Media

Activist journalism is not the dominate method of journalism in our nation's history but after the notorious Watergate Scandal along with the growth of national skepticism during the Vietnam War became very popular. This form of reporting is more manipulative because it leads the audience towards a certain conclusion Investigative journalism a process that can include the collaboration of other parties within the media. This form of journalism doesn't really alter public opinion or change it, but rather it further polarizes peoples views and ideologies. The three main objectives investigate journalism tries to use is to excite the audience in order to draw in numbers of viewers, secondly gain recognition from other journalist and third to trigger a reform or change.

Due to the nature of socialization especially when concerning politics media does not change political belief but were it can definitely be felt is through the polization of peoples existing position regarding an issue. Most adults are fixed on believing a certain idea that the use cognitive misers when analyzing information being reported. In turn further validating their own beliefs. This may not be the case when taking racial or gender issues in to consideration because the media in these cases are educational and can change some beliefs, but often times this is not the case. This being the case media influence acts as polarization tool rather than research has proved to be problematic because it is impossible to wholistically measure how people react to what the media outlets report. Until the day comes were we will be able to effectively evaluate how individuals are influenced by the media and to what degree it will continue to be problematic. There are some incidents were correlations can be drawn by finding out who uses what types of media. For example we knew that Blacks and Hispanics rely more on television and high income and older populations use print media more than low income populations. Along with people who watch four or more hours of T.V. a day are more worried of being attack victims, Correlations can be drawn but we still are unable to effective find out to what degree people are influenced.


Posted by: Ivan Benitez