The mass media in the United States has been charged with being anti-conservative. Succinctly, this means that the media will usually support the liberal party, which in this case is the Democratic Party. The republicans have been portrayed in a manner that suggests that the media does not support their policies and their candidates. In retaliation, most Republic Party candidates have always attacked the media and blamed it on influencing the electorate’s decision. The media is also noted as having a negative portrayal of Republic Party candidates and any scandal that is revealed concerning the members of the party is given much publicity while compared to those of the rival party (Ceron, 2015). Therefore, the mass media in the country is obviously biased against the republic party and will always favor the liberal Democratic Party.
There are many instances when the media has given much publicity to the ills of the Republic Party. In contrast, the party does not give much attention to the flaws of the democratic candidates. The last general elections were characterized by a myriad of attacks against republican candidate, Donald Trump. Although some of the accusations such as his tendency to sexually abuse women were in right, the amount of air time they received were clearly intended to inform the public about the inappropriateness of him becoming the president (Eberl, Boomgaarden, & Wagner, 2017). On the other hand, little attention was given to the email scandal involving Hilary Clinton and a significant number of Americans do not have an inkling of the importance and magnitude of the implications concerning scandal. Although the media was right in highlighting the shortcomings of Trump, it should have given the equal attention to the scandal that was associated with Clinton.
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In addition, it is important to note that media analysis of past presidents has always favored the democrats. For instance, Barrack Obama and Bill Clinton have received positive ratings from different media houses. However, George Bush received relatively negative publicity primarily because of the Afghanistan and Iraq war. What the media refrained from informing the public was that the war was to protect the national security and the country’s interest internationally. Terrorists had been very destructive and if the countries that harbored them were not put into check, there would have been chaos in many parts of the world. Nevertheless, the mass media always focus on the negative side of the republicans and the positive side of the democrats (Vraga & Tully, 2015). In this regard, it is evident that the mass media is biased against the republicans in favor of the democrats.
Since the media provides information to the public, the bias against republicans has been manifested in the voting tendencies of the electorate. For instance, the democrats have been the popular vote for many years and were it not for the colleges, Trump and Bush could not have become presidents. In addition, most of the people who are polled by independent institutions have always been against republican politicians (Barnidge & Rojas, 2014). For instance, most of the people are of the opinion that the democrats are more concerned about the welfare of the citizens while compared to the republicans. The people’s perspective of this issue is driven primarily by the mass media misinforming the public about the republicans.
The Current Relevance of Newspapers
The newspaper industry has been registering a sharp decline over the decades. Many factors have led to this although the most obvious is that technology has made the newspapers irrelevant as source of information. On this note, it is imperative to note that the world has become very fast paced and therefore people do not have the time to look for information in traditional means while there are faster modern ways of getting news. For instance, a person would prefer to watch the news on television rather than spend more than two hours reading a single source of information (Usher, 2015). Furthermore, the newspaper has been out-phased by various factors including the introduction of the internet and the gadgets that can access it remotely. On this note, technology and the social trends have played a crucial role in ensuring that the newspaper is rapidly becoming irrelevant as a source of information.
However, there are various strategies that newspaper firms can ensure that they remain relevant in the society. One of the ways is that they should come up with content that appeal to a wide variety of demographical groups (Nielsen, 2016). The newspapers have remained conservative and have not embraced the needed changes to accommodate different groups of people. Newspapers have only been providing the traditional sections of politics, commentaries, business, and sports. However, there are new forms of news that could attract even the younger generations. Although some newspapers have included aspects that could greatly attract the millennial, they have not put in the required effort that will enhance their attractiveness to the younger generations. On this note, improving the content and the way the information is delivered could salvage the newspaper, as most people would be attracted to reading them.
References
Barnidge, M., & Rojas, H. (2014). Hostile media perceptions, presumed media influence, and political talk: Expanding the corrective action hypothesis. International Journal of Public Opinion Research , 26 (2), 135-156.
Ceron, A. (2015). Internet, news, and political trust: The difference between social media and online media outlets. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication , 20 (5), 487-503.
Eberl, J. M., Boomgaarden, H. G., & Wagner, M. (2017). One bias fits all? Three types of media bias and their effects on party preferences. Communication Research , 44 (8), 1125-1148.
Nielsen, R. K. (2016). Folk Theories of Journalism: The many faces of a local newspaper. Journalism Studies , 17 (7), 840-848.
Usher, N. (2015). Newsroom moves and the newspaper crisis evaluated: space, place, and cultural meaning. Media, Culture & Society , 37 (7), 1005-1021.
Vraga, E. K., & Tully, M. (2015). Media literacy messages and hostile media perceptions: Processing of nonpartisan versus partisan political information. Mass Communication and Society , 18 (4), 422-448.
