Respond: Week 7, Topic 2 – Media and Government (Req’d.)
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The most successful 20th-century White House administrations used the mass media for public relations to their advantage. Is that still the case in the 21st century?
Recall from your readings that public relations helps an organization or person look good, while public policy is part of the national debate on what the government should do with its limited resources (time, money and people) to make the country a better place for its citizens.
Recall also that both the executive and congressional branches of the federal government know that public opinion must be shaped through the media. Of course, there are many other players in public policy decisions — unions, associations, competing federal agencies, competing plans in Congress, special interest groups, individuals, state vs. national interests, etc.
Activity:
Before you join this conversation, please read pages 758-762 on political communication theories, and pages 31-33 and 407-409 on the agenda-setting and framing theories in the Encyclopedia of Communication Theory. You might also find it useful to review David Miller’s “Journalism, Public Relations, and Spin” in the Handbook of Journalism Studies.
(You can broaden your understanding of “the selling of politics” further by also reading pages 166-181 in Chapter 9 of Advertising as Culture. Finally, you may find it beneficial to refresh your understanding of the principles of advertising and propaganda in the Encyclopedia of Communication Theory.)
Then, pick one major issue before the U.S. Congress from this list:
- gun control
- health care insurance
- immigration
- climate change
Explore the issue in news and other resources on the Internet, then select one of the following activities to complete:
1. Describe some of the many different competing interest groups and individuals engaged in the debate. What media are they using and who are they trying to reach with each tactic? Provide examples of how they’ve used press releases, commercials, interviews, town hall meetings, social media, etc.
2. Describe the roles that the Internet and social media are playing in debate on the issue you selected. What about the “traditional” media (newspapers, news magazines, broadcast TV news networks, cable news and radio)?
This is not meant to be a discussion of who is “right” or “wrong” on these issues. Your objective here is to learn about the complex relationship that the media and government have in the development of public policy — how political communication has worked in the past and how the internet and social media are changing it today. Apply your media literacy skills to understanding the media forces behind our semiotic democracy.
Please post your initial response to this prompt by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday; respond to the initial posts of at least two other students by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday.
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