Why Political Journalism is Important - Assignment Example

Questions Political Journalism University’s Name: Submitted by Names: Tutor: Date: Why Political Journalism is Important One of the fundamental human rights is the freedom of information, which can only be adequately achieved through the freedom of the media. It is a free media that can hold the political class to be accountable to their subject and good governance. One branch of the media that play this watchdog role is the political journalism. Political journalism refers to the coverage all issues related to politics, which is believed to be one of the important segments of the society because political actions directly affect the lives of the citizen (Ku and Neveu, 2013). One of the main reasons why political journalism is important is because it improves governance. The political journalism plays a critical role in monitoring the action of the political leaders and it alerts the public about the negative and the positive actions of the government. It is the role of the political journalism to report the corruption and the abuse of power by those in power (Richards, 2007). It is hard for the public to access the critical information of the government because governments are believed to be very secretive in all their operations and would not like to disclose important information to the public. Political journalism also promotes democracy in the society. Democracy significantly depends on the literacy of the voters, which is only possible if they access important decision that can enable them to make informed political decision (McNair, 2000). However, the only social institution that can adequately educate the electorate is the media through political journalism. Political journalists are able to underpin and scrutinize the actions of both the government and those in the opposition and relay the information to the public (Waisbord, 2013). The process is important because it will reduce propaganda and deception among the political leaders, which will enable the public to elect their leaders based on informed decision. The political journalism also plays an important role because it gives voice to the voiceless in the society. There is a direct relationship between the political journalism and the government response to the marginalized and the disadvantaged people in the society (Lule, 2001). It is the political journalists who raise and air the plights of the disadvantaged and the marginalized segment in the society, which forces the government to respond to their concerns. Political journalism also gives voice and political strength to the marginalized and the neglected people in the society by feeding them with necessary governance information. Political journalism, therefore, plays a vital role in the society. It ensures that there is good governance, improves democracy, it enhances change in the society and it gives voice to the voiceless in the society. Social media in the society can play these roles better in the society because it has a direct attachment to the public. The increased global campaign about media independence makes it a suitable institution to ensure that the government does not serve its interest, but the people and it does not violate their rights. Political Journalism Obscure Political Process Political process refers to the formulation and the implementation of public policies by the government through the interaction between the public and the political leaders (Statham, 2006). Political journalism should facilitate the political process, but this is not always the case due to political bias among the political journalists. Political journalists also take a political position, although not openly as the politicians. Journalists are supposed to be objective and fair, but this is not always the case because the two important principles of journalism are not are not inborn, but are influenced by the external factors. Political journalism only concentrates on the recipient of the news and they only air information that attracts the attention of the public. There is increased commercial bias among the political journalists because the media houses have become money-making organizations that openly violate the media ethics. The political journalists concentrate on the news that will give the media houses they are working for profits and they ignore useful political issues that are important for the political process (Gentzkow & Shapiro, 2005). Political journalists define good news in terms of the number and the quality of the viewers without regard to the content of the news and the information they pass to the public. They concentrate on the conflicting political agendas in the society and ignore good news because harmony does not attract more readers and viewers compared to the conflicting news. Commercial bias among the political journalists hampers political process. In addition, bad news portrays political leaders as crooked and bad that they are actually should be. The political journalism also helps in maintaining the status quo by the politicians. Political journalists spend a significant time covering political campaign process and a very limited time on governance (Deuze, 2005). Therefore, they do not help in providing the alternative ways of governance, which help politicians in maintaining the status quo. Political journalists do not spend their time to monitor and interrogate the structure of political systems and they ignore important political issues that can help in changing the society. Failure to cover issues related to governance and the structure of political systems prevents the public from accessing the necessary information, thereby obscure the political process. Expediency bias among the political journalists also makes them to obscure political process. There is stiff competition among the media organizations as they compete for the prime time and the market share making them to run for the information that is readily available. Media organizations are also profit-oriented and they go for the information and the news that can be obtained at the least cost in order for them to maximize the profit (Tankard, 2001). Political journalism, especially the modern journalist and their respective media organizations obscure political process because they rarely adhere to the standards, principles and the ethics of journalism. There is increased commercialization of the journalism where the main objective is to make money. This has led stiff competition among media organizations, which makes them to forget their vital role. Do Journalists Shape the Public Think about Politics? Journalists greatly influence the way the public thinks about politics and that is the reason why may politicians are craving for media coverage. Journalists immensely contribute to the structure of the information available to the public, which shape how people think politically and about the politicians (Biocca, F. 2013). When a person reads newspaper or watch news, he gets a lot of information about the subject of interest, including politics. Media is therefore the main source of information for a large number of people. Millions of people rely on the journalists to update them on the various political issues that happen around them and beyond and they end up shaping how people think about politics (Semetko, 2013). Journalists come up with narrow political information or news, which they etch in the minds of the public. Even though journalists are supposed to be objective and only present factual information to the public, this is not always the case as many they end up giving their opinion and interjections that end up influencing how the public perceive a specific political issue (McCombs, 2013). Journalists have the ability to decide on how they want the public to perceive a particular political issue by providing selective information to the audience (McNair, 2012). For instance, a journalist can decide to concentrate on either the positive or the negative side of a political agenda and completely ignores the opposite side. As a result, the public will perceive the political agenda as either good or bad depending on the information presented by the journalists. Journalists influence how people think about politics by either, overemphasizing, omitting or deemphasizing political information. Some people, especially those in the remote areas rely on the one or two media