It's difficult to answer this question in a superficial manner. In order to have reasonable public discourse in a democracy, one must have a reasonably informed public. As is stated in our textbook, there is the ideal/procedural democracy and then there is the real democracy. And the reality is that public opinion, while it may have been influential in the formation of our country, matters little these days. Due to the size of the country and our stated belief in local control, one would think that "a rational system for a nation with such a vast diversity of people and places would be hundreds of individual local media owners, each familiar with the particular needs of his or her own community" (http://www.beacon.org/client/pdfs/6187_ch1.pdf). However, in the case of America, one would think wrong. In truth, what we read and hear is almost completely controlled by 5 transnational corporations. It is hard to overstate their influence in the public's understanding of relevant issues and the effect of political decisions in their lives. Indeed, even WHAT the nation is talking about is steered by their decisions. "These five conglomerates are Time Warner, by 2003 the largest media firm in the world; The Walt Disney Company; Murdoch’s News Corporation, based in Australia; Viacom; and Bertelsmann, based in Germany. Today, none of the dominant media companies bother with dominance merely in a single medium. Their strategy has been to have major holdings in all the media, from newspapers to movie studios. This gives each of the five corporations and their leaders more communications power than was exercised by any despot or dictatorship in history" (http://www.beacon.org/client/pdfs/6187_ch1.pdf). So the answer to the question of the ways public opinion influences democracy is largely determined by private entities. To discuss issues in America feels that we are really just discussing kabuki theater and the actors therein. That is not to say it is not important to be involved and participating in issues that affect our lives. A responsible citizen should be. However, it is important to realize just how difficult that is and how vast the invisible barriers in place fighting against an informed and mobilized citizenry really are.
In study after study, results have indicated that public opinion is both directly and indirectly swayed by content in news media, whether accurate or not. The ability of corporate controlled media to control the national conversation is proven.
Politicians and the News Media: How Elite Attacks Influence Perceptions of Media Bias: http://hij.sagepub.com/content/15/3/319.abstract
This study, titled Communication Forms In U.S. Presidential Campaigns: Influences on Candidate Perceptions and the Democratic Process, found that "after controlling for respondents' age, gender, education, strength of party identification, and the number of candidate ads recalled, the results indicated that use of nontraditional communication forms (such as political talk radio and, to a somewhat lesser extent, television entertainment talk shows, television talk shows, and television news magazines) exerted the most influence on perceptions of presidential candidates" (http://hij.sagepub.com/content/6/4/88.abstract).
Another study, titled The Impact of the News Media on Public Opinion: American Presidential Election 1987-1988, also found similar results. Using a mathematical model to track appearances of stories in the Associated Press, they were able to develop a mathematical formula to predict election results with astonishing accuracy. "Using this model and a new method of computer content analysis applied to Associated Press stories retrieved from the Nexis electronic data base, it was possible to forecast actual opinion poll results for the American Presidential election of 1988 with very high accuracy. The average deviation between the computer predicted values and over 120 measured poll values was 2.7 per cent for George Bush versus Michael Dukakis. On election day, the deviation was 2 per cent" (http://ijpor.oxfordjournals.org/content/1/2/151.abstract)
It is clear that where we get our news, who owns it, and who writes it is just as important as the potential impact of the content. Targeted attacks to plant a perception of "liberal bias" in the media have been very effective, with devastating results to our democratic process, for example, as explained in the first study posted.
My question is this: How does the new social media (Twitter, Facebook, news comment sites, and the like) serve as a counterbalance to the relatively fact-challenged "soft news" infotainment programming present on TV and radio programming?
Blog Critical Review
ReplyDeleteBlog: http://lifelovecreationcompassion.blogspot.com/
Student/Author: Molly Judson
Molly Judson did a great job with this blog. My first impressions were that it was inviting, the colors were easy on the eyes, and the picture (of the eye at the top of the blog) grabbed my curiosity. The name also got me-it’s creative and interesting which is on par with the blog. Molly’s vision/mission:“I am a learner, a scientist, a critical thinker, and a constant questioner…” fits well with her blog/the objectives of the class. This class is about exploring the subjects/realms of political science and forming our own view/opinions about such. This is exactly what Judson is doing in her blog. She adds an interesting touch to the material and discussions covered in class.
