Blog Post # 4: New Media & Democracy

New media is definitely influencing politics and contributing to democracy in America.

This is evident this year, in 2008, because it is a presidential election year. Every newscast and talk show from CBS to Tyra, Tyra Bank’s talk show, has done a special on politics or a political candidate.

In the Web Publishing book it devotes a whole chapter to electronic democracy and the role the media plays in politics. The articles praise technology, the Internet especially, for allowing more voices to be heard through the use of blogs, chat rooms, and response links.

However, the articles warn of the dangers of personal selectivity. Personal selectivity refers to the natural tendency people have to pick one side in politics and disregard or downplay the other side. This is dangerous because Republicans use the Internet to seek information that enforce their views, will Democrats use it to seek information that enforce theirs also. If this is the case, how will the two sides ever find a common ground on prudent issues?

One prudent issue the book discussed was Welfare. Most Republicans feel that Welfare needs to be abolished because it helps and in their eyes “rewards” certain people for having lots of kids and not being able to provide for themselves. While Democrats feel that it is our obligation as a civilized society to provide aid for people with dependents who clearly need the helping hand. Their argument is that the wealthy get tax breaks and advantages that the disadvantaged don’t get so welfare kind of balances the situation.

I found an article today from the Newsweek website titled, The Myth of Objectivity, that relates to the ideas discussed in the textbook. The article talks about how the press is suppose to be objective and provide the public with hard facts so that they can make an informed decision.

However, the press is increasingly putting a spin on their stories that favor a certain side or frame the story in a specific way. For example, the article citied a 1987 Newsweek story about the Vice President at the time, George H.W. Bush. The article showed a picture of him driving his speedboat and the headline said, “fighting the wimp factor,” clearly calling him a wimp!

The article also utilizes current examples relating to the sketch comedy shows like SNL and the Colbert Report that often use political humor to make fun of political candidates.
These shows are often accused of being left winged or right winged and they have significant impact especially on young voters.

While these shows often address the other side of the issue, they do so to poke fun and belittle the ideology. So what good is that?

Without a doubt, new media is changing the shape of democracy in America for better and for worse!