Essay 1- We don’t make news, we just report it, or do we?
It can be argued without any contradiction that the fast-changing media has always and will continue to set the national agenda on many issues, particularly in the political arena. Political polarization, media bias and being a people’s “watchdog” are some of the agenda that the media drives today (Doris & Dunaway p. 10). For the purpose of this essay, media bias, both conservative and liberal, and its impact are discussed from a political point of view.
A liberal story that suffices is the one done by the Daily Caller news website in 2010 (Huston, p.1). The “Journolist” was a secret website and private web message platform open to left-wing journalists who aimed at giving negative media coverage of President Barrack Obama reelection in 2008. It is interesting that the media failed to cover the story as they simply ignored it (Huston, p.1). Accordingly, liberal journalists failed to highlight this omission. It implies that the media has always been biased in their reporting.
In another conservative story, the media gave massive coverage to the “far-right” and ‘ultra-conservative” House GOP story in 2015. The 2015 House leadership contest was covered for weeks by reporters who left the journalistic ideals and made every effort to paint House Republicans as ideologues that are out of touch with the nation’s political mainstream (Rich, p.1). The main national television broadcast that includes CBS, NBC, and ABC gave almost two hours of coverage to the story as reporters gave over the 106 ideological labels to the Republican House members. The story and its coverage demonstrate that the media sets the agenda and decides whether one is liberal or conservative (Rich, p.1). At a time when political polarization in an election year has reached its climax, the media must understand that it can only sustain its role in society by reporting the truth, overcoming biases, and resisting the temptation to set the national agenda (Doris & Dunaway p. 10).
Essay 2- Wag the Dog: media and politics run amuck
The media is used in many ways by the political class and the elite in the society to distract the public from important national issues, albeit some touching on the character of presidential candidates. According to the comical film “Wag the Dog,” the media is an appendage of the political class who wish to take away people’s interest to other issues (Thanouli, p.3). In the film, a journalist is called to create a non-existent war with Albania after a sex scandal involving a teenage girl suffices a few days to elections.
The media is driven by its capitalistic tendencies aimed at roping in millions of dollars in campaign ads and have no issue formulating stories that look bigger, but their creations, as opposed to real stories with strong societal impact (Thanouli, p.4). Effectively, they manipulate public opinion and set an agenda to distract people from critical national matters. Therefore, what they offer becomes new reality for individuals. By using propaganda techniques of the media and advertisers, the elite attempts to manipulate people’s way of life and their political views (Barry, 1998).
The film satirizes society for not questioning the opinions expressed by the media. Society fails to examine the extent of the stories presented by the media, especially propaganda that is consumed and believed to be true. Society becomes a tool for the media to twist and formulate slogans aimed at protecting capitalistic tendencies of the elite and political class. For instance, the U.S 2016 Presidential Election Campaign between the two front runners is a reflection of media manipulation. The media has been dodgy on the characters of the two candidates; none wants to talk about Clinton’s email scandal or Trump’s out-of-cut remarks, particularly on immigration and minorities’ rights.
Works Cited
Doris, Graber and Dunaway, Johanna. Mass Media and American Politics, 9Th edition.
Chapter 4: Media and Politics in the Changing Media Landscape, Ebook. CQ Press, 2015.Print
Huston, Todd. The Top 50 Liberal Media Bias Examples, Western Journalism. Accessed on
Rich, Noyes. ‘Far Right,’ ‘Hardline’ and ‘Ultra-Conservative’ House GOP: Wednesday’s
Examples of Media Bias, November 2015. Accessed on 29th August 2016 from https://www.studentnewsdaily.com/example-of-media-bias/far-right-hardline-and-ultra-conservative-house-gop/ 2016. The Web.
Thanouli, Eleftheria. Wag the dog: a study on film and reality in the digital age. Bloomsbury
Publishing, 2015.
Wag the Dog. Dir. Barry Levinson. 1998.