It would be hard to believe that this is not Judson’s first blog. Her effectiveness in communication and crisp writing style is a rarity. In fact, I looked through several blogs until I found one that piqued my interest. I chose this blog because of the different elements that it combines. I especially appreciated her take on historical significance leading up to the current situation. Judson discussed art’s role during the Great Depression. This was so (for lack of better word) cool! She discussed how art helps us look at what people were feeling/experiencing at the time and what their thoughts were about the future. She basically expanded on each discussion post, which is precisely what was assigned. One thing that I really liked was that she included at least one link/video/extra for each blog posting. I enjoyed reading and learning about her views/take on the class material and even learned a few things while reading.
I was a little confused about her profile-her profile is completely different than her name. I double-checked to make sure I had the correct person and (unless there’s a typo) then this blog was/is authored by Molly Judson. I would make some improvements to her profile-it seems a bit brief as well as citing herself as the author. Another improvement I might make is with her first couple posts-they seemed brief and grazed some topics/did not fully explore the content. Here last two posts were great and fully explored many ideas/topics. This is likely due to the natural progression and her interest in the subject. I am sure you will find that each student is finally coming out/developing their ideas thoroughly in more recent posts. I would not worry about this. The main improvement is the author issue and making sure the same student is authoring this as is listed on our blog-sheet.
Judson did a great job with this blog. It explores a variety of topics in an appropriate manner. I like the questions that she develops/lists at the end of each post. She did a great job utilizing relevant links/material outside of class. She arranged the content of the blog in a reader-friendly format that is inviting and easy to read. I would make only minor improvements as this blog clearly demonstrates her ability to follow guidelines as well as adding her own dose of creativity. It was a pleasure reading this blog and I applaud the work that Judson put into this blog.
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ReplyDeleteMolly Judson’s blog is titled: Life, love, creation, compassion. Her vision is stated very clearly in the description under a very eye-drawing picture. It states that the purpose of her blog is to examine, create, explore and question our world and ourselves. This is a very creative way of approaching the blogging process attributed to this course. It seems that Molly is taking a more in depth and personal approach to the weekly blog postings than simply just answering the critical questions with information from the textbook. Throughout her posts that I read it was apparent that she researched the topics much further than simply reading the book. She uses scientific studies and facts to back up her claims, and she is very well spoken.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest strengths of Molly’s blog is the fact that it is obvious that she is a very good writer. Her points come off as educated and well written. Her posts go into more depth than most of the other ones that I have seen, and her personal approach to the topics is evident in her writing. I like that instead of posting a generic title like “(insert name here)’s Political Science Blog, she came up with a creative title that makes you want to explore more about her approach to the weekly postings. It her “about me” section it says that she is a learner, a scientist, a critical thinker, and a constant questioner. This seems to be truly stated when reading through her posts, and I doubt this is her first blog because she seems to be very experienced.
Although her last couple of posts are very in depth and interesting, her first ones seemed to be short and rushed. The blog could definitely benefit from the use of more pictures as to be more visually stimulating. Another thing that I noticed about the blog was that the colors, introduction, and title seem to convey a more philosophical approach to discussing the topics as opposed to a political critical thinking blog. It is not to say that her posts reflect this, but the first impression you get from the look of the blog is that it is going to approach things from a philosophical or possibly even religious way of thinking.
For the most part I think that Molly Judson’s blog is very good. It is very well written, and shows that she obviously has a lot of writing experience. Her points are clear, intelligent, and offer a more in-depth answer to the critical questions than most of the other blogs that I viewed. I will continue to read Molly’s blog throughout this course for inspiration for my own, as she allows you to be able to think about the weekly topics in different ways.