The media has taken over everybody's lives and in today's society nobody can escape it. Whether you read newspapers, listen to music, spend hours on the computer or simply stand at a bus stop, media surrounds us. So with this in mind can we go as far as saying that the media has gained more power and control over us than the government has?
You ask a randomer in the street and what are the odds that they will be thinking about what the politicians are going to do next? Some people are thinking about this but can we argue that there are less people thinking about the government than there are thinking about the media? How many people can name the prime ministers and presidents past and present? Then count how many can name their favourite band or favourite film or what they watched in television the other day without even taking a second thought.
The government; we vote for them then us what to do whether we like it or not. Some people try to argue and some people try to repel. Whatever they do, politicians cannot control the minds and actions of almost 7 billion people.
The media; subliminal messages plant ideas in our minds subtly without us realising. Before we know it we are playing into the hands of the media and thinking what they want us to think.
The government cannot have possibly gained the attention of millions if it wasn't for the media. Newspaper interviews, special television episodes, billboards and advertisement, news spread across the internet as well as gossip on social networks. The buzz of politics was spread by the media and without that buzz then politics would have had a hard time grasping the love, attention and votes of the public. The Sun had a particularly interesting way of persuading their audience to vote. They gathered together a group of topless models and gave them blue ribbons. They printed this as an appeal and as a result gathered a great deal of attention from the people that read The Sun. Without things like this happening votes would be lost and the public would be a lot more upset about who eventually moves in to number ten.
With this kept in mind I ask you, who really does have more control over the country, the media or the government? Or is it simply that they work together to keep the country running?
Interesting point of view. I'm not sure it's as insidious as you suggest, partly because it would require a signficant degree of organisation from both the media and politicians. And it's interesting that, in the Media at least, Nick Clegg would have achieved more votes than Gordon Brown, but when it came to reality, he didn't do as well. That said, there is an undoubted relationship. It could be argued that the Sun (for example) changes its allegiance based on how the wind is blowing rather than changing the minds of its readers. But bad headlines and evocative pictures don't help politicians. You may want to look at the Uses and Gratifications theory of audience for an alternative viewpoint on the relationshop between the Media and consumers.
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