Prospectus- How TV Influences Public Opinion.
I have always been fascinated with the impact of the television news media. With the flip of a channel you"re suddenly catapulted into tears for a man dying of cancer, compelled to buy the hottest new laundry detergent, delivered renewed faith in your President, or paralyzed with fear over your safety. News is powerful and with the tool of visuals, television media is king. Who else do we turn to, almost without question to tell us exactly what to think?.
Within the realm of the television media's interests there lay several key factors that in my final paper I hope to fully explore. They are the television news media's affinity for selective coverage, or in simpler terms why the media covers what it does and when, the marriage between government and media or asking the question why does so much of what is reported seem to be hand fed by the government, and lastly, the seemingly blurred line between news and advertisements, which I believe will clarify how much influence an advertiser and their corresponding dollars has on what the media stirs up.
The decision of what to have on the news and what does not go on the news is not as simple as what is currently happening in the world. I will look at this from two different perspectives: One, when you see an influx in the coverage of a specific issue it generally does not mean that issue is new or more prevalent. Great examples of this are the increasing interest in Alzheimer's, young children being kidnapped, pharmaceuticals, etc. During these times of coverage the stories reported are handled as though we are in the midst of an epidemic, when in fact I hope to prove otherwise with the use of alternative news media, as well as hard statistics. .
On the flip side, you"ll often see a lack of coverage in corporate owned media venues on specific topics such as homelessness, global warming, and fuel economy.
