Politico-media complex

While the term politico-media complex (PMC) has not been defined in any dictionaries, a working definition can be derived from its use in contemporary political discourse. The term refers to the close, symbiotic relationship between a state's political classes, particularly any ruling class, its media industry, and any interactions with or dependencies upon an analogous interest group, such as the so-called military-industrial complex (MIC). As a pejorative term, PMC refers toinstitutionalized collusion between mainstream media (MSM) news distribution organizations and the government under which they labor.

The nature of the politico-media complex evolved as societies, and their media, have transformed. The PMC began in early newspapers, and has only increased in scope over the past century, with the introduction of radio, television, film and the internet. Print media served as the original method of sharing news to the masses, and though some critics say that today's newsprint and magazine industries are in the decline, it is still a major part of the politico-media complex. Radio represents a highly propagandist section of the media, as it was widely used for propaganda during the two World Wars, though during the Cold Wars became a far more reliable source of balanced news coverage. The number of radio listeners did decline with the introduction of television, which is now one of the two main sources of news in the Western world, along with the internet. The internet represents a revolution within the PMC as innovations like forums, wikis and 24 hour news sites have dramatically affected the way in which audiences get the news, and has given them increased power to participate in what was once a mostly closed system between the government and the media industry.

Print

National print media

The West

Newspapers, as seen here, are easily available in many parts of the world.

Newspapers and magazines are going through major changes in the Western world as the Internet becomes more and more popular. Print media has been having difficulty gaining new readership from the younger generations. For reasons of expense, and declining audience interest, print press has taken a major hit. Today a little more than half of Americans read a newspaper every day. An exception to the hit taken by newspapers in the United States is the national papers. National newspapers have been doing well in the last twenty years.

Newspapers and magazines do have a back and forth between readers and journalists. Most studies show that the print media are more likely to reinforce existing political attitudes of the masses than change them. This makes it seem like print news is a mouthpiece for citizens, rather than a tool to oppress them. Of course, the media can only be a reflection of the masses if the masses are allowed to express their views. For this, freedom of the press is necessary.

One of the more comprehensive judges of freedom of the press is Reporters Without Borders. Every year it releases an index, drawing attention to how free the press is in every country in the world. “It is disturbing to see European democracies such as France, Italy and Slovakia fall steadily in the rankings year after year,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said at the release of this year's index. “Europe should be setting an example as regards civil liberties. How can you condemn human rights violations abroad if you do not behave irreproachably at home? The Obama effect, which has enabled the United States to recover 16 places in the index, is not enough to reassure us."

Professor Thomas Patterson concludes his study on young people and news with this insight: "What's happened over time is that we have become more of a viewing nation than a reading nation, and the internet is a little of both. My sense is that, like it or not, the future of news is going to be in the electronic media, but we don't really know what that form is going to look like."

Asia

China has claimed that Western freedom of press is illusory because it is controlled by a small wealthy minority. Although, Reporters Without Borders ranks China's press situation as "very serious", the worst ranking on their five-point scale. The Chinese government has the legal authority to censor the press, despite their claims that the Communist party has the most freedom of press, since there is no wealthy minority to control it.

The link between Indian press and politics was very restricted in early independence. Indira Gandhi famously stated in 1975 that All India Radio is "a Government organ, it is going to remain a Government organ..." However, with the liberalization in the 1990s, private control of the press has been loosened, and the government is more wary about freedom of press.

The Middle East and North Africa

File:Asharq-alawsat28112009.png

A copy of Asharq Al-Awsat, an international Arabic language newspaper. 2008.

Middle Eastern print media is mainly paid for by private funders, either a specific family or specific government party. These newspapers and magazines are rather obvious in their political ties, and display the politico-media complex nicely. There is little press freedom, which leads to a great bias.

The Middle East has seen hard times in the print media like the Western world. The recession has made advertisers move away from print to favor online advertising. With rivals like social networking sites, blogs, and social media sites there are plenty of places for advertisers to go other than print press.

Many countries in the Middle East have harsh government restrictions as to what can be published when, for various reasons. Israel has experienced a media control crackdown as the government censors the military action coverage.

According to Reporters Without Borders for 2009, Eritrea in Northern Africa is the worst ranked country for journalism freedom.

