The American system of political communication

Résumé du document

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.

Extraits

[...] Improving the presentation of the evening news will shift America's system of authoritative mass communication to a more deliberative interpersonal form of political communication. The greatest problem with America's news system today is that it offers absolutely minimal opportunity for interaction between the provider of information and the viewers at home. In this sense, meaningful deliberation of daily issues is left only for a small selection of officials and journalists whose job it is to tell the country exactly how to think about an event. [...]

[...] A moderator will introduce the facts of the issue and then allow each analyst 30 to 60 seconds to voice their take on the event. Similarly, for national news, discussion could feature a conservative Republican, a liberal Democrat, and a middle-of-the-road Independent. Business news would feature analysis from leading labor experts and free-market capitalists. An important aspect of such a program would be maintaining a sense of drama by selecting oppositional viewpoints. This is substantiated by Bennett's claim that “news deliberation on important problems occurs mainly when two evenly matched sides are in conflict and keep a story advancing over a substantial period of time” (p.8). [...]

[...] 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. [...]

[...] Bennett: News deliberation on important problems occurs mainly when two evenly matched sides are in conflict and keep a story advancing over a substantial period of time Outline: First define why you should focus on network news as opposed to other forms of political communication Network news does not offer any interactive deliberative forum with viewers. 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 lack of substantive information that be derived from these polls suggests that their mere purpose is to draw viewers onto the network's homepage, thereby emphasizing the importance of advertising pressures and economic incentives in the networks' use of interactive communication. Bloggers Instead of allowing bloggers to proliferate and capture an increasing share of information viewership, the networks should look for a way to incorporate bloggers into their presentations and co-opt this growing phenomenon of independent sources. Have the sponsors of the network broadcast also sponsor citizen interest groups. A broadcast will be organized so as to give time to various groups to voice their opinions over a given current issue. [...]