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Media influence on politics
Media influence on politics
Consequences of lowering the voting age
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Malcolm X once said, “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth… Because they control the minds of the masses.” With the help of advanced media, arguments continue to erupt in the United States on whether we should lower the voting age to 16. Some citizens say lowering the voting age could be beneficial to the country and others oppose that claim. Americans often trust what reporters write in articles and say on television and radio stations. They expect all that they report is the truth, but issues such as lowering the voting age can be interpreted in many different ways. One individual may argue that lowering the voting age would benefit our country, another would say that younger teenagers are not yet ready to participate in our elections. The purpose of these articles is to convince the readers to side with their arguments; therefore, many of these media authors tend to use fallacies in their articles to support their arguments. In order to avoid the perpetuation of misinformation, the reader must be able to identify bias in media.
John Adams once said "You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." For many generations, our ancestors have fought for the right to vote. It started with the Civil Rights Act in 1964 which made it mandatory that white schools integrate black children into their institutions. The outcome of the 1964 election was a landslide, favoring the democrats, which broached the issue of civil rights legislation. In 1964 “only 7% of eligible black citizens in Mississippi were registered; in Alabama the figure was 20% (Kernell, et. al 2014, 162). The low voter turnout rate was because people of color were required to take a literacy test. This all changed when President Johnson
It’s very unsettling to know that there was a six percent decrease in young voters (ages 18-29) in the 2012 election compared to 2008 (Circle Youth data). In 2007 the National Conference of State Legislatures publicly released a report and data set on voter turnout in democratic countries. This is a quote from that report titled Getting out the Vote, “It should be noted that in 1972, 18-year-olds were added to the eligible voting population, thus decreasing the percentages. Nonetheless, voter tu...
The first support Kamenetz argues is, the 2008 presidential campaign brought in the most voters under the age of 29 in history. If the voting age would be decreased, there would be more voters under the young adult category. There would be an increase of voters, including those under the age of eighteen.
In the late 1960’s to mid-70’s the legal drinking age was 18 because the voting age of 21 was lowered to 18. However, in 1984 a bill was passed that every state in the United States was to change the legal drinking age from 18 to 21. Although this is a highly controversial topic many young adults believe lowering the drinking age back to 18 is best because if they may vote at the age of 18 then, they should be allowed purchase alcoholic beverages. In an article “Should the U.S. lower its drinking age?” written by Brandon Griggs introduces the pros and cons of lowering the drinking age. Griggs explains two generations ago young adults didn’t have to worry much about getting caught drinking or buying their way out to purchase alcohol. Nowadays
Since the 1890s, Canada’s voter turn-out has declined steadily, however, the decline in voter turn-out in the last several elections is one of great concern to Canada’s democracy. As a result, mandatory voting has gained the attention of many political scientists and political analysts. While there are good reasons to worry about Canadians’ diminishing voter turn-out, it is also fair to say that mandatory voting will not prove beneficial to the future of Canada’s democracy. Although mandatory voting will increase the voter turn-out, it will not create an informed voter base and neither raise a more politically knowledgeable society. Making voting compulsory is accompanied by both positive and negative outcomes, but in Canada, many fear that the negative outcomes outweigh the positives.
Considering the delegates that are currently running for office, a voter should have a vast level of understanding regarding the intentions of each and every candidate. Arguing whether to raise or lower the age limit for the right to vote has raised many speculations as to how it would affect the economy. There are pros and cons within both sides of the argument, but any decisions made by the powers that be will have an adverse effect on today’s society if it is placed in the hands of the younger generation. Therefore, raising the voting age to twenty-one is a better way of making sure that voters are more aware and would be more equipped to making a more sound decision rather than lowering
Political inactivity on the part of young Americans stems from one fundamental source -- a general cynicism of the American political process. This disdain for politics is further perpetuated by a lack of voter education and a needlessly archaic voting procedure that creates barriers to voting where they need not exist. While many of these existing problems can be rectified with relative ease through the implementation of programs such as Internet voting and better voter education, such programs create only a partial solution.