Global print media

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers". Most of the international papers present in the world today are national papers re-edited for a wider audience. Because of this, there can be biases based on nationality. In any publication there is some sort of bias just from what news is covered and what stories are shown at the forefront of the publication.

Struggles

Print media has struggled with the rising cost of producing and distributing paper and ink, and the increasing popularity of online news sources. For most advertisers, online ads are cheaper and target a specifically tailored audience.

Newspapers and magazines have been struggling not only with financial issues, but also with loosing their reader’s trust. Surveys have found that people tend to trust newspapers less than other news mediums because they believe commercial issues motivate journalists. Most people believe their local and national news television stations more than their local and national newspapers. The only news medium that people trust less than newspapers is print magazines. This accounts for some of decline in readership in both newspapers and magazines, for people won’t read what they don’t believe.

As seen above, younger generations of today are less likely to pick up a newspaper. Some speculation has shown that the youth today are more visually inclined. Of the many studies on newspaper readership published since 1996, only one by Roper Starch Worldwide shows that more than half of Generation X reads the paper on a given day. One Pew Center study recently found that 28% of this generation read the paper on a given day, and average 10 minutes of reading time. Another study, published by research firm Yankelovich in 1997, finds that on a daily basis only 22% of 16-32-year-olds read a paper at home. Because of these sad statistics many publications have moved at least some part of their news online, and many have incorporated more visuals into their news coverage. Publisher of Mother Jones magazine, Jay Harris, has said “This generation communicates visually as well as verbally,” which is why he has started using much stronger graphics.

Although print media is struggling in the West, newspapers and magazines in second and third world countries are doing well. For these countries that do not have ready access to the Internet or television, newspapers and magazines are the only way to get the news, unlike in first world countries where there are many other ways to receive news.

Radio

History of political radio

An RCA Radiola, manufactured 1925.

The early American radio industry was composed of commercial shipping companies that used radio for navigation, and amateur radio enthusiasts, who built radios at home. This mixture of industry and community went unregulated until the Radio Act of 1912, which required all ships to use radio communication and keep a constant radio watch, amateur users to be licensed, and began regulating the use of wavelengths for radio transmissions. This act established precedent for all other radio legislation, including the Radio Act of 1927, which established the Federal Radio Commission and added further regulation to radio users, both commercial and amateur. Government regulation increased again with the American entrance into World War I, when President Woodrow Wilson ordered naval control of all radio stations, and ordered that amateurs cease all radio activity. Jonathan Reed Winkler, a noted WWI historian, says “It was only during World War I that the United States first came to comprehend how a strategic communications network-the collection of submarine telegraph cables, and long-distance radio stations used by a nation for diplomatic, commercial and military purposes- was vital to the global political and economic interests of a great power in the modern world.” After World War I radio was introduced to broader civilian audiences when Westinghouse released the Aeriola Jr. in 1919, and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) released the Radiola in 1920. The Aeriola Jr. and Radiola brought radio into the homes of thousands of Americans. Amateur ham radio enthusiasts had been transmitting mostly in morse code, but with the advances in radio technology soon voice transmissions, mostly music and educational broadcasts became popular. By 1919 the oldest licensed American radio station, KDKA, from Pittsburgh, PA began broadcasting regular music shows. Coverage of politics quickly caught on across the countries, as stations began covering elections, and reporting news of government actions. The close relationship between politics and radio was finalized in 1924 when the Republican and Democratic National Conventions were covered, and candidates made eve of election speeches, the first instance of radio broadcasting that was meant to affect the American political process.

The close relationship between government and the radio would only deepen as the years passed. The numbers of radio users exploded, by 1935 about 2 in 3 American homes owned a radio. Politicians quickly learned to reach these huge audiences. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Fireside Chats are an excellent example of the politico-media complex. In his series of informal broadcasts from 1933 to 1944, Roosevelt developed a comforting rapport with the American public. The Fireside Chats enabled the President to communicate directly to the public through on of the most popular media outlets of the time. Politicians would continue to use the radio in World War II, in which the radio was used primarily for news transmissions and the spread of propaganda. One example of radio propaganda and the politico-media complex are Iva Toguri D'Aquino, Ruth Hayakawa, June Suyamawho, and Myrtle Lipton collectively known as Tokyo Rose. These women hosted anti-American programming intended to lower American soldiers' morale and illustrate the use of governments' use of the media to influence the public, or their enemies.

