Voters have more media outlets available than ever before tohelp them make an informed decision in the upcoming election. But,many students say they do not understand or do not like the rolethe media plays in national politics.
Dawn Cheatham, a biological sciences sophomore, said the media’sbias makes it hard for her to rely on them to make informeddecisions.
“They distort [the facts)],” Cheatham said. “That’s all they do.It makes it hard to trust them.”
The media’s biggest impact is “setting the agenda” for whichissues surface during election time, said Kirby Goidel, a politicalcommunication professor.
Goidel said it is the way the issues are presented that makespeople perceive the media as biased.
“Whether the issue is about Iraq or the economy, the media playsan important role in terms of the issue that drives the elections,”Goidel said. “That in turn impacts how people evaluate thecandidate and the campaign, because they use that issue to evaluatethe campaign.”
Mallory Gibson, a psychology junior, said she had mixed opinionson the media’s involvement in politics and elections.
“It’s informative in a good and a bad way,” Gibson said. “It’sgood because it prompts people to get out and vote. But, itscontent is biased. The media is only going to report what they wantand they will play up particular pieces.”
Goidel said media’s presentation of a story determines howbiased the story seems.
“In any story there’s all sorts of ways that you can set a framearound a picture,” he said. “When you think about Iraq, whetherit’s a story on terror or a story on something about militaryoccupation, that makes a difference in how people perceive thewar.”
Goidel said people usually select the medium that will delivermessages they know they want to get.
“People don’t come to the media as empty vessels that are justfilled up with media messages,” he said. “They come with ideas andconceptions about the world and they tend to look for news sourcesthat support their world view. Conservatives will watch Fox Newsand listen to talk radio. Liberals will watch CNN and listen toNPR.”
Ryan Berry, a communications studies senior, said he thinks themedia has a responsibility to voters in elections.
“We look at them as being more enlightened than us,” Berry said.”But, their way is not always the best way.”
Berry said presenting only one side of a story would bedangerous, but Goidel said journalists usually strive to presentboth sides.
“Most of the people working for mainstream media outletsperceive themselves as professionals,” Goidel said. “They are verymuch committed to the idea that they are supposed to tell a fairand unbiased story. Most of them would also say that pureobjectivity is impossible.”
Profit margins are another way to keep media from leaning toofar either way.
“Most media organizations are corporations,” Goidel said.”They’re not there to produce news, they are there to makeprofits.
“It’s hard for me to imagine that when you have major newsorganizations — CBS-Viacom or ABC-Disney — that they’re going tobe overly leftist.”
Goidel said being too slanted would alienate potentialviewers.
“They’re trying to sell their product to a broad audience.”