The media industry is a dynamic field that keeps evolving from time to time. The media changes are influenced by social, political and technological issues that determine the trajectory that media houses will take. In the 21st century, the media has seen tremendous changes than before (Jost et al., 2018). Media dynamics have highly influenced technology and political formations by eroding people's trust in the media. Also, the level of trust in government has dwindled over the years occasioned by the highly influential American media. Unlike before, where people use to treat new sources from media houses as pure truth, people nowadays do not majorly believe in media stories. In terms of demographics, the young have the highest level of distrust towards media houses. The high level of distrust of young Americans about the government creates the need to understand media change.
Process
The literature review process was a robust process that was to no small extent demanding to synthesize all reading materials and compile a document that has facts and information on the role played by media in eroding the trust bestowed to the government (Jost et al., 2018). The first process entailed searching and gathering information. The research delves into various databases to provide factual details that portrayed the state of media in America. One of the primary databases that the research heavily banked on was the Umass Boston Healey Library. The library was instrumental in providing both online and physical materials for advancing the research. Additionally, the research was based on materials from other internationally acclaimed databases such as Jstor, Sage and Research Gate, which had unique information about the American youths, government and media.
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Compiling the research began by using specific keywords that guided the team in finding suitable research material. One of the search words was social media. In the advent of digital transformation, social media has played an instrumental role in providing alternative sources of information that have led to young America's trust issues with the government (Hampton et al., 2017). Therefore, the search for social media was imperative in bringing a new concept of media transformation. Also, police brutality featured prominently in searching for the relevant articles since the riots have shaped media conversation, which has portrayed the government as racists. The other fundamental search word used was freedom of speech that sought to find out the practices of media, government and youths concerning a free press. Besides, journalism and confidentiality featured in the search terms.
After a rigorous search on the internet, some articles resonated with the relationship between media and dwindling trust among young Americans. The articles' choice was informed by several reasons, such as the significant role that social media plays in protests and tackling police brutality in the US (Hampton et al., 2017). The second reason for choosing the articles was informed by the digital transformations that have taken place in the last three decades, which have created alternative sources of information such as social media. Besides, the poor performance of various government bodies highly influenced articles' choice as the performance resonated with the government's mistrust.
Background
Currently, there are several research articles and books that have looked at the connection between the youth mistrusting the government. Most of the articles have opined that the United States constitution envisages a situation whereby people have complete trust in the government (Binder, 2016). Though the government has tried to create a public image of integrity, equality and respect for the rule of law and people, young Americans have continued to have huge reservations with the government. The research indicates that mainstream media has played a tremendous colossal role in creating mistrust towards the government among young people. The mainstream media has been blamed for continuously taking sides to cover specific issues such as elections, polices, and general politics (Howard et al., 2016). Some of the peer-reviewed articles available online assert that US media has been divided among the two major political parties in the US that are Democrats and Republicans.
There have been several occurrences that media house such as Fox News have given information that looks to favor Republicans and malign the politics of Democrats. On the other hand, giant cable TV companies such as CNN have been accused of giving the 45TH president of the US Trump negative publicity and at times cancelling his live address (Jost et al., 2018). Some of the narratives pushed by media companies have been checked and seen to be fake news which has created a level of distrust towards the government's activities. Besides, the media has, to no small extent, fed people with information that painted the government badly (Zeitzoff, 2017). A good example is how the American media negatively covers police combating riots in various states.
However, the background studies done are not sufficient in explaining the role of media in fuelling mistrust among young people. The previous research does not cover the enormous role social media has played in eroding the young's distrust. The current articles have covered mainly the role that mainstream media plays and sidelined social media. Over 70% of youths in America use social media (Jost et al., 2018). Social media has played a considerable role in trending strides against the government, such as police brutality, and has given rise to the black lives matter movement. Therefore, the study of social media plays an integral role in complementing the previous research done. In the research proposal, I will be looking into the role of media in growing distrust among young Americans.
References
Binder, C. (2016). Happenings Foreseen: Social Media and the Predictive Policing of Riots. Sicherheit Und Frieden (S F) / Security and Peace, 34 (4), 242-247. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/26429017
Jost, J., Barberá, P., Bonneau, R., Langer, M., Metzger, M.., Nagler, J., Sterling, J. & Tucker, Joshua. (2018). How Social Media Facilitates Political Protest: Information, Motivation, and Social Networks: Social Media and Political Protest . Advances in Political Psychology. 39 . 85-118. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12478
Hampton, K.N, Inyoung, S & Weixu Lu. (2017). Social media and political discussion: when online presence silences offline conversation. Information, Communication & Society, 20(7), 1090-1107, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1218526
Howard, P., Savage, S., Saviaga, C., Toxtli, C., & Monroy-Hernández, A. (2016). Social Media, Civic Engagement, and the Slacktivism Hypothesis: Lessons from Mexico’s “El Bronco”. Journal of International Affairs, 70 (1), 55-73. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/90012597
Prier, J. (2017). Commanding the Trend: Social Media as Information Warfare. Strategic Studies Quarterly, 11 (4), 50-85. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/26271634
Walle, S.V & Bouckaert Geert. (2003). Public Service Performance and Trust in Government: The Problem of Causality. International Journal of Public Administration, 26(8-9), 891-913, https://doi.org/10.1081/PAD-120019352
Zeitzoff, T. (2017). How Social Media Is Changing Conflict. The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 61 (9), 1970-1991. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/26363973