Willis Conover, host of the VOA's Music USA program, 1969.

After WWII and throughout the Cold War era, Democratic nations used long-range radio waves to broadcast news into countries behind the Iron Curtain or otherwise information-compromised nations. The American international radio program, the Voice of America, founded during World War II, became a critical part of Cold War era "public diplomacy," which aimed to spread democratic values, and popularize American policies abroad. In 1950, President Harry S. Truman described the Cold War conflict as a "struggle, above all else, for the minds of men," which the American people would win by getting "the real story across to people in other countries." The Voice of America, operating under the authority of the United States Information Agency, supported programming in forty five languages, broadcasting over 400 hours of programming a week. Programming included unbiased news coverage, musical programs, and Special English broadcasts, which intended to help listeners master American English. The VOA was not alone in its international broadcasting efforts, the United States Central Intelligence Agency supported Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, both propagandist radio networks intended to incite dissent against Communism. Other nations also used international radio as propaganda, for example, Deutsche Welle, the German international radio program was a major broadcaster during the Cold War. By 1965 DW was airing 848 hours of programming to the Soviet Union and abroad and reached 5% of the USSR population weekly by 1980. Deutsche Welle's mission to “promote understanding of Germany as an independent nation with its roots in European culture and as a liberal, democratic, constitutional state based on the rule of law.” illustrates German use of the politico-media complex.

Modern political radio

The Golden Age of Radio may have only lasted from 1935-1950, yet radio is still an active medium in the politico-media complex. Today there is extensive radio programming on politics. One notable example is the Rush Limbaugh Show, which broadcasts the political commentary of Rush Limbaugh, referred to by listeners as "America's Truth Detector," the "Doctor of Democracy," and the "Most Dangerous Man in America." The Rush Limbaugh Show has hosted numerous politicians, illustrating that politicians still use the radio to affect public opinion and the political process. The Air America Media company, provides progressive political commentary and news coverage and is described as "most recognized progressive talk radio network, providing an independent and unfiltered voice to a grateful listening nation." Air America programs such as The Rachel Maddow Show, The Lionel Show, and Live in Washington with Jack Rice discuss recordings of politicians, host politicians as live guests, and act as a connection between the political classes and the media.

Film

It is difficult to find a film that does not involve politics in some way and, as a form of expression that can be individual or institutional, paid for, censored, or influenced by governments to varying degrees in different countries, this section only serves to provide an overview and a few specific examples of the complex relationship between film and politics for its consideration in the network of forms of media in the politico-media complex.

National cinema

One of film's most powerful political and sociological forms is national cinema, for which there are entire books for individual countries and varying definitions. Film can represent society, a country, how they are, should, or should not be. In a way, it is a cultural gate-keeper that can influence the ideologies and behavior of citizens. As a form of popular entertainment and thus provides a political group or a government with a powerful and dangerously imperceptible means of maintaining control and/or favor of its citizens, but also provides non-governmental groups with the power to affect change, galvanize the masses (where such films are free to be produced and screened.) Nations and ideological groups can construct and reinforce their collective identities through film, as well as the identities of foreigners.

Cultural politics

Ulf Hedetoft has observed that "In the real world of politics and influence, certain nationalisms, cultures, ideas and interpretations are more transnationally powerful, assertive and successful than others. Where the less influential ones are not necessarily less self-congratulatory, they are certainly more inward-looking and always carry the label of national specificity." He goes on, however, to say that these more transnationally powerful films actually become de-nationalized as a result of its "national-cultural currency" more widely and easily dispersed, mixing with other cultures, becoming either a "positive admixture" to other countries' cultures and identities or a "model for emulation." He compares national cinema that undergoes such processes to English becoming a global lingua franca: the cultural sharing that results is hegemonic and the globalizing process is non-symmetrical.

