Placate The People

A look into Mass Media in Politics

Monday, September 29, 2014

Spin Doctors Unite!

5:06 AM Posted by Placate the People 2 comments
We're learning about political media slants and how they affect the audience. Although this concept is not new to me, I had no idea of how pervasive it is. Even CNN, who I believe to be relatively impartial falls prey to this sociological anomaly. I've always believed myself a middle-of-the-road moderate, at times seeing validity from both political camps, but as stated in my last post, for better or worse, after all I'm learning in this course I'm leaning a little left of center lately.

I came across an alarming statistic this week.  Fox news swept viewer ratings on Thursday. This struck me as inconceivable until realizing that the majority of people in this country share a different viewpoint than I do. How can this be? I thought I got along with everybody.




After some more investigation I learned that Fox Network viewership has been steadily declining since 2007. I'm not sure if this means middle America is slowly coming to their senses, or if this statistic simply depicts America's inquiring minds pilgrimage to the mighty inter-webs for their news acquisition. Hopefully both.









2 comments:

  1. UnknownOctober 2, 2014 at 6:43 PM

    I would also describe myself as someone that is politically centered. I am a swing voter that bases my decision on specific policies rather than candidate themselves. However, this wasn't always the case. I used to be a strict conservative that relied heavily on Fox News. It wasn't until I began studying political science that my views changed. I slowly began questioning the facts presented by the various Fox News anchors and as time went on I eventually stopped watching them. I think that I am not alone in this. Fox News is a major contributor to the polarization that plagues this country. I think that this turns people off and may be a reason that their viewership has been on the decline.

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  2. UnknownOctober 11, 2014 at 6:16 PM

    I would also add that TV news in general has been on the decline in the past few years, and Fox will continue to lose viewers along with the rest of the TV news industry. Can't happen soon enough in my opinion.

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