Since the advent of mass media such as talk radio, social networks and televisions, there have been significant shifts in the society within the United States of America and across the entire world. This implies that the impact of the mass media on various spheres of life has been phenomenal. One important area where mass media has greatly impacted and caused major changes is the political field. Before the advent of mass media, there were Democratic and the Republican Parties already in existence within the politics of the United States of America. Immediately after the formation of a new government under the newly created Constitution in 1789, there were no political factions in the United States of America. The country was highly united under one political ideology, just as the Founding Fathers had hoped. However, this situation did not stay for a very long time because two factions emerged within the Washington administration with sharply different political ideologies. There were those supporting the strengthening of the national government and the ones who wanted a weaker national government, but strong states. For the proponents of a strong national government, they wanted it to promote commerce within the entire country. However, the supports of strong states wanted the interests of small farmers to thrive under the devolved system of government. With the later emergence of the Civil War and debate on abolition of slavery, hard-lined partisan positions developed in the United States of America. This was the start of strong Republican and Democratic Parties in the country. Over time, mass media has caused significant shifts in the ideological platforms on which these two parties were formed over time.
The impact of mass media on political parties
Mass media affects the popular opinions among the electorate. A lot of people do not attend political events to listen to what the political leaders have to say (Levendusky, 2009). Many people depend on the radio talk shows, television news and the reports on social media networks to learn what takes place in political rallies. A lot of people in the country get informed about the positions of their parties through television news and radio talk shows. Therefore, the opinions of people regarding the positions of parties are informed by what is reported in mass media. In the event information is distorted by the mass media, which is the normal practice, a wrong message is sent to the public and positions of people about their political parties change significantly.
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Since parties want to be associated with the populist agenda, they also depend on mass media for information about the popular issues within the country. Parties will form positions on matters in the country depending on what they feel is an agenda that is popular (Levendusky, 2009). The media can still misinform parties by reporting issues that are not real and portraying them as the positions held by a majority of people in the country. This can make a party that held a particular that is rendered unpopular by the mass media to shift to a new one. Mass media affects the opinions held by parties within the political field in this manner.
Since its start, the mass media outlets have been very partisan in the way they report their stories. This kind of biased reporting creates political polarization and brings about shifts in the ideologies of parties (Levendusky, 2009). The effect of biased reporting by the media on political parties in the United States of America has been the support for partisan policies and ideologies in the country. The media seduces political parties into taking particular positions on important matters in the country. Research shows that mass media took over the politics of the country immediately it was invented. Politicians in political parties form positions that are aligned to what particular media outlets want. The ideologically biased content given by the mass media outlets significantly attract bigwigs in political parties who are made to share the positions of the hosts in the programs.
Politicians who are the drivers of party positions are always invited for interviews and talk-shows on televisions and radio talk shows. The hosts make sure they influence the positions that they hold and by the time they leave the media station, they have shifted their ideologies. They are made to influence the change of party position to the new ideological stance. This is what has happened to the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States of America, since mass media started meddling in the political field (Levendusky, 2009). The mass media has taken over these two parties and now literally controls their ideological stances.
How mass media affected the change in ideological platforms of the Republican and Democratic Parties in the U.S.A.
Mass media has greatly contributed to the long transition of Democrats and the Republicans from their original ideological positions. At its inception, the Democratic Party held conservative political ideologies. The Republican Party, on the other hand, supported liberal ideological views. Currently, the two parties have shifted their positions with the Democrats becoming the liberals while the Republicans are the conservatives. This switch of political platform by the parties was largely caused by mass media involvement in the political events of the country. The manner in which mass media reported the Civil War during the 1860s and the Civil Rights events in the 1960s really caused significant shifts in the ideological platforms of the Democrats and the Republicans (Levendusky, 2009). A major development in the field of mass media was the inception of Fox News. Fox News greatly changed the political dynamics within the Democratic and Republican Parties.
The current Democratic Party originated from the Democratic-Republican Party that existed in the 1790s. Thomas Jefferson was its Presidential candidate in the 1796 election. Jefferson was an ardent conservative, as its Presidential nominee (Prior, 2013). At that time, the party members were against the strengthening of a strong federal government. The Democrats initially supported strong independent states, markets that were free and a federal government that was decentralized. They also wanted the attendant Bill of Rights. It is also important to note that the Democrats supported the institutionalization of slavery and were against the abolition movement during the Civil War. Van Buren, who was the Democratic President, oversaw the economic meltdown of 1837. He was vehemently accused of taking advantage of his position to employ workers in the public works programs (Prior, 2013). In the course of the economic crisis of 1837, Van Buren made sure that the government could not even supply tools in public works programs. The ideological platform on which Van Buren governed the country is not the same stance of the modern day Democrats (Levendusky, 2009).