Propaganda

Propaganda is a way that politics can represented in film. Leif Furhammar and Folke Isaksson credit Russian producers Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin with the birth of propaganda aesthetics, for which the underlying assumption was that by manipulating cinematic images representing reality, they could manipulate spectators' concepts of reality. Documentaries can even be an even more effective form of propaganda than other genre films because the form of representation claims to mirror reality, making the manipulation of an audience that much more obscured.

Though British newsreel photographers would have probably denied that they were producing political propaganda for The Battle of the Somme and other WWI documentaries, but they were because they only showed the war from the perspective of their own side, though they can be argued as being more honest and objective than more recent war documentaries (for they were edited without adjustments for dramatic or epic effect. Nonetheless, their photographers remained on their front lines, presenting, therefore a half-truth. According to Furhammar and Isaksson, however, the Russians were the "masters of montage" who discovered its power to create convincing illusion with cutting, rhythmic editing, and a didactic approach.

A scene from "Divide and Conquer", the third installment of Why We Fight, 1943.

When sound became possible, documentaries could be all the more politically powerful with the use of speakers' voices and music. In Nazi Germany, newsreels were just as important as feature films while in Fascist Italy propaganda was mostly limited to documentaries. A comparison of the first three installments of the American series Why We Fight, which covers years in a couple hours but whose density disguises any omission of truth, and the Nazi documentary Sieg im Westen (Victory in the West), which manages to depict war with real images but without blood or death, demonstrates how convincing even two opposing interpretations of the same events. The same can be found in documentaries about the Spanish Civil War.

Falsification in documentaries can be created by lifting shots of other events and including them in the film so that they appear to be a part of the "reality" it deals with (as the Congressional Committee on un-American Activities did with Operation Abolition in 1960 and as Nazi newsreels depicted scenes of the Allies' defeat at Dieppe as real scenes from the Normandy invasion just a few days after to convince audience of the Reich's success) or by actually staging the events (as the 1944 Nazi picture The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a Town did.)

Italian promotional poster for Lilian Calvani's Il portiere di notte, 1974.

Even just 30 years after Dachau and Auschwitz, the thinly disguised fascist propaganda Italian film The Night Porter (1974) sought to legitimize the Nazis' genocide, while glorifying sadism, brutality, and machismo. What amazes Henry Giroux, as he explains in "Breaking into the Movies," is that such blatant ideological messages were ignored by critics and the general public. That society may be incapable of testing the present against the past has implications for post-industrial oppression in the West and the strategies for resisting it. Despite the writings of Antonio Gramsci, Herbert Marcuse, and Paulo Freire, the majority of Americans (at least) do not recognize how important "class hegemony" (cultural domination) is in nations where populations are kept obedient through ideological means. He argues, "We are not only victims in the political and material sense, but are also tied emotionally and intellectually to the prevailing ruling-class norms and values."

Feature propaganda lack documentaries' ostensible authenticity, but the directors' resources are less limited as they have the power to create the reality of the film and compensate lack of credibility with intensity.

Anti-politics in film

Overtly political films have never been popular in the U.S. despite the strong patriotism and nationalism of Americans. Besides Frank Capra, no other major American film-maker has seriously presented central themes of citizenship, participation, and responsibility in civic life. Lindholm and Hall, in "Frank Capra Meets John Doe," connect the failure of his project to "develop a positive American cinematic vocabulary for political action" with what they argue are "fundamental contradictions in American national identity." After a period of depression, Capra resolved to inspire Americans "by reaffirming and updating national myths in his films."

A scene from Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" 1939.

Capra's films from that point on were characterized by the same basic formula according to which the fundamental American values of fairness and honesty are challenged by the corruption and cruelty of the city and government. During his presidential campaign Ronald Reagan later extensively quoted the speech made by Mr. Deeds in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) when he makes a passionate speech that wins everyone over at the trial in which he is accused of insanity. He calls for "charity and individual goodness -- combined with a distaste for the complexities of political life." His next film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) reinforced these values as well as the American faith in the legal system the integrity and decency of the everyman versus the power and the crookedness of special interest groups, hence constructing a myth of the American everyman hero who is able to defeat corporate evil. John Doe (1941), which ads went to great pains to market as the true everyman representative of the American public conformed again to Capra's formula, but without the strong family roots and initially amoral, a reflection on America's ambivalence toward social life. The ideal of the power of individualism and the fluidity of social mobility abound. Capra promotes the free man's ability to take up the responsibilities and obligations that come with a social conscience the community and state. After Joe realizes his need for others, he discovers and attempts to expose a fascist bidder for presidency planning to take advantage of his club support, but he fails in the midst of a violent mob with the depressing conclusion that the American public is a credulous crowd susceptible to manipulation until the John Doe club members come begging his forgiveness and convince him to return to lead them.

