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| Activity #5: Media influences |
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Step 1: Consider the ways media can influence elections and review the vocabulary below |
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Agenda setting: Media outlets choose which stories to cover based on which ones are likely to receive high ratings. By focusing on stories that attract public attention, the media can force politicians to confront issues that they might not have otherwise addressed. The government has a significant amount of influence over the political agenda presented in the media because most news is gathered from official sources. |
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Echo chamber: an environment in which a person encounters only beliefs or opinions that coincide with their own, so that their existing views are reinforced and alternative ideas are not considered. |
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Fact checking & data analysis: making sure information is truthful and correct (verifying). |
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Gatekeeping: is a process by which information is filtered to the public by the media.
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Horserace journalism: Examples of election coverage scripts include the “horserace” or “game frame” script where an election “campaign gets covered a lot like a sports event, with an emphasis on who’s winning, who’s losing, who’s up, who’s down, how they are moving ahead or behind in the polls.” (Brichacek) |
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Narrowcasting: Broadcasting is when media covers a wide range of topics and is geared for those that are interested in the news. Broadcasting does not have really have a "target audience" because the entire populous is who broadcasting networks are targeting. Narrowcasting is the exact opposite of broadcasting. TV stations such as "MTV or ESPN" are narrowcasting channels. Stations such as these only talk about specific parts of the world and have an extremely precise target audience. |
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Polarization: division into two sharply contrasting groups or sets of opinions or beliefs.
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Self perpetuating cycle: a chain of events that repeats itself and is very difficult to stop it because it has the power to continue indefinitely. Example: The more news coverage a candidate gets the higher they tend to climb in the polls. |
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Soundbite: A sound bite is a brief comment that is broadcast on television or printed by news outlets, often repeatedly. Sound bites are meant to influence public opinion, and may include alliteration or a catchy phrase, but they actually provide incomplete information. |
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Watchdogs: a person or organization responsible for making sure companies or other organizations (i.e. governments) maintain standards and do not act illegally.
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| Citations |
Brichacek, Andra. "Six Ways the Media Influence Elections." School of Journalism and Communication, U of Oregon, journalism.uoregon.edu/news/six-ways-media-influences-elections. Accessed 9 Dec. 2019.
Campbell, Heather. "Sound Bite." American Government, ABC-CLIO, 2021, americangovernment.abc- clio.com/Search/Display/203687. Accessed 13 Jan. 2021. Shearer, Elisa, and Katerina Eva Matsz. "News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2018." Pew Research Center, 10 Sept. 2018, www.journalism.org/2018/09/10/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2018/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2019 |
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Step 2: Working in groups use the artifacts find an example of each of the vocabulary terms |
| Artifact #1 | Artifact #6 |
| Artifact #2 | Artifact #7 |
| Artifact #3 | Artifact #8 |
| Artifact #4 | Artifact #9 |
| Artifact #5 | Artifact #10 |