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Why is the media powerful in policy making
Healthcare reform in 2010
Healthcare reform in 2010
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The Heritage Foundation
March 13, 2014
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative research organization whose main purpose is to influence conservative public policies that are based on personal freedoms, limited government intervention, free enterprise and promotion of basic American values. Heritage Foundation is an influential organization that has promoted policies within the United States for many years. The foundation is funded through direct mail fundraising from donors. Much private and public cooperation have funded the organizations course for many years. Presidents of the United States have worked with the organization so as to promote their policies within the government. Heritage Foundation is highly regarded by the government because of its conservative nature to the public policies.
The Reagan administration borrowed their foreign policy from the foundation. George Bush administration borrowed its domestic policy from the foundation. Through its publications, the Heritage Foundation tends to promote its policies to the people hence influencing their performance in the long run. Recently, the foundation has been in the limelight for its promotion of economic freedom in Obama’s administration. The organization is also notorious in its advocacy for the removal of corruption and policies that have a negative influence to the public. President Clinton’s Healthcare plan borrowed its basic principles and policies from the Heritage foundation. His policy was basically meant to promote personal responsibility in terms of health care plan hence promoting the welfare of the society (Ehrlich & Ehrlich, 1996).
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...cy. For this reason, it is clear that the media should not engage in any activity aimed at taking sides when dealing with the policy at hand. Journalists should always monitor all the policies and arguments from the foundation so as to ensure that they have left an opportunity of judgment from the public. This will ensure that public policy has been promoted without any form of discrimination or support (Abelson, 2006).
References
Abelson, D. E. (2006). A capitol idea: Think tanks and US foreign policy. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Ehrlich, P. R., & Ehrlich, A. H. (1996). Betrayal of science and reason: How anti-environmental rhetoric threatens our future. Washington, D.C: Island Press.
Heritage Foundation News 20th February 2014. The Heritage Foundation. Article Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.temple.edu/docview/1500804103
McKibben’s writing style makes it difficult for readers to truly understand the argument he presents; therefore, they are gullible to accepting his opinions. McKibben embarks on a rampage in this article, seeming to continuously ramble on with concepts that fly over the average person’s head. He uses words such as “Class C forest,” “A-2 forest,” “peak-load electricity,” “geothermal drilling,” and “hydrogen sulfide emissions.” McKibben must not be thinking of his audience because for the audience to grasp his argument thoroughly he needs to define these concepts well. If he were writing for a science magazine in which his audience would be well educated in environmental issues, his writing style would be accepted. But this article appeared in Rolling Stone where the audience is not educated on these issues. His bitter and intense voice makes the reader feel as if th...
During the LBJ administration, Johnson was focused on ending the War on Poverty, the centerpiece of his presidency, and bringing justice to his fellow men and women. However, his pressing desire was to give the “Great Society a chance to grow and prosper! Johnson inherited the presidential seat after the death of John F. Kennedy. Immediately, Johnson was concentrated on establishing himself in the office of the Presidency, and to continue the legacy of JFK. Johnson quickly administered a group of domestic programs which he called the “Great Society”. Johnson’s vision for the Great Society drew on both his own primary identification with the New Deal (which he supported heavily) and his commitment to go beyond the achievement of FDR to create an America worthy of leadership in the twenty-first century. For America, this was the perfect time to build a Great Society. LBJ was confident that this was a time to prove that our material progress is only the foundation on which we will build a richer life in mind and spirit. He believed that the Great Society rested on an abu...
What Is Ecocriticism? What Is Ecocriticism - a skeptic? N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web.
"We're a charity that works to preserve and protect historic places and spaces – for ever, for everyone." (National trust 2013)
In 1989, seventy five percent of Americans identified themselves as environmentalists, and the number has continued to grow since then (Walls 1). Environmentalism is now the most popular social movement in the United States, with over five million American families donating regularly to environmental organizations (Walls 1). Environmentalists today focus on what kind of world they hope to see in the future, and largely deal with limiting pollution and changing consumption rates (Kent 1 and 9). Modern environmentalists also have much different issues than those Carson’s America faced. With climate change becoming more threatening each year, protection of the natural world is needed more than ever. Pollution has caused the warmest decade in history, the deterioration of the ozone layer, and species extinction in extreme numbers (Hunter 2). It not only threatens nature, but also human populations, who already suffer from lack of clean water and poisoning from toxic chemicals (Hunter 16). Unlike environmental actions in the 1960’s, which were mostly focused on protection, a massive increase in pollution has caused efforts to be focused on environmental restoration (Hunter 16). Like in the time of Silent Spring, environmentalists are not only concerned with one country. Protecting the environment remains a global issue, and every nation is threatened by the
Global Warming: a Moral or Political Fight “Now or Never” by Bill McKibben is a short essay from an environmentalist who attempts to educate and awaken the sleeping minds of those who ignore the degenerating earth we call home. This essay notes that politics is a key, on page 594 McKibben writes, “this has to become a political issue—and fast” (Barnet, 2014). Is Global Warming real? Is Nature or Humans to blame for global warming? “Politics, what is your role?”
