Media and Politics

Part 1

The impact of media on the political life and the public opinion was traditionally very significant. In this regard, Larry M. Bartels, in his article “Messages Received: The Political Impact of Media Exposure”, explores the relationship between the impact of media, public opinion and the political outcomes of media exposure. In actuality, the author stresses that the impact of media is significant, to the extent that it can shape or, at least, influence consistently the public opinion. As a result, issues discussed in media and exposures made by media can have a profound impact on the political life. At the same time, the author argues that the researches dedicated to the problem of the impact of media on the political life, including professional career of politicians who were attacked by media in the result some exposures, are insufficient. The author identifies major flaws of previous researches and argues that measurement errors and limitations of design of studies conducted by other researchers led to the overall failure of the adequate assessment and evaluation of the impact of media on the political life. Instead, the author attempts to conduct a reliable research of the impact of media exposure on the political life. Eventually, he concludes that media have a consistently larger impact on the public opinion that researchers used to believe in the past. Moreover, he stresses that the media exposure is three times as distinctive as it has been supposed in regard to the change of public opinion.

References:

Bartels, Larry M. “Messages Received: The Political Impact of Media Exposure.” American Political Science Review, 87(2), June, 1993, p.267-285.

Part 2

The media impact on the political life and choices made by the public can hardly be underestimated. At the same time, the emergence of visual media raised the question whether print media can still influence and change the public opinion to the extent that they can change political preferences of the public. In this respect, the article “Does the Media Matter?”, by A. Gerber et al., is particularly noteworthy, because the authors explore the impact of print media, mainly two newspapers, “Washington Post” and “Washington Time”, on the political views and choices of the public. In fact, the authors explored the impact of newspapers on the target subject group, which exposed to the impact of either newspaper. The authors suggested that the regular reading of either newspaper can influence the voting preferences of the public, but, the influence of the newspapers proved to be less significant than the researchers supposed to be. To put it more precisely, the study has revealed the fact that the exposure of readers to the impact of the newspaper influenced the position of readers to eight percentage points. In other words, readers who read the newspaper regularly were just eight percentage points likely to vote for the political party which was supported in newspaper. In such a way, the study conducted by Gerber and other researchers reveals the fact that the impact of print media is not as significant as it used to be in the past, but it still persists.

References:

Gerber, A. et al. “Does the Media Matter?”

Part 3

The impact of media on political behavior of voters is traditionally very significant. The research of the impact of print media, namely newspapers, is very important in the context of the rapid development of mass media and the increasing role of mass media. IN this regard, the study conducted by J. McDonald Ladd and G. S. Lenz, “Exploiting a Rare Communication Shift to Document the Persuasive Power of News Media”, is very important because news media can potentially influence the public opinion and behavior of voters. In fact, the study focused on the impact of print news media. The researchers attempted to assess the extent to which news media can influence the opinion of voters and define their political preferences. In this respect, the study reveals the fact that the impact of news media is very significant and reaches 10 to 25% of the voters and their decisions being taken. This means that the researchers prove that a considerable part of the audience is vulnerable to the impact of news media and the public opinion can be influenced by issues raised in news media to the extent that people make political choices, including voting, under the impact of information they receive from news media as well as images of politicians they shape judging from news issues conveyed to the audience by news media. At the same time, the researchers use different statistical approaches which give different outcomes, which vary consistently that raises the question concerning the reliability of their study.

References:

McDonald Ladd, J. and G. S. Lenz. “Exploiting a Rare Communication Shift to Document the Persuasive Power of News Media.” American Journal of Political Science, 53(2), April 2009, p. 394-410.

Part 4

The election process is vulnerable to the impact of mass media. In this regard, the impact of early media election calls may be particularly significant. The 2000 elections in Florida revealed the full extent, to which the early media election call can influence the outcome of the elections and the public opinion. In such a context, the study conducted by J.R. Lott Jr., “The impact of early media election calls on Republican voting rates in Florida’s western Panhandle counties in 2000”, helps to reveal the existing controversies related to the early media election calls. In fact, the author uses the 2000 elections in Florida case as the basis for the study. The scandal related to the Presidential elections in the US in 2000 caused by the controversy of the early media election calls revealed the impact of the early media calls on the public opinion. At the same time, the author stresses potential negative effects of the early media calls which became obvious after 2000 Florida scandal. The author argues that the early media election calls can discourage voters to participate in voting. To put it more precisely, he refers to the change in the behavior of voters in Florida after the incorrect calling of polls. In such a way, the author arrives to the conclusion that the early election media calls can influence the impact of voters in a long-run perspective changing their behavior patterns. In such a context, the risk of errors made by media becomes particularly dangerous.

References:

Lott Jr., J.R. “The impact of early media election calls on Republican voting rates in Florida’s western Panhandle counties in 2000.” American Enterprise Institute, 2004.

