The Relationships Between Politicians and Media Essay

The Relationships Between Politicians and Media - Essay ExampleThis research will begin with the statement that data-based research has long confirmed that for most people the bundle media are the major firsts of information nearly world events and about goernmental affairs. However, despite televisions growing importance as a source of information, symmetrical readers of newspapers continue to attach a great deal of weight to the print medium. Non-readers show a great dependence on television for policy-making information. Both tables conceal significant variations in responses between readers of quality and tabloid newspapers the originator remain wedded to their preferred medium, using it much more extensively as a message of surveying the world in depth, whilst readers of tabloid newspapers rely more heavily on television and alike tend to attach greater credibility to it as a source of news. These tables confirm the centrality of the media for the public. They are the intend by which the public acquires information about the world and, more importantly, through which the public derives its knowledge and perceptions of electric current political and social problems and of the means to their resolution. Traditionally, the study of politics and its relationship to the mass media has focused on institutions and bona fide political actors. Governments, politicians, departments or voting patterns have usually been the political scientists fodder. When married to an interest in the mass media, the issuance has been an over-concentration on institutions, structures, and the political lite.lite. While this remains of importance, this sort of approach overlooks the part the mass media play in generating public perceptions of political and social change as well as of policies and decision-making processes. The political significance of the political goes far beyond such questions as who controls the media? and how do people get elected? even concerns ov er bias and objectivity are too narrow to take in the full significance of the political Politics and the political infuse all aspects of our lives, our attitudes, and our behaviour. And because the mass media are at the heart of the processes of communication through which problems and their resolution are frame and discussed, they deserve extensive analysis. 5 THE NATURE OF MEDIATED KNOWLEDGE This broad approach to the political significance of the mass media is reflected in many contemporary writings. These emphasize the medias role in providing information-both images and texts-which forms the basis of public perceptions and responses to events. The media provide, in Blumlers words, the informational mental synthesis blocks to structure views of the world Table 1.3 Regular readers of Telegraph, Times, Guardian or FT Express or send Mirror, Sun, or Star Main source of news % % % television 32 62 65 newspapers 57 28 24 radio 25 14 14 Table 1.4 Regular readers of Telegraph, Times , Guardian or FT Express or Mail Mirror, Sun or Star Most believable source of news % % % television 30 59 66 newspapers 35 13 11 radio 20 16 13 from which may stem a range of actions. 6 Although these informational building blocks combine with a multiplicity of political and social factors to direct an individuals action, they determine the limits of our knowledge and of our perceptions of events and