The Problem of Bias in the Mass Media
Throughout our society media can be portrayed many ways. Media sources such as The News, Entertainment, Print Media, Television, and the internet all share news in different ways. The first amendment allows freedom of press thus allowing media to get heavily into politics, however The FCC ( Federal Communications Commision) have power over all the media, they control who can operate a news outlet. Also, some politcal parties buy/own news outlets, this means that when covering stories they tend to lean toward the left or right view. One left news source is USA Today. While one right news source is Fox News.
Also, donors donate to the media in order to get on their good side. For example say a candidate is running for an election they would probably want to donate to a news source so that the news could put a good word out for the candidate. Hosts of said biased media outlets tend to spin news stories in order to either make their favored politician/view more desireable than the opposite view or politician. Stories are no longer meant to inform viewers objectively but to persuade and in a sense brainwash the masses to their desired agenda. This can be problematic in the sense that the news no longer works to provide the public with knowledge of current affairs, at it’s core root it willingfully lies to coencide with party goals and agendas. But these news outlets do not work alone, they must give their support to a side and in return a log rolling scheme takes place.
By logrolling I mean tit for tat, scratch my back and I scratch yours, do something for me and I’ll do something for you. These news outlets donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to political candidates or parties and cover them in a light hearted way in order to receive some sort of value in return. It could be things such as an approving opinion from high ranking politicians or an interview on their show by a popular political figure.
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The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) investigated individuals identifying as media journalists and based on the data found that over 95 percent of those journalists leaned to Democratic support with under 7 percent favoring Republicans. This serves as the catalyst for a potentially damning process that could jeoporadize our country’s democratic system as it is no longer an election based on merit or qualifications but one of who is endorsed and portrayed angelic by the popular media.
The damage the news media causes to election cycles and public support of candidates is coupled by that of bias polling and leading questions that try to create an objective view of the poll participant’s subjective view. Subjectivity and opinion are not compatible with questions created to have a desired objective truth or answer, by that point it is no longer an opinion or true poll. The twist of questions by mainstream media and news set a candidate up for failure depending on which side is favored, it then has the ability to sway poll numbers and could affect the percent of citizens thought to be in support of a candidate.
An example could be that of the 2016 presidential election in which polls predicted Clinton would demolish Trump in both the electoral college and by the popular vote. Polls by MSNBC and CNN predicted upwards of 90 percent that Presidential Elect Clinton would clutch voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin with ease. All three states have voted Democrat in the last 20 years and was believed to be the blue wall to stop Donald Trump if Clinton lost a few of the battleground states. But as voting took place, all three of the states flipped to being pro Republican after two decades, shocking the mainstream media and poll outlets.
Top notch, recognized pollsters such as Nate Silver of the 538 polling website was very pro Clinton/Democrat leading up to the election and having the polls at 72% support for Clinton/winning of the presidency. By the end of that same night statistics flipped to Trump with 84% chance of taking the presidency. The overwhelming bias of polls by framing questions with a personal belief such as.”Who is worse, Trump or Hitler?”, maybe even a question such as,”How long do you think it will take for Trump to ruin the economy?”. These polling questions distort the truth of the percent of citizens that support said candidates, thus influencing the election cycle and disrupting the true democratic process. Voters decisions could be swayed, more likely it would translate to voters of the unfavored party not participating because their view of political efficacy and significance of their vote is irrelevant due to these overwhelmingly biased poll percentages.
Our country’s democratic system is that of a two-party system, meaning two main parties compete for seats in the senate/house and for the presidency as well. One of the the two major parties in the United States is the Democratic Party, representing the rather modern liberal views of citizens. Their platform covers a wide range of things but is central to increasing taxes in order to fund more social programs in order to help the lower classes of the socioeconomic spectrum. It also seeks to fight for civil rights and to end systematic racism that is allegedly inherently mixed in with some of our fundamental institutions. Their fiscal policy is focused on progressive taxes which tax upperclass citizens at a higher rate than the middle and lower classes in order to fund progressive socialist policies.
Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are things Democrats believe encourage positive freedoms and that the state is obligated to provide these things for citizens. They heavily oppose decreasing of such programs and the majority of spending during the fiscal year goes towards policies like these while also decreasing the amount of military spending. The party calls for a universal healthcare system for all or a program that is state sponsored and aimed at the lower bread winners of society. They are also very pro-environment programs, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, focusing on moving away from fossil fuels.
Democrats prefer renewable energy sources such as wind or steam powered, heavily opposing fossil fuel useage and corporations benefiting from it. With social issues they are very progressive, sort of like having the view of “let people be themselves and do what they want”, the liberal mantra serves as the foundation of party views. They have a major say in social issues like race in which they seek equality for everyone and to remove inherently racially discriminatory institutions and policies from society.
The problem Democrats run into is that they no longer seek equality of opportunity but equality of outcomes which is absurd. The moment one group does better than the other it is assumed that because one has done better or earned more than it was earned by cheating and discrimination. It is a rather slippery slope of a view that becomes problematic as it spins this view of wanting equality of all to demonizing a group by saying they don’t deserve what they earned and are evil. It ends up being a perversion of itself that divides society instead of uniting it and making our lives better. Views on things such as immigration are a new addition to the contemporary platform of the modern Democrat Party. They strongly believe in free flowing immigration with less strict restrictions, loosening the rules so the influx of immigration is decided solely by who wants to immigrate or not.
The Republican Party is the total antithesis to that of what modern Democrats base their platform on. Republicans hold the conservative views of the country such as lowering taxes and shrinking the power of the federal government. The lowering of taxes gives corporations both big and small to reinvest saved money from tax cuts back into their businesses sparking ingenuity and production. With high taxes business owners and citizens tend to hold onto money and not spend or reinvest which can lead to a recession or a depression.
Our economy depends on the spending and innovation within society to create new products and for consumers to spend to turn the gears of our economy. The heavy taxing of citizens to support social programs is something Republicans oppose, believing the free market will produce the services needed by society if you just let it work on itself with no government intervention. When it comes to social views, their views are conservative and moderate to say the least but seen as controversial by leftists. They are deeply routed in Christianity, classic societal conservative norms, and working hard not relying on government support, They appose things such as gay marriage and abortion due to their deep ties to Christianity.
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The Problem of Bias in the Mass Media. (2023, Feb 10). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-problem-of-bias-in-the-mass-media/
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