The unsuccessful ending discouraged any more political films for Capra and no films of merit after It's a Wonderful Life and he said in old age that all American film-makers should forget politics if they don't want to cut themselves in half. Alexis de Tocqueville elaborates on what Capra apparently assumed as well: "The egalitarian individualist is inevitably disconnected from the world of society and politics" and the "major theme of American social thought...is how to relate the isolated individual to the larger social whole." Tocqueville, however, argued that without some kind of religious faith, the institutions responsible for instilling civic virtue in citizens, as Capra was attempting to do through the media of film, would be ultimately ineffective.

Lindholm and Hall conclude with the observation that "the problems that defeated Capra have also undercut later attempts by American film-makers to portray the complex relationship between individualism and citizenship in the United States" and say that Hollywood has instead adopted the paranoia of politics that Capra had tried to overcome. Consequently, political films in the U.S. have followed a trend of focusing on the flawed character of leaders, such as Citizen Kane (1940) and Nixon (1995), or otherwise show the corruption of power, such as in The Candidate (1972) and Primary Colors (1998). Other films like A Face in a Crowd (1957) and All the King's Men (1949) follow John Doe's warning. JFK (1991) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962), on the other hand, are based on the premise that democracy is an illusion and Americans are the ignorant pawns of various conspiracies.

The depoliticizing effect of cinema

"...the complexity and dynamics of class struggle, have been treated by mass culture in terms that both depoliticize and flatten the contradictions inherent in such relationships. In other words, the concept of class has been reduced to predictable formulas that represent forms of ideological shorthand. Needless to say, Hollywood has played no small role in dealing with class-based issues in such a way as to strip them of any critical social meaning."

"It might be more fruitful to view Hollywood ideology less as a result of conscious lies than as a worldview so closely related to the dominant structures of production that the relationship is not a conscious matter of reflection." Giroux argues that prevailing ideology is so powerful and ubiquitous that it is going unquestioned by those in power, although he also admits that there are some exceptions. One of these exceptions is Norma Rae (1979), a film that presents a truer representation of the complexities and politics of the working-class struggle and culture at the level of everyday life.

Actors turned politicians

Refer to List of actor-politicians.

Television

Role of television in American Presidential elections

In “Presidential Selection,” Alexander Heard and Michael Nelson highlighted the strong impact of the media, especially the television, in the American Presidential elections. The invention and growth of the television has led to a transformation in political campaigns, and today “presidential election campaigns center on television.”

This transformation first kicked off in the early 1960s, when newscast programs were increased to a thirty-minute program, which allowed for greater news coverage and capacity. This expanded time slot allowed more focus to be given to presidential candidates, and network news soon became the center of national politics coverage. Because newscasts were national, the aired political campaigns were able to impact viewers across the country, making them very powerful. “The way Americans choose their presidents has been studied exhaustively, and these studies has shown the mass media has always influenced the political process, but never more so than the innovation o the television.

Rick Shenkan also focused on the media’s impact on politics in his book, “Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter.” In this book, Shenkman argues that although American voters have gained significant political power over the last 50 years, “they have become increasingly ignorant of politics and world affairs - and dangerously susceptible to manipulation” (Shenkman, p. 5). Shenkman believes that this ignorance stems from the fact that many Americans rely solely on television newscasts for their information on politics and political campaigns. This means that Americans primarily get their information on political candidates from their 30-second campaign commercials, which is very insufficient when considering how vast a politicians campaign actually is. In the past, Americans primary source of information on politics was from the newspapers, which provided much greater information and detail on the stands of politicians, and was therefore a much better source for voters to base their decisions off of. However, there is a great emphasis on entertainment in today’s competitive capitalistic society, and people are therefore not inclined to sit down and study a newspaper or online article to determine what is going on in politics. Instead, they obtain their information from what they are able to see in the media entertainment. This method of information gathering has led to the superficial politics and ignorance of political voters America is experiencing today.

