what impact do the mass media have on modern governmen
... on television is as important as the message. There are three broad arguments concerning the effects of the mass media on the public and therefore government and politics - opinion forming, opinion reinforcing, and no effects. The opinion forming argument believes that the media shape opinions held by the viewer, since the media chooses the agenda, it also shapes what issues are thought about. This view depicts the viewer as having no or few opinions before media exposure and then accepts the arguments and opinions put forward. The opinion reinforcing argument believes that the viewer will be more likely to accept opinions similar to their own, than to change their opinion as a result of the exposure to the media. "Persuasive communication functions far more frequently as an agent of reinforcement than as an agent of change." The no effects argument is a 'minimal effects' approach, based on research of the elections in the 1940s and 50s. It concludes that change in voting is not compatible with media influence. It appears that this study did little to look at other influences, such as partisanship or an individual’s background. The strongest idea seems to be a mixture of reinforcement and opinion forming. In reinforcement theory, when people are exposed to the media reporting of politics, they are more likely to be confirmed in their existing beliefs than to be swayed and take on new ideas. This argument is supplemented by the idea that people are able to filter information. The three characteristics of filtering are selective exposure, selective perception and selective retention. Selective exposure describes how many people avoid politics altogether, while others interested in politics will favour newspapers, television or radio programmes which reflect rather than challenge their views. Selective perception refers to the views and values which people use to 'edit' information, accepting that which they identify with and rejecting that which they do not. Selective retention is the same process as perception but refers to what people remember. This process of filtering appears most identifiable in those who read newspapers in the United Kingdom, probably because newspapers are seen as the most biased and there is a large selection of them. The main distinction between reinforcement theory and the opinion forming argument is to whether a person has any pre-disposed ideas before media influence or if they are tabular rasa - blank, with no preconceptions. The opinion forming argument would state that all individuals must originally receive the information to base opinions on from somewhere - which is the role of the media. It also points out that the reinforcement theory does not seem to make sense in an age when party preferences have weakened and people are voting much more according to issues which they have learnt about through the media. It also asks that if the media only reinforces ideas and cannot form or change opinions, why do political parties persist in spending large sums of money in the media to get elected? Furthermore, why do some states feel it necessary to censor information not consistent with their ideology? The reinforcement theory argues that people are capable of forming their own ideas based on the filtering process - they will identify with a given idea and then further exposure reinforces it. Individuals are never completely tabular rasa as this filtering process already exists. "The political predispositions and group allegiances set the goal; all that is read and heard becomes helpful and effective insofar as it guides the voter to his already 'chose' destination." Blumler argues that both reinforcing and opinion forming ideas are at work, albeit with different people. He divides people into two categories, those interested in politics and those not. Those with an interest in politics have some underlying party allegiance and so will receive media information and filter out parts they do not agree with. With those with an interest in politics, reinforcement theory is more applicable. Those with no interest in politics are far less likely to have an underlying political allegiance and so will either filter out less or none of the media's message, so they are more responsive to the mass media. The problem for the media is to be able to gain the attention of the uninterested and get them to listen to the ideas. So for example, it can be masqueraded as entertainment or comedy - such as the Red Wedge comedians in the 1980s who based their acts on a pro-labour party platform. This type of media is obviously opinion forming in intention but frequently, it is not able to change opinions as it falls 'on deaf ears.' In short, mass communications are "an inefficient technique for changing beliefs and behaviour," because, "the message tends largely to be received by those who are already sympathetic to it and therefore least in need of change," and, "... for the remainder of the population the message is ignored, 'crowded out', by other more potent communications." The questions of why governments spend money on electoral campaigns and why others censor infor...