La Comay Public Opinion

English 3152 Sec. 001
March 19, 2013
Research Evidence

“La Comay”, Mass Media, and Public Opinion

We are constantly exposed to information by different mass media, such as the press, television (TV) and most recently, the Internet. Of these, TV is the most prevalent form mass media. But, how susceptible are we as individuals and as a society to manipulation through those media? How does publicity affect public opinion by providing biased information? I believe that mass media specifically through TV manipulate and affect public opinion by transmitting misleading information. Manipulation is dangerous since the real intentions of the manipulator are hidden by presenting false arguments that appeal to the non-rational and emotional side
Balkin from Yale University argues that mass media specifically uses TV to present a false image of political transparency and thus confuse the public to avoid the discussion of important issues. This is in contrast to research news that is normally presented in the written press and requires reading and analysis of ideas. TV has become the primary outlet of information in our society and politicians constantly use this media to deliver their propaganda. Balkin proposes that TV provides a false image of transparency in three different areas: informational transparency, participatory transparency, and accountability transparency. Basically, he proposes that TV presents images that substitute the discussion of important political and economical issues with issues that are more “entertainment” such as political infighting, scandals, and even the private life of
In the TV show “La Comay”, scandals were presented as “news” which substituted the discussion of real important issues. For example, “La Comay” started a rumor about the murder of a man called Jose Alejandro Gomez. “La Comay” announced that Alejandro Gomez was involved with male and female prostitutes and because of that he deserved his death. The public instead of focusing on the real important issue about the death of this man was instead focused on the scandal that “La Comay” had exposed about this murder. It became pure entertainment instead of news. Transparency was presented in terms of discussion of issues that caught the attention of the TV viewers but that had little meaning to the economic and political problems of the island. The majority of the people on the island saw this TV program instead of the traditional TV news. During the past political campaign, politicians made TV appearances on “La Comay” in order to be interviewed. These interviews offered an image of political transparency, which was not real since it focused on the private life of the politicians and not in the discussion of issues or problems. The images presented by La Comay influenced many people as demonstrated by different polls. On the other hand, the TV channel that transmitted “La Comay” obtained high profits though the advertising sponsors. As Lippmann states, “the machinery for assembling