John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in the first televised presidential candidates' debate. 1960.

In his book, Shenkman “illustrates how politicians have repeatedly misled voters and analyzes the dumbing down of American politics via marketing, spin machines, and misinformation." Overall, Shenkman’s book argues that although the American government has gained global political power since the late 20th century, and the American voter has gained power in recent decades, American voters are highly susceptible to political manipulation because they are relying on inappropriate sources of media for their political information and are therefore becoming increasingly ignorant of politics and world affairs.

Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw also made points regarding the media’s impact on today’s political reality. They note that the news media has the power to set a nation’s political agenda and to focus public attention on whatever key public issues they choose. Because they choose the key issues that are broadcasted, media news is able to play a significant role in determining the nation’s political reality. Not only do people acquire factual information regarding politics from the news media, they also learn how much importance to attach to a topic on the basis of the emphasis placed on it in the news (McCombs and Shaw, p. 110). For example, television news is able to offer cues on topic salience by deciding what the opening story on the newscast will be or by altering the length of time devoted a story. When these cues are repeated broadcast after broadcast, day after day, they are able to effectively communicate the amount of importance broadcasters want each topic to have. This illustrates how the news media is able to set the agenda for the public’s attention.

Political influence on religion via television

In his book, “Politics After Television: Religious Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India,” Arvind Rajagopal examines Hindu nationalism during the late 1980s and 1990s in India. Rajagopal analyzed the role of the media in the public’s construction of national, cultural, class, and regional identity. More specifically, he studied the hegemonic role of the Ram Janmabhumi movement and how the Ram project was played out on Indian national television. In his study, Rajagopal found that the Ram project played a role in “shaping discourses about national and cultural identities through the 1990s to the present” in India.

Rajagopal investigated the cultural and political economy of television in contemporary India. His discussion of television revolves around the industrial and cultural politics of the serialized epic Ramayan. The serial epic, which generated unprecedented viewership, was based on the epic story of the Hindu god Ram and aired on Doordarshan, India's state-run television. Rajagopal made the argument that the national telecast of the Hindu religious epic Ramayan during the late 1980s provided much of the ideological groundwork for the launch of the Ram Janmabhumi movement. To defend his argument, Rajagopal stated that “television profoundly changes the context of politics” (p. 24).

The epic was broadcasted on national television, sponsored by the ruling Congress government. Rajagopal argues that the Congress assumed that the mere sponsorship of the epic would aid its electoral future by bringing in the majority Hindu vote. Quite the opposite happened, however. Rather, it was the electorally weak Hindu nationalist political body, the Bharariya Janata Party (BJP), that benefited from the serial's popularity. The BJP did so by avoiding the media effects framework attempted by Congress and instead articulating a complex relationship between the televised Hindu epic and its own Hindu nationalist beliefs. The BJP mobilized the public around the symbol of Ram, the lead figure of the serial, but strategically reworked the symbol via the Ram Janmabhumi movement to articulate cultural authenticity, national belonging, and a renewed sense of national purpose and direction. Articulating the temple restoration project within its electoral promise, the BJP, not surprisingly, went on to form the national government in the next general election (p. 43). This illustrates that, as Rajagopal argues, television is capable of profoundly impacting politics.

Central to the BJP’s success was the party’s strategic use of using both the media and the market, by creating merchandise such as stickers, buttons, and audio tapes centering on the key figure of the Ram. Rajagopal argues that the televised epic also dealt with the tension between the past and the present at many levels. This can be seen in the reworking of the epic story of the Ram to fit the conventions of modern commercial television. In addition to this, the epic was laced with twenty minutes of advertising both before and after the program, which helped the serial to reconstruct the past through technologies of the present. This key fact highlights the power of advertisements in the media.

Television and politics around the world

In the “Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt,” Lila Abu-Lughod suggests that a nation’s television should be studied to answer larger questions about the culture, power, and modern self-fashioning of that nation. Abu-Lughod focuses on the Egyptian nation, and investigates the elements of developmentalist ideology and the dreams of national progress that dominated Egyptian television in the past. She analyzes the nation’s television broadcasts and highlights the attempt to depict authentic national culture and the intentional strategies for fighting religious extremism.