Part 5

Traditionally, violence in mass media is considered to have a negative impact on the behavior of people. The violence on TV and other media are subjects of the heat public debate over the necessity to regulate the media and violence in media. In this respect, some researchers, namely Felson and his study “Mass Media Effects on Violent Behavior”, arrive to quite unexpected conclusion which challenges the public opinion and traditional views on violence in media. In fact, the author puts under a question the negative impact of mass media on the behavior of people. The milestone idea maintained by the author throughout the study is that the violent behavior is rather a characteristic of an individual than the effect of the exposure of the individual to violence in media. In other words, the author is inclined to the idea that the violent, aggressive behavior is the result of psychological peculiarities of an individual and violent behavior is not related to the violence in media. Basically, the author finds out the fact, according to which the behavior of individual can change not only under the impact of media but other sources through which people learn that violent behavioral patterns are legitimate. In addition, the author stresses the impact of environment on the behavior of an individual. In other words, he concludes that the behavior of an individual can be either violent or non-violent under the impact of environment but not media.

References:

Felson, Richard B. “Mass Media Effects on Violent Behavior.” Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 1996, pp. 103-128

Part 6

Contemporary mass media have a profound impact on the public opinion. In fact, mass media can influence public views on various issues, including issues related to political, social and economic life. Goidel and Langley focus their attention on the study Media Coverage of the Economy and Aggregate Economic Evaluations: Uncovering Evidence of Indirect Media Effects” explore the media coverage of economic issues and trends and the impact of media coverage of economy on the public opinion and behavior of people. In this respect, it should be said that the research was focused on the extent to which media reflect the real economic life and trends and the extent to which mass media’s coverage of economic issues can relate to independent evaluation of economic issues. On conducting their study, the researchers arrived to the conclusion that mass media can influence the public opinion and they may be quite close to the real life. However, the researchers point out that mass media pay more attention to economic issues in time of economic crises rather than in time of economic growth. In other words, mass media are more concerned with negative trends in economy, while they are less concerned with positive trends in the economic development. As a result, the media coverage of economic issues turn out to be disproportional and more focused on negative than positive issues.

References:

Goidel, Robert K. and Ronald E. Langley. “Media Coverage of the Economy and Aggregate Economic Evaluations: Uncovering Evidence of Indirect Media Effects” Political Research Quarterly, 48(2), Jun., 1995, pp. 313-328.

Part 7

The mass media coverage of economic issues can potentially influence the public perception of the economic effectiveness of policies conducted by the political forces that are in power at the moment. In this respect, the study conducted by Hetherington entitled “The Media's Role in Forming Voters' National Economic Evaluations in 1992” is particularly noteworthy because the author attempts to reveal the extent to which the mass media coverage of economic issues and policies can influence the political behavior of voters. Remarkably, the author compares the mass media coverage of economic issues and trends to actual development of economy and objective, independent analysis of economic trends, which are not covered by media. At this point, the author refers to the analysis of the Presidential elections in the US in 1992. Eventually, the author concludes that the mass media coverage of economic issues can influence consistently the public perception of the image of politicians and their economic policies. Namely, the author argues that the economic situation has started to improve by the end of Bush’s presidency. Nevertheless, the negative public image of economic policies conducted by Bush, which had been shaped by media before the elections, led to the failure of Bush to win the Presidential elections. In such a way, the author argues that the media coverage of economic issues can be subjective and inadequate in regard to actual economic situation, but it is mass media that define the public opinion about economic policies of political forces that are in power.

References:

Hetherington, Marc J. “The Media's Role in Forming Voters' National Economic Evaluations in 1992.” American Journal of Political Science, 40(2), May, 1996, pp. 372-395

Part 8

Traditionally, violence in mass media is considered to be an important factor that influences the behavior of people. At the same time, this issue needs detailed and profound research because any attempt to regulate media inevitably raises the debates concerning the right to freedom of press. In this regard, it is possible to refer to the study conducted by Phillips “The Impact of Mass Media Violence on U.S. Homicides”, in which the author focuses on the research of interdependence between the violence in mass media and violent behavior of Americans in the real life. The author focused on the research of violence in media, specifically on heavyweight fights and their impact on the behavior of Americans. The author analyzed statistical information comparing the coverage of heavyweight fights in media and the change in homicide rates in the US. On conducting his research, the author arrived to the conclusion that there is some interdependence between the violence in media and violent and aggressive behavior of Americans. To put it more precisely, the author revealed the fact that the rise of the coverage of heavyweight fights in media increased the homicide rate in the US. However, the author argues that such outcomes of the study are not absolutely certain and reliable. Anyway, he points out that some Americans are likely to be affected by the violence in media and change their behavior for more aggressive and violent, but this conclusion cannot be applied to all Americans and other factors should be taken into consideration to explain the violent behavior of Americans.

References:

Phillips, David P. “The Impact of Mass Media Violence on U.S. Homicides.” American Sociological Review, 48(4), Aug., 1983, pp. 560-568