Role Of Mass Media In Politics Essay

, Research Paper

Role Of Mass Media In Politics

In this discussion I call upon two movies as examples and evidence to

examine the role of mass media in politics. The two movies I will use for this

basis are The Candidate and All the Presidents Men.

Today, the art of governing a society seems to be much dictated or

prescribed by what the assemblage of the citizens of the United States say or

express to the mass media.

Thus, the government and politicians listening to and acting upon our

very wishes and desires. Or looking at this in another point of view; The mass

media relays to us as citizens the news or information about the administration

as conveyed or set forth by the administration as the “truth”. I believe that

the majority of the populace would tend to agree more with this second point of

view. The government or politicians of this great country try to appear to have

the semblance of truth or honesty in all of it’s endeavors.

And sometimes it does. However, on occasion within its own discretion,

the media investigates and tries to inform us by the televised news, major

newspapers and (large) radio personalities of cover-ups, conspiracies and or

wrong doings by our so-called leaders. Are we always told the truth by the mass

media. By the government. By the media speaking for or as directed by the

government. Or has the line between truth and lies been so badly blurred in

politics that we will never know what truly goes on in our political system.

The two movies examined, both play in some way on the function of the

mass media in American politics. We can see how much and how heavily we rely on

our televisions, radio shows, newspapers and now the Internet to communicate to

us the latest breaking news, political campaigns, slandering, commercials for

politicians running for office, debates, presidential addresses, cover-ups,

conspiracies and information that can take down an entire administration. This

shows that in all the different aspects of politics that the media plays a very

wide, varied and important role in letting us know what is going on.

The Candidate tries to unveil how a political campaign for office is run.

It tells the story of how an upstart uses the media and available resources in

its televised form to try and convey his message and his beliefs to the mass

public on whom he will rely upon to vote and hopefully elect him into office.

As we see though, the people or elite’s who run the campaign, take what the

candidate says and dilute it, dissect it, take it out of context and rearrange

his words into what they think the public wants to hear. We see how elitist

decisions are made as to what we get to see, hear and digest on our own. How do

they know what we want to hear. (Maybe they would if they would go door to

door and take a legitimate poll on the issues and concerns that are the most

important to us today.) What we do get to see in this example though, is a

behind the scenes look at the candidate and how he differs from his real self

personae when not in the public eye and how he is skeptical at a lot of the ways

a political campaign is run.

All the President’s Men shares the same theme and ideas as The Candidate

in that the main link between the people and the politicians/administration is

the media. This story is based upon how the undying determination of a team of

two reporters for a major newspaper, The Washington Post go at all costs to get

the truth out in their investigation and uncovering of a major conspiracy in the

administration. The reporters fact finding was hindered quite a few times along

the way to discover and disclose the truth to the public, but their willingness

and determination to do so brought out the facts and allegations that crippled

the White House. This example shows how the media does play a crucial role in

bringing out the truths and realities of what really goes on behind the closed

doors of the politicians who run our country.

There are some things that separate these two movies in regard to the

role of the media in politics. They differ in the angles at which they

approach their respective story. For instance in The Candidate, television is

the main means of communication to the public for the fresh upstart and the

incumbent running for the office of senator. Television can give almost exactly

what the two candidates want. Short spots in which they convey their beliefs,

ideas and towards the end, slander for one another. Television provides to us

up to the minute, flashy, visual, auditory messages and it has proven to be a

good way in which to get a certain point across in a specified amount of time,

for a price. The political role of the media has expanded immensely by means of

the television set, in what media theorist Marshal Mcluhan called our planet

“the global village.”1

I

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