The Role Of The Media In Democracy Essays -- essays research papers f

How much does your balloting really count? As a voter, does your choice really matter? How much mildew does the media have on your vote? How many choices does the media actually make when it comes to our nations leadership? These are questions pondered by both political scientists and the average American citizen each year as the second Tuesday in November approaches. Though we know that the framers founded this nation on the principles of representing its citizens, and on the ideals of a nation for the pile and by the people it is obvious that the people feel that their vote doesnt always count. In this paper I plan to expand on these questions and the justifications behind asking them, and I plan to follow up with a specific example in which the media played a highly significant role in the choice of high government officials. How much does your vote really count? Does your choice really matter? According to the framers, your choice does matter. They say that one man equals on e vote. Congress also seems to believe that the American vote should count. They have passed Amendments to the Constitution in order to give more(prenominal) people the chance to vote and the chance to make a choice of their representatives. further why then does the people actually presently elect so few officials? Perhaps they agree with the ideas of Converse and Lane and are using pick out only as a way to attempt to get the citizens out of the voting slump they seem to be in. Converse stated that voters are minimally informed, minimally capable, and therefore incompetent of voting. Lane claims that this is not the problem, but that instead, voters are simply lazy in their ideology. (Muraca, July 13, 1999) I tend to agree with both, but I dont feel that the fault lies on the shoulders of the people. Rather, I feel that the burden of voter incompetence lies on the shoulders of the media. Voters are not uninformed perse, but they are exceptional in the amount in information th at they posses. The reason that this information is limited is because of the media. Media makes the choice everyday what they do and do not want the public to know. The antecedent to make the choice of our knowledge rests in their hands. Without the information they pass on from day to day, we, as voters know nothing about the happenings of our government. Yet on more than one occasion the media has held back information that c... .... It is a nation founded on free speech and freedom of the press, and the media uses these freedoms to influence some of the most important decisions that may ever occur in our country. It is somewhat scary that the fate of our nation could be put in the hands of the King of Porn, but at the resembling time it is somewhat invigorating. As citizens, the framers entrusted everyday citizens with the right to influence the actions and fate of our government, even if only through a small article in the newspaper. fifty-fifty though they did give the me dia this right, and we as citizens the right to use it, they still found fault with the nation as a whole. Otherwise, citizens would have been given the chance to directly elect those they feel represent them the best. The question of why they did this remains, but the fault lies at the feet of the media for keeping the citizens left uninformed and unable to cast a level-headed vote. Works CitedJanda, Berry, Goldman. The Challenge of Democracy. Sixth Edition. Houghton Mifflin, 1999. Muraca, Stephanie, T.. In-class-notes. July 13, 1999.Shepard, Alicia, C.. "Gatekeepers Without Gates", American Journalism News Link. March 1999.