As with most group projects, I started out with a basic understanding of the issue; essentially pollution and environmental changes humans make impact the environment in very bad ways. I grew up with a family who believes in intelligent design, young earth theory, and they all vehemently deny that anything humans do cause damage to the planet- everything reported in the news or by scientists are part of a larger “Liberal Democrat conspiracy.” Thus, my views had become largely hazy and even though I pride myself on being a Liberal, educated, intelligent young person, sometimes I was unsure what was actually true or what had been dramatized or exaggerated by scientists or the media to actually get people to pay attention. In addition, I also
4. Johnson, Kirk. ?Global Warming Moves From Impassioned Words to Modest Deeds.? New York Times 19 November 2000 http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/19/science/19CLIM.html
Whether the issue is a continuing problem of significant importance to society, or a relatively new and unheard of phenomenon, public attention and activism tends to follow similar patterns of cycling attitudes and behaviors. As Anthony Downs explains in an article written more than 30 years ago, issues regarding the environment tend to “suddenly leap into prominence, remain there for a short time, and then gradually fade from the center of public attention.” He calls this process the “issue-attention cycle,” one of the most intriguing theories regarding environmental public opinion. Even though this article was written in the 1970’s, Downs’ theory contains crucial insight into what is currently happening with public opinion about the environment today. Ultimately, Anthony Downs’ theory on the issue-attention cycle has the potential to aid in our understanding of how American attitudes towards improving the quality of the environment are shaped, sustained, and lost.
Policymaking is a political process which is affected by various social and economic factors (Hofferbert, 1974) and media systems play an integral role in shaping the social context in which policies are developed. Through the media, citizens learn how government policies will affect them, and governments gain feedback on their policies and programs. Media systems act as the primary channels between those who might want to influence policy and the policymakers '' controlling the scope of political discourse and regulating the flow of information. Textbook policymaking follows an orderly sequence where problems are identified, solutions devised, policies adopted, implemented, and lastly evaluated (Mazamanian & Sabatier, 1989). In reality, the policy process is more fluid, where policies are formed through the struggle of ideas of various advocacy coalitions (Sabatier, 1991) in what has been described as a policy primeval soup (Kingdon, 1995). The policies, on which the media focuses can, and often does, play an important part in determining the focal issues for policymakers.
In the documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, former presidential nominee Al Gore illuminates the detrimental effects of global warming. Throughout the documentary, Gore discusses the scientific opinion on global warming, which at the time was considered to be a taboo, and argues that, though an “inconvenient truth,” global warming is an actual, catastrophic issue. He states that global warming “is not really a political issue, so much as a moral one.” In addition, Gore contends that global warming is human-caused and specifically emphasizes America’s harmful contributions to its catastrophic dangers. As a result, Gore challenges his viewers to take action in joining the efforts to reduce the long term effects of global warming.
Gore, Albert. An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming. New York: Viking, 2007. Print.
Subpoint A: Not long ago, a documentary film called “An Inconvenient truth” came out in 2006. This film raised international public awareness of climate change and reenergizing the environmental movement. A former U.S Vice president Al Gore campaigned to educate citizens about global warming through a simp...
A human induced global ecological crisis is occurring, threatening the stability of this earth and its inhabitants. The best path to address environmental issues both effectively and morally is a dilemma that raises concerns over which political values are needed to stop the deterioration of the natural environment. Climate change; depletion of resources; overpopulation; rising sea levels; pollution; extinction of species is just to mention a few of the damages that are occurring. The variety of environmental issues and who and how they affect people and other species is varied, however the nature of environmental issues has the potential to cause great devastation. The ecological crisis we face has been caused through anthropocentric behavior that is advantageous to humans, but whether or not anthropocentric attitudes can solve environmental issues effectively is up for debate. Ecologism in theory claims that in order for the ecological crisis to be dealt with absolutely, value and equality has to be placed in the natural world as well as for humans. This is contrasting to many of the dominant principles people in the contemporary world hold, which are more suited to the standards of environmentalism and less radical approaches to conserving the earth. I will argue in this essay that whilst ecologism could most effectively tackle environmental problems, the moral code of ecologism has practical and ethical defects that threaten the values and progress of anthropocentricism and liberal democracy.
Environmental philosophy tries to make sense of the unexamined values, assumptions and ideologies behind humanities treatment of the environment and, in doing so, aims at helping to elicit an effective human response to related issues (Curry, 2011). Environmental philosophy, has gone beyond being merely an academic pursuit, now requiring the world’s population take moral responsibility for the damages caused by their industrial advances on natural systems.