Professor Rojecki’s lecture (“The Tea Party & the
Politics of Insecurity”) shed light on politics, in part how we choose to
watch, read, or hear the news (selective perception) but also because of how,
via any platform, the news is framed to almost manipulate us. Along side this
is what content is actually being covered in the news. This becomes a
communication issue because when we are watching the news, what makes it okay
or “normal” for us to want to watch news about things that should not even be
issues in the first place than demand news about things that should really
matter.
The media is now a place where our habit of selective
perception can be fulfilled and political communication and media are a great
example of this. When someone is a democrat or republican they will be more
likely to tune into a left or right winged news station, respectively. This
correlates with Professor Rojecki’s mention of a decline in accidental
audiences.
Rojecki discussed closer to
the beginning of the lecture that 2/3 of the population believes that our
nation is in decline (rather than showing progress). This flows into
insecurity; if we experience insecurity about our problem solving and the
ability for our nation collective make progress then a lean towards decline only
makes sense. If we are insecure about our nations progress then this can also
tie back to selective perception. That can be a kind of defense mechanism, if
we watch what we agree with then our beliefs are reinforced and insecurity or
anxiety are seemingly reduced.
That is a good point, that watching what we agree with and insecurity or anxiety are reduced, but that does not mean that people are truly informed because of that framing and perception their station uses with the stories. So people will be more confident in the nation but still not know what is really going on.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that it does not imply that anyone is truly informed. Framing, if anything, would cause the information to be more likely and almost always be presented in a biased manner, whether the viewer is aware of it or not. This relates to the concept of media literacy as well, there is not a way to really stop all framing, since besides bigger scale incidents of it happening in the media it is something we implement daily. Media literacy is the ability to understand media content and their platforms, to realize when things are being framed, when things like product placements occur, etc. I think it is very important to be aware so that the consumer can go about becoming properly informed.
DeleteI also agree with what you are saying about how a lot of what is on the respectively left or right winged stations (although they are known to be politically biased) is very watered down. Also, the insecurity created in our country in politics is because people are more interested in other things, only hearing what they want to hear (selective hearing) which is also what you were eluding too.
ReplyDeleteFox is a prime example of a channel that Conservatives are able to tune into and hear only the views that they already believe. This selectivity can be quite problematic. I am a pretty die hard democrat but I do try and watch Fox and Bill O'reily every now in then just so I can say I'm getting ideas from different perspectives (Even though it makes me sick :)
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