Audrey DiBuono

June 19th-26th

CM384

Response Essay Week Five/ Reflection

Media and Politics

Power seems to be word that dominates and rules the world that we live in today. In the

United States of America, especially, society is riddled with power struggles and monopolies of

power among each layer of our culture today creating a large divide among citizens- there is the

powerful and those who are often left to feel powerless. In this world of immense power, abuse

of it and a lack of diversity of that power, democracy and politics and media become skewed and

often stray very far from the truth. Political coverage changes from hard hitting facts like voter

profiles, presidential agendas, and election coverage, (Campbell, 2014, p.112) to a complicated

and often volatile environment of alternative facts and is overtaken by the idea and opinions of

the powerful, highlighting the unequal dispersion of power in our modern society today. While

looking at politics in the media it is important to understand, who brandishes power, how mass

media produce cultural meanings, how these meanings circulate in our cultures stories...and how

we react to these as key issues that affect the quality of democracy, (Campbell, 2014, p. 107) in

order to make informed decisions and also so that we, as citizens, can understand how power and

media affect, and also in a way, diminish and demean democracy and politics.

Democracy and politics begin to lose their dignity when the truth is no longer pertinent to

the political narrative that mass media outlets are telling the public, and in a society like the one

we live in today where political leaders actually use the term alternative facts it is clear to see

which way democracy is and can be headed in. The media and politics go hand in hand, with
media being almost the nervous system (Brave New Films, 2014) of democracy. When the

media is not up to par, the democracy itself cannot function properly. As a society we largely

depend on the news media to, provide information that helps us make decisions about our

political leaders, (Campbell, 2014, p. 104) and our media right now is in a state of chaos. Media

has taken a turn and has shown, a decline in the kind of journalism and news media that

promoted fact-gathering, documentation, and expertise, (Campbell, 2014, p. 128) and when we

still rely on the media to give us those facts to help form important decisions it is crucial to know

that mass medias interest is not always, if ever, in our favor but in favor of money and power

and those who already obtain those two things. While media lacks on its responsibility of telling

the truth we citizens still need to carry out our civic responsibility to navigate through this

tumultuous environment, as citizens, our responsibility lies in understanding this process in

order to resist, limit, alter, and challenge stories that mislead us and misrepresent what is

actually going on, (Campbell, 2014, p. 111). We are being misled because television stations

get to choose what is being shown to the public and also choose what is not being shown,

Mainstream news media are most often in their comfort zone not necessarily advancing liberal

agenda items but rather converting events and issues into simpler narrative conflicts that pit good

against evil, (Campbell, 2014, p. 113). A good example of this would be looking at past

elections, especially the most recent. As Nicholas Kristof quotes, the president of CBS

[Trump] may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS, (Kristof, 2016). Ratings

and funding is the priority of the primetime media stations, not fair, and truthful democracy, the

dominant messages that circulate in mainstream news media typically favor the interests of more

powerful voices and agendas in society simply because those in power have a much easier time

being heard and getting their stories out, (Campbell, 2014, p. 111). When powerful people are
the only ones being heard, regression, repression, and lack of representation and diversity all

begin to cloud society.

With only one voice being the dominant one in a conversation that holds so much power

itself, it is important to find other voices. Being able to be misled and misinformed by media is

scary especially in an age where media plays such a large role in the young adult and youth

populations, mass media and popular culture play a much larger social, political, and economic

role in everyday life, (Campbell, 2014, p. 119). Television is not the only place where news is

no longer news, and where one voice is more dominant over the other, there are dozens of social

media websites where opinions and fake stories get mistaken and believed to be real news as

well. This fact alone is very dangerous in a world full of online users, click bait and fake news.

An article, for example, about former president Barack Obama banning the pledge of

allegiance went viral with over two million shares and interactions, and an article about Pope

Francis endorsing trump went viral with around one million shares (Kristof, 2016). Both stories

were not filled with facts and held information that was completely fabricated, and disproven

by factcheck.org. The titles of the articles like the ones mentioned alert people and scare them

into thinking they might be true, but more often than not that is as far as people will research is

by reading the title and assuming what the article contains is true. In most cases, as Matt Masur

points out, posts dont appear to be far-fetched until you dig into the details. The big problem

with that People dont dig for the details, (Masur, 2016) we need to dig for details in order to

bring dignity to democracy. We accepts things to be true if they look creditable enough, but as

citizens we must be able to recognize that this is not fact, and that one voice is being heard over

the rest. With this we also must do our own research and challenge the story that we are being

told.
 While it is easy to feel powerless with everything that is going on in the world and media

today, we as citizens actually hold a lot of power when we realize that we do. The first thing to

do is become informed and to do your own research outside of the mainstream news and take it

for what it really is, all news is biased. News after all, is primarily selective storytelling, not

objective science, (Campbell, 2014, p. 112) once that is better understood than more people will

realize the need to find the science behind the things that are happening and form opinions from

that information rather than off of the opinions of others that are in media. Another way to bring

dignity back into politics, democracy and the media is to listen to and learn about other

viewpoints as well once you have formed your own opinion. In the world we live in today it is so

easy to stay inside of a bubble of opinions and information that only agrees with and supports

your own ideas. Looking at media directly, we are picking sidesmedia now make money by

targeting and catering to specialized interests, (Campbell, 2014, p. 128) this only creates a

divide. Democracy does not work if everyone is only stuck on their own personal opinions rather

than being able to listen to, respect and take into consideration other viewpoints. As a society,

