- Advocates of Gun Control
Advocates of gun control make the argument that unregulated buying and selling of guns increase gun crimes. The anti- gun group offer scathing attacks to the National Rifle Association use loopholes found in the United States law to allow gun lovers to purchase guns at will. However, the anti gun advocates reason that forty-percent of all gun sales occur at gun shows, internet or through informal sales. Under such circumstances, gun buyers are not subjected to stringent background checks. Most of the gun control activities evoke the rampant shootings that have occurred in the United States particularly the Colorado shootings, the Arizona shootings and others (Media Watchdog Website, 2012).
- Groups Opposed to Abortion
The opponents of abortion argue that life begins at conception and that abortion is synonymous with murder and that abortion is the direct and intentional defiance of the commonly accepted idea of the sanctity of human life. By extension, no human should be allowed to take the life of another without punishment ( David, 2007).
- Advocates of Preservation of Natural Resources in America
Advocates of the preservation of natural resources in the United States present the argument of moral requirements of American people of the present generation to do all they can to ensure that the present natural resources are kept for the future generation. It is our utmost duty to ensure that we preserve God given resources so that our children and grand children have them for use.
Public policy refers to the government’s attempt to address a public concern by establishing laws, regulations, decisions or actions that attempt to shed light on the issue at hand. Public issues may range from education, foreign policy, health and social welfare. The process of formulating public policy includes agenda setting, formulation of options and implementation. It is important for regular citizens to be aware and in understanding of public issues because of the policies immediate impact on the citizen’s daily life. Perhaps a clear example is the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act presented by Barack Obama that requires that every American citizen must have access to public healthcare. A clear understanding of the issue would buffer citizens from manipulation by the politicians.
Should the news media strive to be objective and independent of partisan politics? Is this possible?
In my view, particularly from main sources of nationwide news channels such as CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and Fox News, there is considerable level of bias that distorts the meaning of the role of the media as being a watchdog to the public. For many of the channels, news and current affairs are tuned so that events, characters, and controversies are interpreted in a way that supports certain bases such as liberals or conservatives. The motives of the leading channels are primary to make money by solidifying the bases of the support. Fox News will give a hopeful analysis of the presidential elections to make sure that conservatives get a feel good and a realistic chance of winning the election. MSNBC will cover up events that make the liberals look bad. Fox plays the role of a watchdog to the extreme when the liberals are in power and so does the liberal media when the conservatives are in control. What results from this fiasco is the confusion on the part of the viewer and the apparent lack of information for the public. In the end, the absence of credible and independent journalism creates a situation where the official sources are lost and the extremists and biased opinions skewed to the taste of sympathizers take center stage as official news sources. This is damaging to the concept of free space. It becomes self-preservation of the freedom of speech and not the watchdog of the public. The American media has become bedrock of liars and moneymaking organizations with little or no interest of the public. This is an insult to the very idea of freedom of speech (Senevirtane, 2012).
Why do you think a president's popularity surges during and immediately following a national crisis? How do you feel George W. Bush responded to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America?
It must be remembered that at the time president Bush was delivering this speech, he had an approval rating of over 80 percent amongst the American public. It was therefore not magical, that the president exhibited a high level of confidence. During the speech, the president did not mince words when it came to highlighting some of the issues that he genuinely cared about. For example, the president used the name Afghanistan thirteen times, terrorist nineteen times, economy seven times, and Iraq and Iran received dual mentions. Perhaps the mentions were an illustration of the idea of emphasis on issues that were most important. During this time, security was paramount to the American society. The American society fall in love with the presidency at the time of crisis because of the need of togetherness.
References
Senevirtane, K. (2012). Crumbling of the Fourth Estate. Retrieved on October 16th, 2012. http://cyberjournalist.org.in/estate.html
Media Watchdog Website. ( 2012) The Media. Retrieved October 15th 2012, http://www.newswatch.org/
Trend David. The Myth of Media Violence: A Critical Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell,
2007. Print.
Shanahan, James, and Michael Morgan. Television and Its Viewers: Cultivation Theory and Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Print.
