the other. The polarized nature of politics means a network sides with one political ideology over the other results in an increased amount of positive versus negative stories for the particular ideology they support.
The coverage of the different opinions on different networks also matters because of the network rating wars. The more viewers a network has, the more money they make in advertising. The different networks are constantly in battle to bring the most interesting stories forward and will sometimes do so at any cost, because interesting news results in a higher number of viewers and more advertising dollars. This is a dangerous because many Americans obtain their information and form their opinions based on one network. If untruthful information is presented, Americans form their opinions on this misinformation, which can result in the election of unethical or sub-par politicians, which affects national policies and has ramifications that reach globally. Television ads are the best way to reach passive voters. Passive voters do not want to research the issues themselves. It is difficult for cable television networks to provide fair and unbiased reporting because of the advertising money tied to the programs. Many leading advertising companies have billions of dollars vested in lobbyists and policy issues and this means they can influence cable television networks. For instance, if I am a billion dollar company and pay for space during a certain show, if I don’t agree with the opinion of the reporter, I’ll pull my money and pay for space during a program that I do agree with. This means reporters have to tread a fine line and not offend anyone.
In today’s world, with the number of news sources on TV, you have many options to obtain your source of news. We (as viewers) may feel inundated with information and media overload, but the truth is you can never have too much information. The more information you have, the more of an informed decision you can make about ideas pertaining to public affairs.
As the 2012 election rolls in, viewers will feel overwhelmed by the amount of political information presented to them. The media will play both negative and positive ads about the politicians and attempt to influence the outcome of the next general election. No matter what your news source of information, the media will present political ads, favorable to their ideology, as the answer to all of your problems while the opposing side will be shown as the source of all of your problems. The media attempts to sway your opinion and it will be important for viewers to take responsibility and research some of the information presented to them. In this day and age, since most agree the media plays a significant role in public affairs, it is time for voters to hold themselves accountable and arm themselves with facts and unbiased opinions.
PAF 394 provided an entire module to discussing political ads and their intended purpose and outcome on the election. For more information, please read my blog dated, November 6.
PAF 494 provided great insight into the role of the media and the role they play in current public affairs. Remember the goal of the media is no longer just providing information…they are a separate business entity and must keep/obtain new viewers and advertisers to sustain as a business. PAF 494, as offered by Arizona State University, allowed me to think critically about the relationship between the media and its influence with the public opinion and policy. This class allowed me to analyze important attributes of the media, as well as explore different mediums of information. The class offered a pragmatic approach to utilizing technological tools related to the media industry. I started a Twitter account, my own blog, and learned about the importance of social media (other than using it to keep in touch with family and friends) and its role in the world of public affairs. I learned how to effectively use these tools and analyze what works and what doesn’t work. The skills learned in this class will help me in the future, when I need to utilize these tools in the workplace.
