Fourth Branch Of Government Essay

The Fourth Branch of Government: The Media
In the United States today, the unofficial fourth branch of government has become extremely more prevalent. According to the American Constitution, the fourth branch refers to a group that influences the other three branches of government, the current target influencer in government today would be media. Media serving as an entire branch of government may seem a little vague, but with the ongoing evolution of technology, media has become something far greater than just a newspaper. In the political world of the United States government we must take into consideration all aspects of media including: print media, broadcast media, and new media. The media serves as the people’s and the government’s

middle man, connecting the people to what is occurring in the country and within the government and bringing awareness of the everyday lives to the political figures within the United States government. Ultimately media serves as a key part of the United States government, having great influence not only on all the other branches of government, but the people as well.
To fully understand the concept of a fourth branch of government, a review of the three official branches must be undergone.

Beginning with the executive branch, which consists of the president, whom has the purpose to lead the government. The president has a responsibility to greet leaders from other nations, serving as the face of the United States. Not only does the president lead and speak on behalf of the nation, but also helps create treaties and other negotiations. The executive branch has other duties, but as a general basis of what the executive branch entails this would be said; leads, speaks, protects, revises, and installs connections to other nations to better the country where they see fit. The next branch of government would be the legislative branch which is made up of congress which consists of the senate and the house of representatives. The purpose of the legislative branch is to create laws, regulate commerce, tax the people, borrow money, and declare war. This branch of government holds a lot of importance to the executive branch and the people, congress acts as almost a yes or no button for both the president and the people of the United States. What is meant by this is that congress holds a great authority over the president because they have the right to overturn a veto and without their vote nothing would get done within the government. The reason the legislative branch has reign over the people is because they are the figures who say what can and

cannot be done; and they tax the people for the countries well-being. Finally, the judicial branch which is made up of all the courts in the United States. Within the judicial branch judicial review is done in the Supreme Court and the judicial branch also has the final say in the law. If a case cannot be closed within smaller courts, it will eventually make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court where the nine justices will review the case to see if the case obstructs the United States Constitution. After reiterating all three branches of government, what is apparent is that each branch works together to create a whole system. But in the current times, media has served hand in hand with this entire system, acting as the glue of all the branches of government and the people of the United States.
Take into consideration that media is the main means of mass communication, so to dissect the term in political retrospect, media serves as an intercommunication tool between all branches of government and the people of the nation. The media is the ultimate linkage institution, creating a connection between the people and the government. Media in the United States began in the 1700s and continues to evolve to this day; due to the evolution of technology there are many different media platforms for people to view, but the first platform was print media.
Print media includes; newspapers, books, magazines, billboards, etc.; with the first newspaper published in 1704, but since the rise of the internet print media has become less prevalent. Although print media is a declining market due to the other media platforms today, it is still effective in getting messages across to consumers. The key word there is consumers, most print media is overloaded with advertisements. Do not be mistaken, all forms of media have an ad here and there, but with declining sales of print media there must be a compensation to cancel out the loss of revenue. According to a poll by Statista, “the newspaper publishing industry has fallen from 33.59 billion U.S. dollars in 2011 to 30.47 billion dollars in 2016 and is expected to continue falling”. Marketing to the people of the United States is very important for government officials that are elected into office, candidates must market themselves to potential voters. The people of the United States see this most dominantly presented in presidential campaigns, billboards with candidate’s faces and their campaign slogan are usually seen. Seen here is media being used as a whip for the everyday U.S. citizen, a whip is a political parties’ “enforcer”, officials who make sure that their party stays loyal and votes for their political parties’ candidate. Whips are found in the legislature, seen here is the influence of the media and the legislative branch. Other forms of media, such as broadcast media have even greater influence over the people and the government.
Broadcast media serving as the most popular form of political media, has a significant amount of influence over Washington and the people of the United States. Radio being the eldest form of broadcast media sparked the immense interest in politics within the people, particularly around the 1920s. Before politics were introduced on air people did not pay much attention to political campaigns because they were not accessible. Today people are primarily watching news media on television, tuning into programs such as MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. The main problem seen with this form of media is the segregation between viewers, usually the viewer of a certain political party will tune into the channel that coincides with their views. For example, Fox news viewers “median age is 68, meaning more than half of the channel’s viewers are older than 68”, usually the older a person is, the more conservative, and Fox News is known as a conservative news channel. Political party affiliation results in some viewers to be bias about certain channels, but there is no denying that news media allows for the people of the United States to gain knowledge of what is going on within the White House administration. Since the election of President Donald Trump, there seems to be an uproar in the views of news programs due to the instability of his administration and the ongoing investigations regarding the President. So, do the people of the United States use broadcast media as a safety net to keep them informed on the chaotic administration that has taken over office? Or do they see it as gossip and simply fake news that is utterly bias? The information taken from broadcast media must be interpreted by the viewer themselves, but a universal opinion about broadcast media is that it serves as a bridge between the government and the people of the United States.
Oftentimes reporters on news channels serve as a representative for the nation, especially in times of tragedy. For example, the Iran hostage crisis, a standoff between Iran and the U.S. government where fifty-two people were kept captive until the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan, 444 days after the crisis began. ABC News started reporting daily on the matter, eventually creating an entire segment called, “America Held Hostage: [day of crisis]”. Similarly, how the president, governors, mayors, and other governmental officials speak in time of crisis. More often today the people and especially the president of the United States use new media such as social media to comment on events or to post statements and remarks to mass audiences.
New media has exploded in popularity in the past generation, most popular today would be the social media platform.

In 2017, “81 percent of Americans had a social media profile” that is a catastrophic number of people who are on the social media, part of this 81 percent is President Donald Trump who utilizes Twitter as his reporting mechanism. The president’s tweets are usually unorthodox, yet he is still using media and gaining influence from this shadowing branch of government. President Donald Trump is fond of referring to some new programs as “fake news”, but it is journalist’s jobs to report the truth for the greater knowledge of the people of the United States. In the First Amendment of The Bill of Rights it states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, […]” the press have the freedom to say what they feel need be said just like the President of the United States. With the uneasy relationship between the president and the media it has caused the people to mistrust either side. Yet again the influence of the fourth branch arises, some Americans choose to side with the press and others the president, but both official and unofficial branches of government are involved in the influencing of the people of the

nation.
The media serving as the fourth branch of government is not outlandish but quiet the most fit to be the influencer over all three branches of government. Each branch utilizes the media and the press either for their own good or the overall countries well-being. The media serves as the greatest connector between the people of the United States and the people in office. The United States of America is a melting pot for the press, the people, and the government whom all influence and rely on one another to form a nationwide system, media being the interlockings of each part.