Media Politics: Criticisms, Voter Responsibility, and Political Impact

This essay critically examines the role of media in politics, focusing on criticisms leveled against the media, politicians, and voters. It highlights the media's tendency to prioritize sensational or negative news over developmental issues, leading to declining public trust in some regions. The essay also explores how politicians manipulate the media to cultivate a positive image, even at the expense of public well-being. Voters are criticized for their lack of engagement and awareness of political processes, which allows politicians to act unchecked. The analysis concludes by assigning shares of responsibility for the current state of media politics, with politicians identified as the primary drivers, followed by the media, and finally, the voters. Desklib offers more resources for students.

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Name
Institution
Course
Date
Media Politics
Criticisms of the Media
Traditionally, the media has been an important way of informing the people about
what is happening. Trust of people in the media has been varying across the years. It however
depends with the country in question. For instance, the trust has been declining in the United
States of America and increasing in China (Friedman). This is very ironical considering that
the United States government is a democratic one while China employs an authoritarian form
of government. There are several reasons why the media if failing in its key mandate of
informing people.
One of the reasons why media is failing and therefore receiving less trust from
citizens is focus on what would be referred to as ‘unimportant news’ (Mother Jones). The
media will rarely focus on events that are related to development or those that focus on key
positive changes. On the contrary, they will focus on news that are negative in nature and
those that might be considered not relevant to the wellbeing of the nation. While appreciating
that the media is free to focus on any form of news as long as they do not break the law, they
would benefit the country more if they focused on creating a perfect balance what is
happening rather than focusing on irrelevant issues. The focus of the contemporary media
seems to be primarily politics. There are so many issues that affect the people and it is the

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high time that the media focused on those too. For instance, the media could put more focus
on such issues as education and health.
Criticisms of the Politicians
The politicians are selfish and they have a way of manipulating anything to create and
maintain a good name for themselves (Nationalreview.com). The media plays a significant
role in helping the politician achieve this selfish motive. An example is a situation where the
president of America fired some media personalities for broadcasting irrelevant content. This
was geared towards making citizens believe that the president cares about their wellbeing
(Vox). The politician manipulated the media to magnify the ills of the media personalities
while protecting his own name.
Criticisms of the Voters
The voters are blamed for being silent on the political issues and the political process.
Most of them are neither interested nor aware of what happens at the political realm. The
voters do not seem to appreciate the significant role that the political process has on the cost
of living and how it affects their wellbeing. This lack of interest gives the political class a
leeway to propagate and perpetuate what they will at the expense of the voters.
Share of Responsibilities
The media, politician and voters contribute to media politics. The largest contributors
to the current system of the media politics are the politicians. As observed above, they have a
way of manipulating the media for their benefit. The media comes second for it is the one that
has the personnel and equipment that propagates media politics. The voters come last when it
comes to contribution to media politics.

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References
Friedman, U. (2018). Trust Is Collapsing in America. [online] The Atlantic. Available at:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/01/trust-trump-america-world/
550964/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2018].
Mother Jones. (2018). It's the end of news as we know it (and Facebook is feeling fine).
[online] Available at: https://www.motherjones.com/media/2018/12/facebook-propaganda-
trump/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2018].
Nationalreview.com. (2018). Facebook's Russia/Election Controversies: Overblown |
National Review. [online] Available at:
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2018/06/11/facebook-russia-election-
controversies-overblown/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2018].
Vox. (2018). Amusing ourselves to Trump. [online] Available at:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/6/17599010/neil-postman-trump-amusing-
ourselves [Accessed 12 Dec. 2018].