Media in American Politics, Research Paper Example

Media in United States of America is in form of talk radio, tabloids, news magazines, internet, MTV, etc. Media in American politics is commonly used in conveying news about politics to the citizens of America. Although there no any consensus that has already been achieved about any of some implications that are wide ranging surrounding the presence of the media. Media has substantially changed the way American journalists carry out their work, the way politics is carried out, and the way public relates to politicians, media, institutions as well as processes of politics.

According to john zaller media in American politics is a system in which politicians seek to gain politics by conducting politics through communication to the public while sitting in their offices. This communication is passed to the public through the mass media. According to zaller, this acts as a contrast to the traditional systems of party politics whereby in conventional definition political leaders sought to gain power by winning elections and governing members of their party teams.

Theory of American politics

The theory of media politics is as a result of an extension by Anthony Downs’ study. According to Down, in his book, An Economic Theory of Democracy 1957, Down indicates how party nomination competition for the major support of majority of the rational voters explains features of democracy in American politics. Although in that study, Down hardly mentions journalists as well as other press people nor does he give them independent role that they can play in politics. In the present study, Down creates a theoretical role that can only be played by journalists and this is within democratic system as well as tracing out some certain effects of this change. He argues that office-seeking politicians communicate with their voters at least within shortest time through a profession of journalism whose key interest is “voice” and getting some share of the audience.

Because both Downs’ theory and Zaller’s extension of media being rooted in basic political forces, it is quite easy to believe that Zaller’s theory of media politics applies to the news surrounding politics in the United States

According to Zaller’s account of media in American politics, he notes three principal actors that are involved in media politic; politicians, journalists and the public. For politicians, he states that their goal of media in political field is to use mass communication in order to mobilize the citizens and the public in general in supporting them so as to win elections. For journalists, Zaller indicates that, the main goal of media in politics is to produce leading news that attract large audiences because this will emphasize the “Independent along with Significant Voice of Journalists.” As well as selling out their media houses to the wider public .For citizens, their main goal is monitoring politics which may even be a hobby for many citizens as well as holding politicians accountable according to the basis of minimum effort. Zaller noted that the three goals act as a source of constant tension with politicians preferring journalists to act as neutral conveyors for their political statements as well as press releases. Journalists although don’t like to be politician’s handmaiden; they rather wish making a distinctive political journalistic contribution to their news. Zaller continues to argue that in politics, journalists value their journalistic voice as well as big audiences and they don’t care at all helping the politicians to get the news out to the public. Zaller adds that if majority of journalists could report the news just the way they were instructed by politicians or give the wider audience the political news only, then the profession journalism as well as mass communication would be very much behind as well as less lucrative profession for its concerned practitioners therefore recognized scarcely as to be a profession at all.

The public in their case needs to monitor politics so as to hold politicians accountable with minimal effort to whatever they had promised in their manifestos and because there are some politicians and journalists who vie for public attention in any competitive market, the citizens aspire to achieve the kind of political communication they feel is more satisfying. But not all entirely that politicians inherent much interest to control the content of all political news as well as in combination with concerned journalists. Journalists in this regard may be compared to the professors lecturing at research universities as well as colleges, who typically care about rating undergraduate students of their courses and other fields only because they have to do that as their responsibility but more, they care deeply about expressing voice through writing of research.

The media in American politics originates through different and several theoretical prisms. One of the major strands of this media research on the political field focuses on the values as well as conventions of journalists and their journalistic profession in covering political news (Baker, 2007, 126). The major routines by which press reporters and columnists organize their journalistic work (Baker, 2007, 126). Another major strand of media in political research mainly emphasizes on the symbolic side of American media politics, and especially the creation of political illusions, cartoons, images, and other articles that often masquerade as a public depiction of reality (Castells, 2009, 157). Without challenging the validity of insights, Zaller gives a corrective view that media in politics is just like any other forms of politics in United States, which is most driven fundamentally by political conflicts surrounding goals as well as self-interests of the key political participants. And, in the stronger corrective view to political research that exists, it maintains that media in politics is often driven by the self-interest of the larger public as much as by the conflict of other self-interests of other actors the study of media in politics emphasizes mostly on the importance of maintaining mass interests in determination of media content conflicting with American (Baker, 2007, 126).

In recent years, an there has been an increasing number of numerous scholars of political communication study that have tremendously claimed that non-traditional media forms contributed and even today play a significant role in American politics (Baum, 2002, 178) some scholars even called for broadening of the political and maintaining that deep research on politics and media should overcome the older or traditional distinctions that vary between news and politics content in the search for political results to the media.

Oriented stories are also found not only non political programs, but also traditional news programs that concentrated in politics. Indeed, studies on different aspects of politics and media including radio talk shows, primetime political television dramas and television talk shows and television entertainment talk shows have uncovered various political effects.

Works cited

Baker, Edwin. Media Concentration & Democracy: Why Ownership Matters. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Castells, Manuel. Communication Power. N Y: O U P, 2009.