The Republican Party has also undergone the same shift of political platforms. A strong Republican Party was formed in the year 1856 by members who had been ardent liberals since the formation of government in 1789 after the creation of the new Constitution. Among the ideological platforms that the Republican Party strongly espoused included the opposition to the institution of slavery, strengthening of the federal government, more money for national government projects and a liberal immigration policy (Levendusky, 2009). The original ideological platform of the Republican Party is evident in its 1888 nominee for the Presidential election. Benjamin Harrison, who was the Republican candidate, then, won the election because of championing liberal ideas (Prior, 2013). For instance, he supported the expansion money supply within the economy, strengthening the protective tariff and increased financing for the social services. In 1892, Cleveland won the election by trouncing Harrison because of advancing the Democratic conservative ideologies of keeping the Gold Standard, lowering the Gold Standard, decreasing the protective tariff and government intervention into the economy based on a lassie faire approach (Levendusky, 2009).
The mass media started a wide campaign against the conservative economic ideological platforms, which always plunged the country into massive depressions (Prior, 2013). The mass media such as the television news and radio talk shows rallied the country against the conservative economic ideas such as maintenance of the gold standard, reduction of the protective tariff and minimizing the supply of money in the economy. The country was lured into believing the rhetoric advanced by the mainstream mass media at that time. Any politician who wanted to remain relevant in the next elections had to denounce the conservative ideological platform that had allegedly made the country to fall into a major economic crisis (Prior, 2013). The height of this economic depression was in the year 1896. Television stations and radio talk shows highlighted the impact of this economic crisis to the United States of America. It did give biased suggestions on the causes of the economic crisis and this made the population to become hostile towards any conservative economic ideology.
On sensing the mood in the whole country, the Democrats started to strategize for the Presidential elections that were near. The Democrats had to endear themselves to the population of voters despite the fact that the party held conservative ideas. The Democrats decided to abandon the conservative ideologies and took on a liberal ideological approach (Prior, 2013). The Democratic Party then nominated an ardent populist called William Jennings Bryan as its Presidential candidate. This marked the start of shifts in the ideological platforms of the Democratic Party. The changes in the ideological platforms of the Democrats had been caused by the mass media, which took advantage of the 1896 economic depression to rally the country against the conservative ideas of governance (Prior, 2013). This is the same calculative strategy that the media uses to influence the political space in the country today. The mass media takes advantage of a crisis in the country to change the perceptions of the common electorate towards a given party ideology. When the ground of voters forms a popular opinion about a given concept, political parties have to follow the same by abandoning their respective positions about a matter and adopt the populist stance in order to survive. Bryan, a Democratic Party Presidential candidate, supported liberal ideologies. For instance, he was against the gold standard, believed in the full intervention of the government in the economy and pressed for the increase of money supply. He emerged as the first liberal candidate to win the Presidential election under a Democratic ticket. This marked a radical shift by the Democratic Party from its initial conservative stance to the liberal ideological platform.
The shift in the Democratic Party political ideologies triggered a ripple effect in the entire politics of the country. The Republicans countered the move by the Democrats to appoint Bryan, a liberal, to be their candidate by shifting away from their initial liberal ideological platforms. The Republicans then nominated a moderately-conservative William McKinley. McKinley was a strong supporter of increased protective tariff like other progressive Republicans, but advocated for the maintenance of the standard of gold. This move disappointed many Republicans, who ardent liberals making some to defect to the Democratic Party to support Bryan, a fellow liberal-minded person. However, McKinley won the election and was re-elected in a same contest during the Presidential election that followed (Irwin & Kroszner, 1999). At this point in time, there were transitional developments that made the two parties to fully shift their ideological platforms with the Democrats becoming liberals while Republicans took over conservative positions.
