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Political influence on media
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Sequoia Bey Introduction to Media Theory Victim and the Media This paper will talk about the murder of Trayvon Martin and his killer George Zimmerman. The news outlets taken into consideration are Fox News and MSNBC. In this essay, I will talk about framing, agenda setting, and who owns each of these news channels. Various websites and the class textbook will support all of this. Agenda-setting hypothesis is to show how the media influences the public agenda. For example, if a newspaper has the same story on the cover everyday for the next week, growing more in-depth each time, this story becomes more prominent over stories on the third page of the paper. McCombs and Shaw started researching this function in 1972; current event analysts had …show more content…
I quickly realized that Fox News had 1,123 search results versus MSNBC had only 725 since hearing of Martin’s death 2 years ago. When taking in the amount of video searches that are conducted on Martin’s name: Fox News came to 425 videos and MSNBC came in with 171 videos under his name. MSNBC also conducted 4 polls regarding the Martin/Trayvon shooting. A majority of the headlines on Fox News would use words such as “cleared”, “Not Guilty”, or used George Zimmerman’s name in headline regarding the verdict. MSNBC headlines would talk about Martin’s Legacy, how Zimmerman “got away with murder”, and how Stand Your Ground laws need to be changed. It seems like Martin is innocent in MSNBC’s eyes but Fox News was hard to fine. They used Associated Press for some of their articles and it felt neutral, at best. Fox News is owned by Fox Entertainment Group and created by Australian American, media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Fox Entertainment Group is owned and controlled by 21st Century Fox, which is chaired and part owned by Murdoch. The president of Fox News Channel is Roger Ailes. MSNBC was founded in 1996 partnered with General Electric and Microsoft’s NBC Unit, now NBCUniversal. Comcast currently owns NBCUniversal. Phil Griffin is currently the CEO of since July
Jim Morrison, the lead singer of the music group “The Doors”, once said “Whoever controls the media, controls the mind” (Quotes About Media). After George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, the media decided to exercise that control. The media forced the state of Florida to bring charges against Zimmerman, misrepresent the facts in order to convince the public Zimmerman was guilty, and influence public opinion after the a verdict was reached.
According to Mackay (2009, p. 466), Agenda setting theory suggests that the media has the ability to influence the public’s way of thinking through the topics that are covered. If a news item is more prominently covered, it is thought that
In one sense, Fox is an easy target. Few would accuse Fox News of objectivity. And despite Ailes's promises of objectivity, despite the widely-held conservative belief in a "liberal media," Outf...
The two key terms “agenda setting” and “gotcha” journalism are going to be used within this paper to show you how politicians and news organizations try to persuade the public. The “agenda setting” is a term that “involves using the news to influence what the public regards as important for them to think about in society and politics.” (Bennett, Lance pg. 23) This is a major tool for news organizations or politicians to seek a public relation toward a certain aspect that they’re addressing their agenda and framing it to formulate their partisan viewpoints. Now for “gotcha” jour...
398).It is also stated that news divisions reduced their costs, and raised the entertainment factor of the broadcasts put on air. (p. 400). Secondly, the media determines its sources for stories by putting the best journalists on the case and assign them to areas where news worthy stories just emanates. (p.400). Third, the media decides how to present the news by taking the most controversial or relevant events and compressing them into 30 second sound-bites. (p.402). finally, the authors also explain how the media affects the general public. The authors’ state “The effect of one news story on public opinion may be trivial but the cumulative effect of dozens of news stories may be important. This shows a direct correlation between public opinions and what the media may find “relevant”. (Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry, 2015, p.
“The old argument that the networks and other ‘media elites’ have a liberal bias is so blatantly true that it’s hardly worth discussing anymore…No we don’t sit around in dark corners and plan strategies on how we’re going to slant the news. We don’t have to. It comes naturally to most reporters.” (Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News) This example is tremendously important in the author’s discussion because it proves that news stories do manipulate people through bias. Popular news networks are viewed by thousands of people every single day, thus making it have a huge impact on the public since they believe what they see. When news reporters present their news segments, it is natural for them to give their insights due to human nature being instinctively biased. “The news media is [sic] only objective if they report something you agree with… Then they’re objective. Otherwise they’re biased if you don’t agree, you know.” (CNN’s American Morning) In this quote, the readers are presented to current panelists agreeing that news consumers have a very hard time separating their own view of the news from the perspective of the news reporters because they are presenting their own opinions throughout their segments. This problem exists once again because of the bias that is contained in media
To begin, the media plays a heavy role for impacting how citizens perceive an issue or a topic. Furthermore, large audiences can easily
The media takes a biased approach on the news that they cover, giving their audience an incomplete view of what had actually happened in a story. Most people believe that they are not “being propagandized or being in some way manipulated” into thinking a certain way or hearing certain “truths” told by their favorite media outlets (Greenwald 827). In reality, everyone is susceptible to suggestion as emphasized in the article “Limiting Democracy: The American Media’s World View, and Ours.” The
News media outlets do not shy away from media framing. Media framing is how information is presented to the public, whether it is leaving information out or exaggerating the details. Erving Goffman was the first to bring forth the idea and theory of framing and defined framing as a “schemata of interpretation” that enables individuals to “locate, perceive, identify and label” occurrences or life experiences (Goffman, 1974). In his 1993 discussion of framing, Robert Entman offered a more thorough explanation: “To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, casual interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation.” (Entman, p.52). Entman used the term “salient” when referring to framing. Salient terms are more noticeable and important. As he described it, “Texts can make bits of information more salient by placement or repetition, or by associating them with culturally familiar symbols” (Entman, p.53) Entman further explains that frames are a particular way in which the human consciousness can
In this paper I attempt an in-depth analysis of the concept of agenda-building. By going beyond the examination of how media decides its’ agenda and influences the salience of issues, I explore how agenda-building plays its’ role in the process. What is important to emphasize on is the mutual influence that is found in agenda-building. I observe what the relationship between media salience and public salience is in regards to agenda-building. This is because it is what ultimately influences how media chooses to gather up information to show to the public. The media considers their own opinion in addition to the publics’ opinion. Another analysis made was the relationship and correlation between media agenda and public agenda.
How has media influenced public perception of political figures, issues, and institutions? Through agenda setting and framing, media has the power to set the agenda for political discussion by providing public attention to political figures, issues, and institutions. In addition, the media can frame political agendas by influencing public perception and interpretation. (Ginsberg, Lowi & Weir, 1999)
McCombs and Shaw looked into how people received their media content, the context, length, and place. This is what they call the media agenda. In news magazines they would search for an article that received the editors full attention by being placed in a full column. News television segments were important if they lasted over 45 seconds or were in the top three items while broadcasting. The five major issues that were overall prominent in the media are: foreign policy, law and order, fiscal policy, public welfare and civil rights.
West, Richard, & Turner, Lynn H. (2000). Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield publishing.
Griffin, E. A. (1997). A first look at communication theory (3rd ed). The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
...r attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinions on (McCombs). Framing is an important factor by allowing the media to select certain aspects about the problem and then make them appear more important in the text, which results in enhancing the meaning or interpretation of the situation (Scheufele). Last, but not least, priming also played an important role in shaping public opinion. Priming works as the media repeatedly exposed certain issues in the public viewers. The more exposure an issue gets, the more likely an individual will recall or retain the information in their minds. With these three factors played out systemically the media, our opinions are constantly being influence and shape by them. As quoted by Walter Lippman, “what we know about the world is largely based on what the media decide to tell us” (McCombs).