Week 2: Assignment

ThursdayOct 12 at 6:06am

Manage Discussion Entry

The two most prevalent media platforms are television and the internet. People have depended on television strongly since JFK/Nixon era. Print media, through newspapers, magazines, and handbills passed out at the grassroots level, would find themselves edged out as the go-to sources for election information. Television increased the size of its piece of the pie of influence with the advent of cable television. Suddenly news was available 24 hours a day.

The Internet is like television to the tenth power, mainly due to accessibility and in large part to the interactive component. Any candidate that does not take advantage of this in an election wastes a huge opportunity. Since the first Obama campaign and in the elections since then, the parties have leveraged social media successfully. As pointed out in our text, people are fed selective information according to their own likes on social media. (Graber & Dunnaway, 2015). This is bound to create a cocoon-effect, leading to a less balanced information unless people seek more.

Anyone can post anything online. This is not true of television news where they have producers, directors, writers, and lawyers weighing in on what is broadcast. Newspapers have equal hoops to jump through. The accessibility of the internet gives the average citizen a voice and provides a balance. The fact that the internet is an open platform makes it easier to find mistakes in reporting quickly. This is good in general, but one must sift through lots of junk too. There is a price to pay.

Print media is still important to those who want details and are willing to put in the effort. Print media and traditional broadcast media are still valid because of there yet those who do not embrace the internet. This will change, I think, as the population evolves. But for now, according to information in our discussion prompt, 55% of adults went online for election information this last time around. That leaves 45% still resistant, nearly half.

Just a side note, a tweet is only as good or bad as the content thereof.

Graber, D. A., & Dunnaway, J. (2015). Mass Media and American Politics (Ninth ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.