Our Culture and the News Media (ANSWERED)

QUESTION

Option 1: The framers of the Constitution were concerned that everyday citizens would not be able to understand or comprehend the makings of our government. They felt that everyday citizens were uninformed and did not care what was going on in our government. Even today we see where citizens are interested in government affairs seemingly only if our country is in turmoil such as unemployment, recessions, civil unrest, etc. Do you agree with this assessment? Are we uninformed? Do we wait till a crisis happens to voice our opinions?

Option 2: Many experts see the media as biased and more like infotainment. In fact, many people have turned to social networks as an outlet for news instead of CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN and other news stations. Do you see this as an issue? Do you see the news as biased or unbiased? Should there be more restrictions on the news stations?

Be sure to make connections between your ideas and conclusions and the research, concepts, terms, and theory we are discussing this week.

ANSWER

Option 1

I agree with the statement that citizens are often uninformed about politics and they wait for a crisis to occur for them to start raising concerns. Studies have shown that citizens are often passionate and well-meaning about government affairs but they know very little about politics. Most citizens do not have even the most basic knowledge about the government. More knowledgeable people often ridicule the public for its ignorance about the government. Some people suggest that those who are less informed about the government should completely stop getting involved in politics. However, the suggestion is not constructive. The best solution would be to educate people about government affairs.

Still, educating the public about government affairs to make them more competent voters is difficult because different people learn differently. People may find the information provided irrelevant and avoid considering it. Approaches to educate the public should focus on the information that the public considers relevant or important. The information should enable citizens to make competent political choices. Issues to be addressed in such education can range from climate change to gun licensing.

Addressing such issues early enough would enable citizens to make better choices and compel the government to address imminent problems on time (Lupia, 2016). Informed citizens can as such prevent crises that the government can prevent by being involved in politics and making competent decisions. Citizens who are uninformed wait for crises to happen and then complain on social media platforms or start holding demonstrations. Such moves are not effective in preventing crises since they are often too late.

Option 2

Turning to social media for daily news updates affects the way people perceive news. The credibility of the consumed news is also affected since anybody can post anything on social media since it is not regulated. In a democratic society, it is important that citizens find credible and trustworthy news. Trusted news sources are more effective in influencing people’s ability to make appropriate political choices and vote wisely. News stations are biased because they are influenced by politics and personal interests. The bias is one of the reasons that news consumers turn to social media.

However, social media is not a reliable source of news since it is not regulated. Most people perceive the credibility of the news negatively on social media especially when shared by a politician. Perception of the credibility is influenced by the consumer’s support for the politician. Users need to be more skeptical of the news that they find. Being skeptical about the news can help improving the credibility of the information shared. The credibility of the news received is important to the individual consumers and society (Karlsen & Aalberg, 2021).

News stations as well as other news sources need to be restricted by the governments to ensure that the public gets the right information. In addition to making people make poor political decisions, fake news can cause mass hysteria especially when it involved calamities and pandemics such as COVID-19. As such, the government has the responsibility of restricting the spread of fake news to protect citizens. Restricting sources of news may be challenging because it may be unclear as to if the news shared is fake or biased. Still, the government should make efforts to restrict the spread of fake news by creating institutions that oversee the credibility of the news shared.

References

Karlsen, R., & Aalberg, T. (2021). Social media and trust in news: An experimental study of the effect of Facebook on news story credibility. Digital Journalism, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1945938

Lupia, A. (2015). Uninformed: Why people seem to know so little about politics and what we can do about it. Oxford University Press.