The successive nominations were based on the new ideological platform of the two parties. The ideological contest was epitomized by the 1912 Presidential election where Roosevelt competed against the incumbent, Howard Taft. Roosevelt was a progressive person while Taft was a conservative (Irwin & Kroszner, 1999). After losing the party nominations to Taft, Roosevelt defected to a newly formed Progressive Party. He used this party in the Presidential Election. However, the Democratic Party nominee, Woodrow, won the Presidential Election resoundingly (DellaVigna & Kaplan, 2008). The Presidential elections that followed were based on the ideologies of the candidates. The electorate judged candidates by their ideas.
There has been a slow ideological homogeneity in the two parties from that time (DellaVigna & Kaplan, 2008). The Democrats who were conservatives and the liberal Republicans always lost in party nominations for re-election or simply retired from politics. Over time, the country has witnessed the end of progressive Republicans. The loss of Republican progressive politicians to liberal Republicans in re-election bids is a huge evidence of this fact. For the case of the conservative Democrats there end was witnessed in 2010 when all candidates with this ideological platform lost their party nominations for re-election. They had all opposed the Stimulus Plan, healthcare reforms and the Cap-and-Trade legislation of President Obama. Therefore, with the traces of liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats now completely depleted, the current Republican Party is purely conservative while the Democratic Party is fully liberal. This change represents the major ideological platform shift that has characterized the Democratic and Republican Parties over time. The ideological role reversal within the Democratic and Republican Parties, which was started by the involvement of mass media in politics, is now complete.
How Fox News changed the political ideological platforms of both the Democratic and the Republican Parties
The latest changes in the ideological platforms of the Democratic and Republican Parties have been occasioned by the modern mainstream, mass media. One major media outlet that has had a huge impact in the changes of ideological platforms witnessed within the Democratic and Republican Parties lately is Fox News. The inception of Fox News in the year 1996 was a development of political importance in the United States of America (DellaVigna & Kaplan, 2008). Firstly, with the launch of Fox News, there was then a mass media outlet dedicated to news and available throughout the whole country. It operated for 24 hours of a day and had conservative leanings. This media outlet came as a counter to the liberal news stations that always advanced the ideas of the Democratic Party. Fox News leaned towards the Republicans, who had fully shifted their ideological platforms to conservatives. Fox News was able to brainwash the conservatives in America, and Republican supporters could only believe what came from this station. It got to a point where now Fox News became quite influential in the politics of the Republican Party. It cemented partisan positions within the party and made the Republicans to become staunch conservatives. The manner in which Fox News has managed to stir up conservative hardliner positions within the Republican Party is an example of how the mainstream media has significantly played a major role in causing the ideological platform shifts in both the Democratic and Republican Parties (DellaVigna & Kaplan, 2008).
At its inception in 1996, Fox News advertized itself as a fair and neutral station in the United States of America, with no political leanings. At the time of its inception, there was dominance of liberal media bias advanced by the New York Times , Washington Post , Los Angeles Times and the rest of the elite media. During that time, surveys indicated that there were very few Republican journalists and many reporters were independents. A significant number of reporters were Democrats. According to the argument presented by many journalists, they were professional and did not condone biased reporting, only being guided by the principle of fact-based reportage. But even if the reporting itself was free of bias, the issues that most interested reporters tended to be ones more likely to be liberal in nature than conservative.
Fox News clearly moved to the right, especially after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 (DellaVigna & Kaplan, 2006). The Fox News held conservative ideologies and rallied the Republican Party to embrace it strongly. Fox News started campaigning for the Republican candidates. It made both the Democrats and the Republicans to support Conservative policies within the Congress. Fox News caused some Democrats to start embracing conservative ideological platforms. The reason for this state of affairs is that since Fox News was very popular within the country more than even the Republican Party, a position held by its journalists was respected and taken as the gospel truth. Republicans felt that taking up the conservative issues advanced by the Fox News, would give them more prominence and popularity in the country. Democrats, who recognized the popularity of Fox News in the country, also started shifting their ideological platforms to embrace the Republican ideas within the Congress (DellaVigna & Kaplan, 2006). This is how the Fox News affected the ideological platforms of the Democratic and the Republican Parties.