The main cultural form that binds together the Egyptian nation is, surprisingly, television serials. These serials are melodramatic programs, similar to American soap operas but more closely tied to political and social issues than their Western counterparts. Their contents reflect the changing dynamics of Islam, gender relations, and everyday life in the Middle Eastern nation of Egypt, while at the same time trying to influence and direct these changes.

Another group who studied the impact of television on politics were Holli Semetko and Patti Valenburg. In their studies, they analyzed the framing of press and television news in European politics. For reader clarification, they provided the best working definitions of news frames as defined from a wide range of sources. News frames are "conceptual tools which media and individuals rely on to convey, interpret and evaluate information" (Neuman et al., 1992 , p. 60). They set the parameters "in which citizens discuss public events" (Tuchman, 1978, p. IV). They are "persistent selection, emphasis, and exclusion" ( Gitlin, 1980 , p. 7). Framing is selecting "some aspects of a perceived reality" to enhance their salience "in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation" ( Entman, 1993 , p. 53). Frames are to help audiences "locate, perceive, identify, and label" the flow of information around them (Goffman, 1974, p. 21) and to "narrow the available political alternatives"(Tuchman, 1978, p. 156).” In other words, news frames act to direct the attention of viewers and promote a specific issue or idea.

News frames have what is known as the framing effect. Framing effects are when relevant attributes of a message – such as its organization, content, or structure – make particular thoughts applicable, resulting in their activation and use in evaluations ( Price et al., 1997, p. 486). Framing has shown to have large effects on people’s perceptions, and has also been shown to shape public perceptions of political issues or institutions.

Like agenda-setting research, framing analysis focuses on the relationship between public policy issues in the news and the public perceptions of these issues. However, framing analysis "expands beyond agenda-setting research into what people talk or think about by examining how they think and talk about issues in the news" ( Pan & Kosicki, 1993 , p. 70, emphasis in the original).” The results of Semetko and Valenburg’s research indicate that the attribution of responsibility frame was most commonly employed by the news. This particular type of framing focuses on making viewers feel a sense of role responsibility, in which they feel bound to perform whatever duties are attached to the given role, and feel a sense of moral accountability for not taking on the role. After understanding the attribution of responsibility frame, it is easy to see why it is such a powerful tool to news programs, as it evokes strong emotions within the viewer.

Internet

Impact on political media

The internet has given the world a tool for education, communication, and negotiation in political information and political roles. The use of the internet has greatly increasing giving more communication and education to individuals and organizations. The increase in usage can be compared to the boom of the television and its impact on politics through the media. The internet also opens up a world commentary and criticism which in turn allows for new and better ideas many people. The internet gives multidirectional communication, which allows people to stay in connection with organizations or people associated with politics a little easier. There are many controversies of the politico-media complex being short bits of information or biased information leading to public cynicism toward the media. Then there is also a positive spin on politics and the media in that; it gives us the ability to uses multiple forms of deliberation and decision making structures. The advancements of the internet’s impact on politics are outstanding. The internet has more current information since it is being constantly updated. Another advancement is the ability to have all information in one place, like voting records, periodicals, press releases, opinion polls, policy statements, speeches, etc. This information was all in a library at one time, and it would take longer to look information up. Political Information available on the internet covers every major activity of American politics.

Bill Clinton was the first U.S. President to utilize the Internet in a national campaign and to appoint a Director of Email and Electronic Publishing.

The boom of e-mail hit the internet in the mid 1990s as a way to keep in touch with family and friends. Different governments got a hold of this technology, and in 1993 Congress and the White House were using this as communication for the general public. During the Clinton administration a director for e-mail and electronic publishing was appointed. By the summer of 1993, the White House was receiving 800 e-mails per day. In order to deal with the influx of e-mail a more sophisticated system was put in. When an e-mail is sent there is a standard form and is easily categorized. In a six month period, at one point, there were half a million e-mails sent to the president and vice president.

Elections

The internet had given people a great resource for information about elections like: candidates, issues, and a place to give and receive opinions and ideas about elections. Since the use of the internet increases, so do the relationship with candidates and their issues. The ability of the candidates to reach as many people as they can through the internet is becoming a terrific resource in their campaigns. The United States Presidential campaign in 1996 between sitting-President Bill Clinton and Robert Dole was one of the first campaigns to utilize the Internet on a national level.

