The MEDIA [AP Gov Review, Unit 5 Topic 12 (5.12)]

hey there and welcome back to homeless history now we've been going through unit five of the ap government curriculum and that means it's time to talk about the role of the media as a linkage institution so if you're ready to get them brain callus military then let's get to it so in this video here's what we're trying to do explain the media's role as a linkage institution now remember what a linkage institution is it's a societal structure that connects people to their government or the political process and already in this unit we've already talked about three other linkage institutions political parties interest groups elections and now we add the fourth the media now how are the media a linkage institution whether it's through traditional media like newspapers or television or new outlets like social media the media's reporting of what our government does influences the way citizens engage in politics ultimately this is why it was such a big deal to have the protection of the free press included in the bill of rights it's the media which acts as a watchdog agency that holds the government responsible to the people like if the media don't tell us what our representatives are doing then who else will now won't surprise you to hear that the form that our news has taken has changed significantly over time we've had newspapers since the beginning of the republic in fact the print culture that existed in colonial america and later in the united states was second to none newspapers came off printing presses by the metric butt load and by 1792 the delivery of newspapers was subsidized by the government the next big innovation in news delivery was the telegraph in the mid-19th century and that meant that news from all over could be delivered almost instantaneously via electric wire and then came the radio in the late 19th and early 20th centuries this became the first truly mass media since centralized stations could broadcast political debates and lots of other programmings into people's homes it was president franklin roosevelt who was the first president to exploit this medium to its full political potential in the midst of the great depression he held what he called fireside chats in which he would explain his administration's policies in bite-sized chunks so that the average american could understand them then in the 1950s and 60s radio gave way to television all of a sudden americans had trusted news personalities who came into the tv every night to tell them the daily news and television actually played a huge role in the public's understanding in response to the vietnam war while presidents johnson and nixon were telling the public how great it was going in vietnam television news reporters were on the ground over there showing the carnage and telling a much different story so in this way television news created a profound gap in the american public's trust in the government then in the late 90s came the internet and its child in the 2000s social media arguably this new innovation has changed the way americans consume news more than anything else that came before it now it's true that traditional news outlets have used this advancement to their benefit by establishing significant presences on sites like facebook and twitter however the manner in which people expose themselves to the news has changed profoundly according to a report by the pew trust in 2010 news consumption has become a socially engaging and socially driven activity especially online the public is clearly part of the news process now participation comes more through sharing than contributing news themselves furthermore in the same report the authors argue that news consumption has become a manifestation of what they call the daily meat in other words it is the individual news consumer which decides what news to consume and what news to ignore powered by robust algorithms news aggregators on our phones and our social media now show us the news that we will like and that will keep us on their platform not necessarily the news that we need to know and certainly not the news that will challenge us regardless of the changes in format the news media has always presented the american public with at least three major avenues of reporting first are news events which are you know anything newsworthy the hindenburg exploded mount st helens erupted covey 19 has become a global pandemic second is investigative journalism which is more long-form news which seeks to expose corruption in the government and society now the heyday of investigative journalism was in the first part of the 20th century during the progressive era you had journalists like ida tarbell and jacob reese and lincoln stefans who wrote long exposes on american corruption in the oil industry or urban poverty and a whole host of other issues and the american people loved these journalists with their attention to detail and their powerful arguments but politicians er not so much in fact it was president teddy roosevelt who coined the term for these journalists namely muckrakers they're just down there in the muck of society raking it all around and then showing the dirt to everyone even so muckraker journalism led people to put pressure on the representatives to pass certain laws for example one of the more famous muckrakers upton sinclair published a book called the jungle which provided an in-depth investigation on the profoundly unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking plants and i'm not exaggerating when i say profoundly unsanitary like he witnessed rats being ground up into people's meat and on occasion a human thumb but don't worry once the meat was all ground up roof leaks in the plant ensure that the vats of meat were soaked with polluted rainwater so you know it's okay anyway the point is upon the publication of this expose americans were horrified that the meat that they were eating was actually rats and thumbs and so they pressured congress to pass legislation addressing it namely the pure food and drug act in the meat inspection act the third avenue of news reporting is election coverage and political commentary this is a good thing because we need to know who is running for office and we need help interpreting their policies however this can also lead to a well-documented problem namely horse race journalism during election seasons news outlets can get real thirsty for polling numbers and publish them ad nauseum i've talked about this in previous videos but with the fluctuating polling numbers always in front of our eyes elections can turn more into a popularity contest than an exercising critical thinking about the qualities of a candidate in their platform okay thanks for watching click right here to grab my view packet which is going to help you get an a in your class and a five on your exam in may if this video helped you and you want to send me the signal to keep making them then by all means hit the subscribe button and i shall oblige heimler out

Channel: Heimler's History

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Length: 5min 15sec (315 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 08 2021