Liberal media dominance
The dominance of liberal ideologies within mainstream mass media in the United States was caused by various reasons. The first one was the fact that the views popular in the country were largely liberal. These views included the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement. The conservative perspective about the rights of civilians and discrimination based on race were not challenges worth the federal’s contravention of the independence of the states. The media exposed what many Americans wanted after being subjected to police brutality against the demonstrators during the civil rights movement and the pains of racism. The liberal biasness of the mass media was accentuated by the Vietnmam War, although the nation had began to move towards the rights in many ways. The liberal media dominance in the country cemented the ideologies held by the Democrats.
Modern trends in ideological shifts in Democratic and Republican Parties and mass media’s impact
Today Democrats and the Republicans have turned to the media still with an intention of influencing the ideologies of the campaign period. In the recent Presidential elections, the candidates fell into the wishes of the mass media, which always set the tone of the campaign and spelt out the issues to be included in the campaign rhetoric. The mass media turned the recent Presidential campaign from an issue-based one to a largely personal attack contest. This was achieved through concentration of mass media reports on the speeches that included personal jabs between the candidates. When the electorate got this picture, they took on it and it became a popular way of campaigning. This example shows the manner in which the media affects the ideological platforms of the political parties in the United States of America. Had the mainstream mass media ignored the personal attacks by the candidates and only concentrated on reporting the parts of speeches where issues are articulated, the campaign would have been a different one. The Democrats and Republicans would have stayed focused on explain their policies and manifestos in order to get media coverage. However, since the parties realized that to get airplay personal attacks were the only way in the recent elections, the two parties had also to shift their ideological platforms of campaign to the one set by the mass media. Therefore, the mainstream mass media has played a very significant role in the change of ideological platforms of the Democratic and Republican Parties.
Conclusion
Over time, mass media has caused significant shifts in the ideological platforms on which these two parties were formed over time. Mass media has always partisan journalists, who host shows that have political leanings. Furthermore, the news reported in mainstream mass media is always biased and this has significant impact on the ideological views of the political parties. The Democrats were initially conservatives while the Republicans were staunch liberals. However, as a result of the influence of mainstream mass media during the Great Depression, where the conservative economic policies were blamed for the crisis in the economy, the Democrats chose to abandon their initial conservative ideological platform and nominated Bryan, a liberal person as their candidate. Republicans responded by nominated a conservative candidate marking the start of the change in the ideological platforms of the two parties. The latest influence on the ideological platforms of the two parties has been led by the Fox News. Fox News is a media outlet that took the political by storm because of the large following, which it enjoyed after its inception. With its popularity throughout the country, Fox News has been able to significantly affect the ideologies held by Republicans through its biased reporting. Other major media outlets that have been able to significantly impact on the two major political parties of the country include the Cable News Network and the New York Times. There have been concerns that the Democratic and Republican Parties have taken over by the mass media. The implication of this statement is that most ideas within the parties are decided by the mass media. The media may choose an ideology and decide to popularize it among the citizens until it becomes a popular one. When an ideology has been made popular, the political parties become interested to associate with it so that they can win more support among the electorate. The media have chosen candidates of the political parties and the electorate manipulated into supported these people until they are nominated. For instance, it is reported that Donald Trump used the Fox News to win the support of the electorate and the Republican Party. Fox News started a program in 2011 that was meant to popularize Trump ahead of his candidature in 2016. He used the Fox News to counter accusations from critiques and won the support of Republicans because Fox News portrayed him as the best choice. Since most Republican candidates trust Fox News, they were made to believe that Donald Trump was the best candidate for the party. The Republican Party also bought into this campaign by Fox News and ended up nominating Donald Trump, who appears to be a conservative. Therefore, the Republican Party is seen upholding its conservative ideological platform by nominating Donald Trump after the significant influence of Fox News. This is the way mass media has influenced the change of the ideological platforms of the Democratic and Republican Parties.
References
DellaVigna, S., & Kaplan, E. (2006). The Fox News effect: Media bias and voting (No. w12169). National Bureau of Economic Research.
DellaVigna, S., & Kaplan, E. (2008). The political impact of media bias. Information and Public Choice , 79.
Irwin, D. A., & Kroszner, R. S. (1999). Interests, Institutions, and Ideology in Securing Policy Change: The Republican Conversion to Trade Liberalization After Smoot‐Hawley*. The Journal of Law and Economics , 42 (2), 643-674.
Levendusky, M. (2009). The partisan sort: How liberals became Democrats and conservatives became Republicans . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Prior, M. (2013). Media and political polarization. Annual Review of Political Science , 16 , 101-127.
