The American system of political communication encompasses a broad range of mediums like the radio, newspapers, news magazines, network and cable television, and an increasing amount of independent Internet sources through the use of "blogs". The Politics of Illusion, network news overtakes all other sources as the nation's leading provider of political communication (56% of Americans rely primarily on TV for their information). For this reason, my focus will not be directed much on legislative reforms in the media industry and it will focus on an industry innovation that will intend to revolutionize and democratize the way that information is presented on news stations.
[...] This additionally discourages viewers from participating in the sphere of politics by portraying Washington as a complex place meant only for political elites that know how the system operates. As Iyengar and Kinder also highlight, the style of network news presentation only offers the public a pretense of authority that perpetuates an antidemocratic medium of political communication. Clearly, the networks are not doing a very good job of presenting the news in a manner that is educational, well-rounded, and still profitable. [...]
[...] In this way, they will have an incentive to sponsor those groups whom they believe will attract the most attention, and therefore the most hits. This may create competition though, and sponsors will only end up wanting to sponsor the group that is most likely to hold views in accordance with the majority of viewers. Thus, the sponsor likely needs to be the network itself. If NBC sponsored a bunch of interest groups, they could get exposure through those groups' webpages. Indexing argument: when there's conflict in government, the media [...]
[...] It stands on its own as an unassailable source of information that denies the viewer a chance to get involved with the communication process of political affairs. As Iyengar and Kinder highlight, the style of network news presentation offers the public a pretense of authority that only perpetuates an antidemocratic medium of political communication. The closest form of interaction we witness on network news is the use of online “quick polls,” where anchors may read off a poll question and refer to the online results later on in the broadcast. [...]
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