[we] are exposing [ourselves] to ideas and views [we] already hold, (Campbell, 2014, p. 129)

when we really should be doing the exact opposite. This happens when listening to and choosing

the media that we are becoming immersed in we are both subconsciously and willingly aligning

with the stories that we can relate to in media and news rather than hearing bipartisan and

unbiased facts. In media today, policy positions tend to get less attention than personality and

tactics in the current presidential campaign; and the democratizing influence of the Internet is

working to banish expertise altogether, making everyone an authority on everything, (Kakutani,

2008) going off of this idea of Susan Jacoby this age when everyone believes they are the experts

and they have an authority on everything it closes the door to logical thinking, we are not all
experts on politics and world affairs this much is certain, but to not challenge and question those

who are considered to be experts is only harmful to us the people. Everyone has opinions and

those opinions are important, useful, and powerful when used and expressed correctly in a

society that is supposed to be, and puts so much glory on, a democracy. Opinions when formed

due to logical thinking and knowledge are what makes democracy and media thrive, not opinions

that are formed by blindly believing fact less stories. The power is in the people when the people

are ready to become educated on it and are ready to fight for it. It is very hard to believe that we

have any power at all when looking at events like cross checking, (Palast, 2016) or the ability

to eliminate votes due to mass voter fraud, but it is important to not lose hope. Looking at the

Battle of Seattle as well and all of the protests that are very similar in our world today, it is hard

and it is scary to challenge the ideas the government and media are feeding us but it is scarier to

just sit back and let it do whatever it wants like what the World Trade Organization was doing

during the time of the Seattle protests (Deep Dish TV, 1999). People became educated on what

was happening and challenged what was being heard and shown (and not shown to the general

public) and from this sparked a small sort of revolution and the idea that people can have the

power. This has been happening for years, from the protests in the 60s for civil rights and to the

Black Lives Matter protests today and bringing light to injustice and the corruption in our

government and media is in my opinion one of the most important and crucial ways to bring

dignity back to democracy today.

In order to have a dignified and functioning democracy the media needs to be both of

these things as well. The media will not change itself and will just continue functioning for profit

unless we the people change as well. The people are what can change what is happening to our

society today by educating themselves, challenging what we are hearing, and becoming an active
part of the democracy rather than a passive and misinformed silent voter. We as citizens, need to

be able to understand how power affects each of us individually, those who are different from us

and our society as a whole. We need to challenge the alternative facts respect each others

opinions, and dissect the stories that we are being told in order to find the truth and find or create

a dignified democracy.
 Bibliography
Brave New Films. (2014, December 22). Retrieved June 22, 2017, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P74oHhU5MDk
Campbell, R., Jensen, J., Gomery, D., Fabos, B., & Frechette, J. D. (2014). Media in society. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martins.
Deep Dish TV (Producer). (1999). Showdown in Seattle: Five Days That Shook the WTO [Video
file]
Kakutani, M. (2008, March 10). Why Knowledge and Logic Are Political Dirty Words. Retrieved
June 24, 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/books/11kaku.html?_r=0
Kristof, N. (2016, December 31). Opinion | Lessons From the Media's Failures in Its Year With
Trump. Retrieved June 23, 2017, from
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/opinion/sunday/lessons-from-the-medias-failures-in-its-
year-with-trump.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-
heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-regionion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-
col-left-region&_r=1
Masur, M. (2016, November 15). Bernie Sanders Could Replace President Trump With Little-
Known Loophole. Retrieved June 23, 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-
sanders-could-replace-president-trump-with-little_us_5829f25fe4b02b1f5257a6b7
Palast, G. (2016, November 13). FOCUS: The Election Was Stolen - Here's How. Retrieved June 24,
2017, from http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/40246-focus-the-election-was-
stolen-heres-how
Reflection

During my time in this course I feel like I have become more confident in my ability to

fully understand what it is that I am watching or reading. I have become more aware that

understanding is not just about hearing or reading something, it is about listening to what I am

being told and wondering whether or not I should challenge those ideas. I feel like in todays

society it is really easy to feel powerless, and hopeless when there is so much negativity in our

media but this class has really taught me how to look for the positives and how to recognize that

the issues that we are facing today are able to be solved and are not causeless. It has really

opened my eyes to see that as a society we have a system that is repressing many members while

promoting and rewarding others. I have also learned during this course how much media actually

is involved in our society and how it can be both a positive and negative influence on our society

but it all depends on the voices that are in control and what we as citizens do with the

information that we are given. I have found that I really enjoy discovering the positives and

uncovering the negatives because it really makes me wonder why this is happening and what I

can do, or we can do as a society to make sure we are educated enough on this growing medium.

I also really enjoyed this course on another level because it taught me how to go beyond my

consciousness and question everyday things that I never found a problem with before, and I feel

like that is a very valuable and important lesson that can be applied well beyond just media.