Media and Politics

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Media and Politics
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• Cantrils (1940) study, The Invasion from Mars A
  Study in the Psychology of Panic
• On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles and a group of
  actors, in a New York studio of Colombia
  Broadcasting System, (broadcast an adaptation of
  H. G. Wellss War of the Worlds), broadcast were
  presented as a series of simulated news bulletins

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• Six million Americans tuned in to this
  dramatization of a science fiction novel about a
  Martian invasion (text included in Cantril,
  1940). Over 1 million of them responded with
  severe fright or panic.
• radio had triggered a mass effect, the broadcast
  caused fear, fear caused panic, and panic led to
  verifiable reactions

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• It is estimated that of the 6 million people who
  heard the broadcast, 1.7 million thought it was
  the news, not a play, while a further 1.2 million
  were frightened. A few even bought train tickets
  or drove off in the opposite direction to New
  York, the supposed epicentre of the alien
  invasion (http//www.spring.org.uk/2007/10/invasio
  n-from-mars-anatomy-of-panic.php)

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• Does public opinion influence and shape a
  governments policies?
• OR
• Does the government influences and shape the form
  of public opinion on politics?

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• Two assumptions
• 1-elites manipulates public opinion for their
  interest (top-down approach, realist - driven by
  state interest)
• OR
• 2-leaders follow masses (bottom-up approach)

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• Democratic-pluralist model no one set of
  interests group dominate,
• media and public is independent from political
  influence/citizens capable to consume information
  from media in order to form their own independent
  opinion

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• Media is used to control public opinion and
  instrument for national leadership especially in
  nondemocratic states
• CNN effect (US based Cable News Network)
  independent news media make pressure policy
  makers to pursue a particular course of action
  during crisis raised by journalists

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• CNN by focusing on certain conflicts and problems
  make pressure on politicians to respond some
  foreign problems and not others so it is harmful
  for reasoned policy making!!

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• Media has powerful role in agenda setting/how to
  frame the story (framing is the act of selecting
  some events and promote particular interpretation
  to through memorable and emotionally charged
  issues to addresses political culture of
  public/addresses cognition of individuals)
• Government officials/elites control framing

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• Framing highly politicized and biased
  representation of any issue
• Agenda setting/framing shaping public opinion
• Government control its own response to a foreign
  event/framing and explaining the event, if media
  define event government might lose control of
  event

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• Joint agenda setting between government and
  media/but media is driven by policy makers rather
  than vice-versa
• However in some cases media take control and
  mobilize public against government, for instance
  Russian media and interests group forced Russian
  government to end war in Chechnya!

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• Radio des Mille Collines (RTLM),
• in Rwanda the government used media, especially
  radio, as a tool in the genocide.
• radio is a far more efficient means of reaching
  large numbers of people, and was much more
  significant as a catalyst

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• The radio, long established as the voice of
  government, defined the enemy as the Tutsis, and
  inspired an obligation by Hutus to protect
  themselves and their families.

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• Alfred Kiruhura, 29, an illiterate farmer from
  eastern Rwanda, await trial for genocide. He
  states
• I did not believe the Tutsis were coming to kill
  us, but when the government radio continued to
  broadcast that they were coming to take our land,
  were coming to kill the Hutuswhen this was
  repeated over and overI began to feel some kind
  of fear

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• Why does a dog wag its tail?
• Because a dog is smarter than its tail.
• If the tail was smarter, the tail would wag the
  dog.

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• Washington spin doctor or Mr. Fix It (Robert De
  Niro) distracts the electorate from a
  presidential sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood
  producer (Dustin Hoffman) to create a fake war.