Preview

Communication Effects on Daily Life

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2151 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Communication Effects on Daily Life
#4: Identify one or two direct ways in which mass media and culture impacted the 2012 national election results.
Mass media had a profound impact on the 2012 presidential election. Mass media is one big community that includes a mainstream of media. Some of the biggest components of the mainstream are television, radios, and the Internet. Mass media is one of the most powerful tools used during national elections because it helps influence open-minded voters. Culture also heavily impacts the national election results because the United States is slowly becoming a multicultural society. Racial diversity is something that is so prominent in our lives and therefore it plays a key role in the political system.
One direct way in which mass media impacted the election was through attitude influence. Romney and Obama were aware that attitudes could be influenced through the media and both candidates spent over 1 billion dollars during their campaigns, setting a new record. Throughout years and months leading up to the election, the campaigns used mass media to spread political support or disdain to thousands of potential voters. The television is one of the most important technologies that have impacted the election. It has remained ahead of other media for the past 8 years. Attitude influence can be shaped through political debates that are shown on TV. Millions of viewers watch television and tune in during the debates. The television helps reinforce previous attitudes and influence voters who are independent. The Internet is one other major key that impacted the election results. A decade ago, just one-in-fifty Americans got the news about a candidate from the Internet. Today, one-in-three Americans regularly get information about a candidate or the election online. These numbers show the candidates the importance of getting their message out to the public in order to gain more support.
Culture heavily impacted the presidential election as well. The tremendous

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    How do you think the media influences people's views on political ideas and events? How do you think the impact of the media has changed over time with the invention of television and the Internet? I believe they have a huge influence on people’s views on political ideas. Reason being, I feel…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The agenda setting function of mass media was hard at work throughout the 2012 presidential election. Many issues that were supported by the candidates worked on their behalf in gaining popularity in the polls through media outlets. But that was not always the case. Each political runner at one time or another experienced the repercussions of an inappropriate phrase or gesture that was recorded then made viral through social media with instant feedback from Americans followed by outpour of their opinions. Quite often, voter opinion was not favorable and the tides changed quickly for both parties on more than one issue.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The effect that the media has on voters can be extremely diverse. From entirely formulating an opinion to strengthening an existing one, the media has the ability to do both but not to every type of individual. In order to understand how various citizens are influenced by media messages, Philip Converse et al. (1966) separated voters into three distinct groups: those with the highest levels of political awareness and understanding, those with the lowest levels and those of moderate understanding. In alignment with this, Graber (1984) theorised that a voter’s predispositions are the vital determinant when examining how effectively the media’s messages can sway opinions. It is therefore voters’ prior knowledge and understanding of political happenings that formulates the foundation for their decisions and thus their naivety of such happenings that allows them to be swayed by media messages.…

    • 1365 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    THE influence of technology on the United States presidential elections is an on going debate among candidates and voters. "Has technology, such as the television, made elections more accessible, or has it moved candidates from pursuing issues, to pursuing image?" Television has pressured presidential candidates to succeed in the presentation of their image, instead of pursuing issues important to the well being of America, as a democratic nation.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Television has also had a positive impact on presidential elections because the people themselves have changed. In his article, “Has Television Reshaped Politics?” Source A states, “The people have once more become the nation, as they have not been since the days when we were small enough each to know his elected representative. As we grew, we lost this feeling of direct contact—television has now restored it.” (Campbell) The United States have grown exponentially in numbers since its beginning, and because of this one cannot truly know what came…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the whole cycle of the presidential election social media has had many effects on votes this year’s elections because of the portrayal of the candidates in and out of the campaign. Leading up to the presidential debate and election social media holds more negative effects for teenagers. Social media gives teenagers the opportunity to freely voice their opinion, but people vote based on opinions they hear on social media. We didn’t actually know the presidential candidates we go based on what appears on the media. Lastly, social media brings out the ugliness in people because arguments citizens don’t agree on lead to possible racism.…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    America has explored the field of technology and media, encountered new information and perspective, and exchanged information between the people of america and their presidential candidates in the american electoral system. Mass-media has completely changed the manor of American elections and revealed new ways to improve our voting system. We have encountered many new ways to spread information about elections and campaigns through media. We use mass-media to exchange information between presidential candidates and voters.. This has improved the way that we vote and allowed us more insight as to who we are voting for. Campaigns now have incredible reach with their viewers.…

    • 1744 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Presidential elections have always been a significant part of the “American Dream” - the freedom to vote for the candidates people wish to see as their president. Especially with the development of technology, access to politics has become easily available to all. Television specifically acts as a main source to view presidential elections. Although television has created an outlet for the public to connect with candidates on a personal level, it has also affected public ratings and negatively increased scrutiny of the candidates themselves rather than the important issues.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    If you are working with children and young people the term “individuals” covers children and young people and “key people” covers…

    • 2424 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The impact of Video- a picture or a video can only capture so much about a certain story…

    • 1909 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Usually, people enjoy watching TV to learn what are happening and being issued. Also, it helps people to know trending information. Especially, near the Election Day, mass media shows many contents including about elections. Candidates intensively begin election campaigns through diverse mass media. Some candidates directly introduce themselves in the open-air to the citizens and some candidates inform their political plans through interviews in TV programs, news. Because each candidate boast and stress only their own plans, people are likely to tend to be sided. Moreover, each broadcasting company is connected to one candidate in real press field, so each broadcaster…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The mass media communication industry is a multi-billion business. On average, American people watch about 1,550 hours of television, listen about 1,200 hours of radio and spend about 180 hours reading newspapers each year. In 1990s, as the innovation of computer and the Internet started to spread around the world, Internet usage has grown rapidly to play an important role on citizens’ public life. In 2012, the US citizens have spent almost as many hours online as they watch television. Given our media-saturated lives, it is likely to generate most of our attitudes a result of media consumption. Early empirical studies of mass media influence called “agenda setting”, done by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in the 1960s, claimed that “media are able to shape the contents of what the public thinks about specific political figures and events, as well as the importance they assign to specific types of politics and positions.” As a consequence of the awareness of media influence, during 2012 presidential campaign, President Obama and Mitt Romney spent about $2 billion on TV advertising, making it the most expensive election in the US history. Also, the amount of Internet advertising spent on presidential election has increased from $22 million to $159 million from 2008-2012, thereby ensuring most of the online users to see political ad popping up on every website we visit. With so much money spent on political campaign, we have to consider a question that how powerful are the media in actually shaping and changing our attitudes? To further examine the effect of media on public opinion of presidential election, two categories are considered regarding the influence of media: traditional mass media like TV, film, and political advertisement and Internet social media.…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The media has become a big player in political campaigns of parties and candidates. Media coverage of presidential campaigns is undoubtedly the biggest platform to reach voters.…

    • 2176 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    2. The internet has negatively impacted the voters and has widened the medias watchdog capacity. Due to internet, the public has more access to information. Today, more wrongdoings of candidates and presidents are reported in headlines. This is so voters are aware of who is leading the country. The internet can influence voters by how a candidate not only…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    2. Media has a major involvement with the US political process through its lobbying activities and campaign contributions.…

    • 1839 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays