Introduction To My Blog

Welcome to my blog about the intersection of mass media and politics! Mass media play an extremely crucial role in politics and the public's understanding of politics, and likewise mass media are impacted by the happenings of politics. Here, we will analyze instances of this connection as they play out in the real world, and relate these instances to broader concepts of mass media and its role in politics. Thank you for stopping by and I look forward to writing here weekly!

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Fox News' Fauci Problem

Fascinating research has emerged that has hinted that widespread misinformation about the coronavirus, especially from conservative leaning outlets, led to a weakened response to the pandemic and potentially more spread than would have occurred without. Since the start of the pandemic, Fox News has certainly had much to say in that regard. Whether it was downplaying the pandemic's severity, opposing mask usage and social distancing protocols, or generally advising that Americans need not worry about COVID-19, the studies that will emerge on the effects of these messages will certainly be interesting. Special attention should be paid to the channel's coverage of Anthony Fauci. Ever since Fauci emerged as a sometimes oppositional voice to that of former President Donald Trump's, he became the target of ferocious conservative criticism. Even today, long after Fauci has been a visible enemy to Donald Trump, Fox News runs negative stories about him regularly. A quick search of ...

How The Local News Decline Left Everyone Blindsided by Trump (Twice)

Since 2004, more than 2000 local newspapers have gone out of business. Readership of local papers has plummeted by millions. More than 2000 counties do not have even have a daily paper in circulation . This problem is well documented, but Americans and the media class are still trying to grapple with the powerful loss of local community journalism that we have seen in this century. As the business model has waffled and the papers shut down, Americans have increasingly had to rely upon national publications for their news, or their own curated newsfeeds with content from hundreds of sources that may not adhere to journalistic principles. As a result, everyone has become more disconnected. Americans on either side of important issues no longer understand each other. They see each other as the characterizations that are often presented on cable news, and not as the real people in their communities that may have a nuanced opinion about one of the many defining, complex issues of life ...

Biden's First Press Conference

After over two months of waiting, the media finally got its chance to have a formal press conference with President Biden. The lack of a press conference turned into a mini-scandal of sorts, especially on right wing media outlets, but also mainstream media as well. As a result, you might expect that the DC press corps would come armed with a wide range of questions that produce valuable, insightful answers from the new President about the many problems facing the country. But the press conference was a boring, barely newsworthy affair that's most reported on answer involved the horserace politics of an election four years away. The new President simply was somehow not asked about the pandemic that has dominated the news cycle for the last year. Instead, the majority of the questions centered on the surge of people arriving at the border from Central America. Immigration and border stories are important, and the problem isn't that he should not have been asked about that. But s...

Mass Media and Politics

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