According to James Madison, “nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power and to withhold from them information, without which power is abused,” suggesting that the people have the right to learn popular information and learn both sides of an issue (Paul and Elder 2). However, in modern society, the media often do not present both sides of an issue and are inclined to often mask information for their personal benefits. Therefore, the people often learn and understand only one aspect of an issue and inevitably lean towards the bias present in that news account. Indubitably, the coverage in the mainstream news media influences the majority through its bias and propaganda, especially its partisan audience, which only appreciates one side of the news story. Thus, even though news networks may claim that their news programs and publications are completely factual and credible, their coverage of news events is politically, commercially, and racially biased.
A political problem that has been argued over since prohibition is the minimum legal drinking age (MLDA). This is a controversial subject because many believe that the legal drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18 years old. “In the 1970’s the 26th amendment was passed which lowered the legal voting age, this caused 30 US states to lower their MLDA to 18, 19, or 20 which left 14 states with a MLDA of 21 by 1982” (Minimal Legal Drinking Age, 1). But reports later showed an increase in teenage car accidents in states with a lower MLDA; these states soon changed the MLDA back to 21.
”All newspapers had small circulations and most were financed by political groups as a means to express particular opinions and criticize their opponents”(Braunwarth Chp10.2.1). While modern day the availability of news is limitless, having un biased and accurate information is limited. “In the early twentieth century many newspapers….The so-called “muckrakers” dug up stories about government corruption, which was at an all-time high in the United States. In their zeal to expose, newspapers often published stories based on faulty information”(Braunwarth Chp10.2.5). False news accompanied by slander is still a problem in modern times and the control is in the hands of political parties. The control over the media and current utilization causes harm to a democratic country, the citizens are shown false information not to educate them but rather, persuade them to vote in favor of the medias benefactor by only showing points they want observed. “the media do not so much influence what people think as what they think about.” By gatekeeping and framing, the media help determine which policies the public thinks are important” (Braunwarth Chp10.7.3). The public has an option on where they become educated to vote but many of those resources are all owned by four
All 50 states have set the minimum legal drinking age to 21, although some states have made exceptions. Raising the drinking age to 21 in order to avoid teenage drinking has instead created excessive drinking in private places, therefore producing more danger (“Minimum”). The national drinking age was raised from 18 to 21 in 1984; it was not until 1988 that all 50 states had a minimum legal drinking age of 21 (Wechsler and Nelson 986). Drinking underage is permitted in certain circumstances in 45 of the states; 29 states allow it on private property under parental consent, 25 states allow it for religious purposes, and 11 for educational purposes (“Minimum”). Lowering the minimum drinking age is ineffective and would benefit the economy, it
Although there are 44 million eligible young voters ages 18-29, in 2012 only 45% of them voted. These young people make up one fifth, or 21%, of the eligible voting population, yet they often do not vote. Voting is a tremendous gift. Young people in many other countries around the world have to fight to gain this right. In America, voting is often taken for granted by all age groups, but the youth take it for granted the most. In this paper, the reason why young people do not vote will be explored and solutions as to how to get them to vote will be proposed.
Additionally, voter turnout today is the greatest puzzle among American voting behaviors. Similarly, Congress decided to propose and the states ratified the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. In turn, younger age males are less likely to vote in elections and this was the reason of reduced national turnout rates. Consequently, attitudes towards politics in general can also be a reason for the decline of voters. Identically, voters beliefs are that government choose to ignore citizens, that there are too many politicians, and that the campaigns are extremely long. Still, voter turnout will only increase if the government decides to do something to restore our fate in the political system. Moreover, voters feel a burden
As Americans we take pride in our liberating government. But, it is essential to ask how much we, the general public, know about our democracy. Because of the representative structure of our government, it is in our best interest to remain as knowledgeable as possible about political affairs so that we can play an active role in our democracy by voting for candidates and issues. The media, which includes print, television, and the internet, is our primary link to political events and issues. (For the purposes of this essay only print and television will be considered.) Therefore, in order to assess the success of our democracy it is necessary to assess the soundness of our media. We are lucky enough to have a media, in theory, free from government influences because of our rights to freedom of press and freedom of speech, but we are still subject to the media’s interpretation and presentation of politics, as is the danger when depending on any source for information. So, we must address how the media informs us; how successful it is at doing so; and how we should respond to it.
The main participants in this debate are researchers, cohabitating couples and members of society who have expressed differing views on cohabitation.