The Impact of Media Outlets on Political and Civic Engagement

The Impact of Media Outlets on Political and Civic Engagement

Throughout the fall 2012 semester at Illinois State University, Ms. Hoppers Reporting II class has been reading about and discussing the role of Journalism in a democracy along with how it aids in serving the citizenry of the United States.
The past couple of months have been a busy and important time for the media with coverage of the 2012 presidential elections this November. Several people rely on media outlets to receive information on running candidates. With todays technology we are equipped with a variety of different media outlets to get information from. In a recent study this past semester, performed by my Reporting II group and I, we collected information from social media sites, television news, print newspapers, radio, and magazines in order to see how media outlets played a role in the campaigning and election process.
One hundred ISU students were surveyed as a way to see how involved current ISU students are in the political process. It was found that our fellow student body is apathetic to the political process and did not intend to vote in the 2012 election. With regards to our group’s findings of different media outlets, social media was one of the most utilized forms of technology in the 2012 presidential election. Twitter and Facebook were the most utilized social media sites. Therefore I find it interesting that the ISU student body was overwhelmingly politically unaware, nearly every student I know has a Facebook or Twitter account, if not both. The question now is, “why it is that college aged students remain so politically unaware when Facebook and Twitter where found to be the most used media outlets for campaigning purposes?”
I believe that although the majority of ISU students own Facebook and Twitter accounts, political parties and candidates are not “friended” or “followed” because the students do not find interest in these topics. I believe in a way the media is somewhat responsible due to the way they portray and talk about politics on news channels and radio stations. This is important that they make a change to this because often times in regards to our generation and older generations, news channels and radio stations where the two main media outlets we had growing up and therefore set the tone for our political media coverage.
I believe the language used by the media disrupts the student’s activity in civic affairs such as voting, making them politically unaware. I found through my research of different media outlets that the majority of outlets tend to assume that the audience is already politically educated and proceed to use political terms and phrases that the average college student may not be able to understand. This is understandable for young college students because it is typically the first or second time college students have been legally of age to participate in the election process. When a student can not understand the material being reported on it is highly likely they will just forget about it, neglecting to do further research. Therefore, it is vital that the journalists pick and choose their word wisely.

The topics of media coverage are another disruption with student involvement in civic affairs. The media covers a lot of aspects in terms of politics yet, I feel that their lack of ability to relate these issues to college-aged students needs some work. Because the majority of college-aged student do not choose to engage regularly in politics it is the medias job to reach out to them through popular social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. They need to make students (our future) a target audience in terms of coverage. The coverage done by journalists needs to be relatable and important to them and their future, giving them a reason to be involved in the political process. I believe if more college students where aware of how important civic engagement is, they may be more likely to participate in civic affairs such as voting in presidential elections.
According to Jones, media bias has a lot to do with the crisis of Journalism and their portrayal of news. “It is a crisis of diminishing quantity and quality, of moral and sense of mission of values and leadership. The amazing new technology has sent everyone into frenzy, what used to be orderly piles of information is now scattered all over in thousands of different information sources available to almost anyone and everyone who wants a piece” (Jones, 2009).
I agree with Jones and his views on the crisis of Journalism. Because of media bias, the quality and quantity of fact based news struggles. This may also be one reason for lack of student involvement in civic affairs. Many media outlets fail to feed them unbiased, fact worthy news. With a world of amazing technology, “This has sent everyone in to frenzy, what used to be orderly piles of information is now scattered all over in thousands of different information sources” (Jones, 2009). With numerous amounts of information on political/civic issues available, it is hard for collage student, especially students new to the idea of becoming civically engaged to decipher where to get their news and how to choose a source that is reliable and unbiased.

“I never know what to believe when I see it,” Said ISU communications major, Sarah Roe. “I am constantly seeing news on several different T.V. channels, Facebook, Twitter and school newspapers discussing the same issue, making it hard to know which one to believe.”

The media may need some work in accumulating a college aged fan base but media outlets have made a right step in by becoming increasingly active on Facebook and Twitter (where college students spend a great deal of time). The majority of their friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter may not be significant yet, the ones they do have, have enhanced their awareness of politics and civic engagement. By being on these sights they have made themselves more accessible to students and citizens alike. They have done so in constantly reminding their friends and followers that they are there and there is always new coverage through posting headlines, articles, pictures and Tweeting.
The media has also enhanced participation in civic affairs with journalists wide coverage of the election from debates, campaigning, candidates’ personal lives and so on. With out journalist coverage of these areas, many people would be unaware of civic activities going on and political coverage because when something is out of sight, it is often out of mind.
Despite their institutional comings, the news media does influence politics significantly” (Entman). This is why it is so important for Journalist’s to use their unified ability to spread news to all audiences. The better they become at targeting a younger audience and limiting biases, the better they will connect to citizenry and intern will increase civic engagement involvement.