With so many campaigns using the Internet it raises a significant amount of money in a shorter period of time then with any other method. The web sites are set up like advertising sites. There are links to click on to watch ads, information and background on the candidate, photos from the campaign trail, schedules, donation links, etc. E-mail gives a great low-cost way of connecting with the campaign trail and voters.

During the last United States Presidential election between John McCain and Barack Obama, the internet was extensively utilized by both candidates. Facebook, an internet social network, was used heavily to give people the ability to support their views and share information with their friends. Both sent out messages daily to promote themselves and the issues at hand, for leverage against the other candidate.

Discussion forums

Blogging is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blogging started to become popular at the start of the millennium, and was used mostly by highly educated, highly paid, males. Around 2004 blogging became more main stream and was typically used for political interaction. Many political campaigns use this as a stake in monitoring blogs talks and actively using blogs to spread information about their candidate.

The internet sets up an area where people can voice their opinions and discuss political issues in an anonymous way. Some discussion forums are groups or organizations set up for a specific purpose about one issue or person in politics.

Some problems with discussion forums are the lack of personal contact, so there are people who do not take responsibility for posts. Many times online discussions lead to name calling and rude comments. Another issue of online discussion forums is the lack of an opposite view since many websites attract like minded individuals.

See also

• E-mail
• Freedom of the press
• History of Radio
• KDKA (AM)
• Mass Media
• Military-Industrial Complex (MIC)

Bibliography

• Lindholm, Charles and John A. Hall. "Frank Capra meets John Doe: Anti-politics in American National Identity." Cinema and Nation. Eds. Mette Hjort and Scott Mackenzie. New York: Routledge, 2000.
• Giroux, Henry A. Breaking in to the Movies: Film and the Culture of Politics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publisers, 2002.
• Furhammar, Leif, and Folke Isaksson. Politics and Film. Trans. Kersti French. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1968.

Further reading

• Chandler, D. Positioning Of The Subject. Semiotics: The Basics. Routledge, 2007, ISBN 0-415-36375-6. pp. 186-190. (Weblink information found in 'External links.' WFE)
• Herman, E.S., Chomsky, N. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. Vintage, 1994, ISBN 0-375-71449-9.
• Horten, Gerd. Radio Goes to War: the cultural politics of propaganda during World War II. University of California Press. 2002. ISBN 0-520-20783-1.
• Oborne, P. Part III The Capturing of the Media. The Triumph of the Political Class. Simon & Schuster, 2007 ISBN 978-0-7432-9527-7. pp. 233-293.
• Ibid. Postructuralist Semiotics. pp. 217-221.
• Land, Jeff. Active Radio: Pacifica's Brash Experiment. University of Minnesota. 1999. ISBN 0-8166-3157-3.
• Smail, D. The Language of Anxiety. Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety. Dent, 1984 ISBN 0-094-77440-4. pp. 81-98. (WFE)

External links

• BBC.co.uk, A Very Special Relationship
• Guardian.co.uk, Blair's message for the media Guardian.co.uk, Tuesday June 12, 2007. (Journalist Kettle finds outgoing Prime Minister Blair's attack on the 'ferality' of the media 'interesting.')
• David Smail's website
• Guardian.co.uk, How Murdoch plans to win friends and influence peopleJournalism.co.uk, Thursday February 2, 2006. (Journalist Murphy refers to a memorandum: Project proposals and tools to communicate public affairs messages)
• informationclearinghouse.info, Manufacturing Consent, video documentary
• Guardian.co.uk, Revealed: Blair's talks with Murdoch on eve of war
• Aber.ac.uk Semiotics: The Basics, web version. For Positioning of the Subject, select Modes of Address and 'Find (on This Page)' twice
• Chomsky.info , The Propaganda Model: A Retrospective, by Edward S. Herman, December 9, 2003
• "Trust Me, I'm Gordon - Not Tony". BBC News. 2007-06-25. Retrieved 2008-08-05., John Ware, Panorama, BBC One at 2030 GMT on Monday 25 June, 2007