| Ranger 2006-10-05, 8:08 pm |
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Devala Rees wrote:
quote:
> On 10/5/06 4:47 AM, in article 87r6xnt7pj.fsf@gmail.com, "Walter Mitty"
> <mitticus@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> He just did. Mass media does not "program" people, it influences their
> opinions and beliefs. The difference is that while media influences people,
> it cannot influence them in a specific way with every person, since people
> will interpret things differently.
This is true. It's an indirect way of getting people to think a
certain way. I'll use American politics for example. In the US, the
mass media pays attention to only two political parties: the Democrats
and Republicans. Every once in awhile mass media sources will give a
nod to a third party like the Greens or the Libertarians, but it's
short lived while the Dem v. Repub stuff is all over the place.
Naturally enough, when election time comes, Americans (at least the
ones who do vote (I don't bother on election day)) overwhelmingly cast
votes for the Democrats and the Republicans while third parties get
real small vote counts. The reason for this is because most Americans
who vote think the Democrats or the Republicans are the only two "real"
choices because they're not given access to the views of other parties
(if they've even heard of them) in mass media sources. And let's face
it, we all get a lot of our info on the larger than local scale from
major media outlets. American voters are not programmed to vote either
Republican or Democrat. They do so because the mass media portrays
them as the only viable choices. It doesn't stop some from voting
Green or Libertarian (or whatever) and many from not voting because
they're disgusted with the system (like myself).
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