Week 2 Discussion: Connection Between Our Culture and the News Media
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Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:
- Textbook: Chapter 5, 6
- Lesson: Read this Week’s Lesson which is located in the Modules tab
- Initial Post: minimum of 2 scholarly sources (must include your textbook for one of the sources). Follow-Up Post: minimum of 1 scholarly source for your Follow-Up Post.
Initial Post Instructions
For the initial post, respond to one of the following options, and label the beginning of your post indicating either Option 1 or Option 2:
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.
Student Example
Option 2
As we learned in week two’s lesson, news media has a “huge impact of public opinion and political behavior” (Chamberlain, 2022). I do agree with the experts and feel that the news can be biased. This is an issue because the people deserve to get the story without things being left out or without options. When the news does this it is called sharing politics. They leave out parts or explain something in a way that leans towards their political side. Everyone had their own options and working at a certain station could have their own politics involved as to what view they want to have on a piece of news. Mastrine gives a great example, “Our team noted that NPR does not give lots of coverage to current hot-button issues frequently seen in coverage on the Right — such as free speech, abortion, or the Second Amendment — and in that same vein, does not give lots of coverage to hot-button issues often covered by the Left — economic inequality, climate change, or social justice initiatives” (year page). This example is what I feel we all already know. Different media outlets have different approaches and views on how they feel about things. I think the news should be given with as many facts as possible leaving out opinions or have two opposing views review the same story. A lot of times when I am interested in a story, I go to different news outlets to hear different views on the same topic. I do not know about the restrictions that can be enforced with news, but I think people generally know which station has what political view, so they listen or watch the stations they agree with more. To have a well-rounded knowledge base when something interests me, I look at the story from as many different sources that I can find to help get a rounded view. I am then able to decipher through the opinions and facts to have my own view. It would be nice to have a news station that reports the same story with different views back-to-back so you do not have to rewatch the same news story just to try and figure out fact verse opinion and make sure nothing was left out of one news story compared to the other.
References
Chamberlain University (2022). POLI330 Political Science: Week 2 lesson. Downers Grove, IL: Online Publication.
Mastrine, J. (2019). Taking a Closer Look at the NPR News Media Bias Rating. AllSides Perspectives Blog. https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fblogs-podcasts-websites%2Ftaking-closer-look-at-npr-news-media-bias-rating%2Fdocview%2F2260147142%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D147674
