Media production, content, and audience are located within certain historical and social contexts. Media and the society can be understood by exploring the relationship between these factors. Fox five news is one of the most powerful figures in the news business. Fox Five News is a leader in the cable news ratings and exerts significant power in American politics. Nonetheless, the news channels have been criticized for its conservative stance and support for the Republican Party. Just like other forms of media, fox five news’ production, content, and audience is situated within specific historical and social contexts.
Politics has a significant influence on media production. Media products are the outcomes of social processes of production that takes place within an institutional framework. As media ownership become increasingly concentrated, diversity in media content reduces. Media products frequently portray the views of its owners if media is owned by a few people. The concentration of media is caused by conglomeration and integration, which incorporates media companies into large corporations. Since leading media outlets are for-profit organizations, their decision-making is shaped by the need to be profitable.
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Fox Five News is considered a conservative news channels despite promoting itself as balanced and fair. Many viewers consider the news outlet as pro-Republican and anti-democratic. Fox five news was accused of cropping quotes from former president Obama and his vice president to make them out of context. During the first term of the former president, he appeared on all other leading news outlets except Fox News. Fox Five News is the central outlet of the conservative movement in the United States. It promotes, repeats, and amplifies conservative views. It has defended itself through slogans such as "we report, you decide," but in reality, it does the opposite. It aggressively denies accusations of being biased by claiming that it is the only unbiased news network in the country. It is a strategy that has worked well because viewers have come to accept fox's self-assessment.
Social reality also shapes media content. The ideological analysis of media offers a broader view of debates within society. It can help normalize or destabilize certain societal attitudes or behaviors. Since ideological analysis centers on a particular historical period or genre, news media draws the boundaries that outline legitimate opinion. Therefore, media represents the real world. However, media does not necessarily represent the real world accurately. Although mainstream media has historically attempted to portray social inequalities based on race, sexual orientation, or gender, it is not the case with contemporary media. Fox Five Newscasts itself as the protector of its audience because it has succeeded in creating a collective "us" versus a threatening "they." They see the liberal media as biased and the public should be protected from its influences. By preying on the polarized nature of the American society, fox news has created the "we/they" attitude when it comes to critical national issues such as gun control, the budget deficit, and universal healthcare. Polarizing rhetoric affirms a group's collective identity and subverts the ethos of competitors.
As a tactic, polarizing rhetoric is useful when the existing environment is polarized, the emotional atmosphere is charged, and if an agent views the world as a clash of positives and portrays itself as the only savior. Fox Five News is critical of the mainstream media and the democratic administration. Due to ideological difference, America's society is polarized and highly charged as demonstrated during the 2016 presidential election. By portraying the liberal media and Democrats as the dangerous "they," Fox News Exploits the country’s polarized atmosphere to spread polarized opinions and knowledge. Fox news describes other media outlets as "they," and sees them as extensions of democrat's press office. The use of phrases such as "biased," “mainstream," "leftist," " left-wing," " and sell-out" by Fox News to describe other news outlets is common. The news channel provokes its audience into indignation and foments mistrust of other information outlets. In a country that is easy to divide viewers into two political camps based on ideology, Fox News has created a powerful "us" against a dangerous "them," which has succeeded due to the polarized nature of American society.
Fox Five News is evidence that the media do not represent reality. Ambiguity is used to define reality. Fox commentators decontextualize claims to represent their reality of the world. It is common for Fox to quote statements or statistics and assert truths without giving their rationale, proof or context. The audience of Fox Five News might perceive certain policies, programs or statements negatively when in reality they may have different views if they understood the context. By using pretend information and pseudo-facts, Fox News creates a misinformed or misled position among its audience. Fox News commentators decontextualize claims by excluding the details behind statements. The news outlet makes a blanket condemnation of unwanted policies or programs without providing any rationale. For example, it constantly criticized former President Obama's foreign policies as weak and dangerous without giving any specifics. Additionally, it claimed that Obama's policies have empowered America's enemies without mentioning the plans and how they have managed to enable its enemies.
Fox Five News also uses statistics without explaining their context. The news outlets have used statistics in the past to criticize the country's entitlement culture without disclosing the source and meaning of the statistics. Since the news outlet as opposed to entitlement spending by the government, it exploits America's fear of a welfare state to win and maintain an audience. It creates the notion that many people are living off government support, and the lack of context may lead many Americans to believe that millions are on welfare support. Considering that Democrats support social spending to improve the lives of disadvantaged Americans, Fox Five News can easily convince the American audience that Democrats seek votes by increasing welfare spending. Without context, Americans can easily believe that entitlement spending causes the budget deficit.
Therefore, decontextualizing of information can lead to opposition of government entitlements without the realization that they are opposing federal disability, social security, unemployment insurance, Medicare, and veteran’s benefits. By failing to mention the context behind statistics, Fox commentators are ignorant of other factors that contribute to high government spending on welfare such as record numbers of retirees who require social security, inflation, rising medical costs, and poor economic conditions. Fox Five News misleads and misinforms its audience through persistent decontextualization.
The strategy of repetition is used by Fox Five News to reinforce their position on issues and present their unified viewpoint. The channel tends to repeat specific points or statistics throughout their news programs and even on different days. It is easy for a dedicated viewer to remember claims that are often repeated. Coupled with the fact that most commentators and guests accept these claims and opinions, the viewer is more likely to accept them as true even without supporting a proof. Repetition also enhances the importance of specific topics despite their lack of new-worthiness. Fox repeats claims or statistics that support their position such as record entitlement spending, the budget deficit, and unemployment statistics. These issues are turned into the same big stories regardless of the format, anchor, or news occurrences. After watching Fox Five News, the audience is more likely to remember specific topics, statements, and statistics because they assume greater importance when repeated. Even reports not worthy to be news gain credibility when they occur. For example, the news channel focused on former President Obama's attendance of celebrity fundraisers to show its audience that the President is out of touch with ordinary Americans. Repetition can lead to priming of the audience because people tend to express a preference for something, opinion, or position when bombarded continuously with the same information. Therefore, when Fox News anchors and commentators repeat specific points, they emphasize their importance and prime the audience's response to other news.
The media production, content, and audience of Fox Five News is located within a specific historical and social context. The news outlet is a conservative news hub that promotes the views and position of conservative movements while criticizing different positions. By exploiting the ideological and political differences in the country, Fox Five News creates contents and target audience that is receptive to its perspective. It utilizes strategies such as repetition and decontextualization to support its view of the society, which is not a representation of reality.