for their political information. They either do not have the alternative source of political information or they are just loyal to particular media. These segments of media consumers completely rely on the information from the journalists to make political decisions and they trust the information from their preferred journalists (McCombs, 2013). Consequently, the journalists shape how the public thinks about politics because of the trust they have on them, journalists. Audience autonomy theory states that public produces and enforces their schemas systems independently. However, this is not always the case because the audience has no ability to create and sustain the orientation that they require to process the received information independently. Therefore, the public depends on other sources of socialization like the media that shape their opinion and how they think about politics. Journalists, as a result, fill this information gap and they use their framed information to shape the how the public perceives politics. Despite the great influence that the journalists have in shaping the public opinion about politics, but they do not entirely control what people think politically. There is the interdependent relationship between the media and the public with regard political perception. The media also gauge the public opinion before coming up with political information that can influence what people think about politics. The Relationship between the Politicians and Journalists The relationship between politicians and journalist is based on the informal rules that emerged as a result of the conflict over the party that controls the public agenda and to what extent. Generally, the relationship between politicians and journalists is both collaborative and adversarial (Kuhn, & Neveu, 2013). However, in most cases, it is adversarial due to silent conflict between them. Despite the adversarial relationship between the politicians and journalist, some respect is needed between them for them to maintain a working relationship because they each need one another. Even if they disagree on ideology, they should try to embrace one another for the good of the public and their own good. Journalists perceive politicians with a lot of contempt because they believe that politicians have no good intention for the electorate and that they are serving their own interests. They think that politicians vie for various elective positions purely to make money and to get richer (Pfetsch, B. 2004). They also think that politicians keep a lot of secrets from the journalist. In addition, journalists think that politicians are just administrators with poor communicative skills. Politicians, on the other hand, think that journalists only focus on the trivial and emotive matters instead of focusing on the substantial issues that can help the public and the country. Politicians also believe that journalists focus on the issues that they have no facts or background information about. As a result of the misunderstanding between the politicians and the journalist, they have an adversarial relationship. Despite the hostile relationship between politicians and journalists, they are forced by the circumstances to collaborate with each other for them to achieve their objectives. Political news always attracts more public attention than any other type of because they are always emotive and sensational (Voltmer, 2006). Furthermore, the main primary source political information is the politicians. Therefore, journalist must collaborate with them if they have access political information, which attracts public attention. Politicians also need journalist for them to air their political agenda because the public always trusts journalists than politicians. Journalists influence the way the public thinks about the political issues, which make them inevitable during political campaigns and when politicians wants to lobby for the passage of any policy or legislation, for instance, during a referendum. Politicians and journalist, therefore, should cooperate with one another. The collaboration between the politicians and journalist is only possible if each part remains professional in their operations. Journalists should only air or write information that is factual and the information that are not emotive. Politicians, on the other hand, should remain professional when they are dealing with journalists and they should respect them regardless of their position in the society. The two parties need to collaborate to reduce the conflict between them. Ina addition, it is important for the two parties to know their boundaries in whatever they do to avoid unnecessary conflict. All the same, political journalists should not be compromised because they bare the watchdog of the government. Is the internet making political Journalism Obsolete? There is the general fear among the media professionals that the internet is making political journalism obsolete. Even though the internet is a threat to the political journalism, this should not be the case, but instead, political journalists should capitalize on the emergence of the internet to create more journalism opportunities. But before the journalists learn how to effectively incorporate the internet into journalism, the internet is making political journalism obsolete. The internet, especially the social media is rapidly making political journalism obsolete because it has come with a lot of changes that undermine the work of political journalism (Napoli, 2011). The internet has come with tools that are easy to use in publishing, increased popularity of social media, powerful mobile phones, and active consumers who create and disseminate information via the internet. As a result, the hegemony of gatekeeper of the critical information has been threatened by the emergence of the social media. The internet has made it impossible for political journalism to be in a position to determine the interpretation of the information and the events that are taking place in the society. Social media is increasingly becoming a trusted outlet of information because people can easily access them while at the same time they filter and simplify news compared to the mainstream journalism like the political journalism. Political journalist no longer controls the political agenda because social media have made even the ordinary people to be in a position to publish political issues. The internet is also a threat to political journalism because social media are always ahead of political journalism in passing information to the public. Many people receive breaking news via the social media like Facebook and Twitter because they are always ahead in receiving any breaking news (Parmelee & Bichard, 2011). The ability of the social media to receive breaking news is because they are able to penetrate sources of news where political journalism cannot reach and they have a wide range of audience compared to the mainstream media. In addition, the internet has also encouraged the emergence of the citizen journalism. The people who were formerly known as the audience by the political journalists are actively involved in the making of news. Citizen journalism has played a critical role in airing the news and information that were initially ignored by the political journalists who operate under a strict code of conduct and ethical standards. Further, citizen journalism is deemed by its audience to be credible and trustworthy. Citizen journalism, therefore, has interfered with the traditional monopoly of political journalism, rendering it obsolete. One can therefore conclude that the internet is making political journalism obsolete. The internet, especially the social media has become another center of power when it comes to informing the public and it is shadowing political journalism. The large number of people using the social media, and the trust people have on social media has made the political journalism obsolete. However, political journalist should find a way of turning internet threat to opportunity. Reference List Biocca, F. 2013. Television and Political Advertising: Volume I: Psychological Processes. Routledge. Deuze, M. 2005. What is journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered. Journalism, 6(4), 442-464. Esser and B. Pfetsch (eds.). Comparing Political Communication. Theories, Cases, Gentzkow, M., & Shapiro, J. 2005. Media bias and reputation (No. w11664). National Bureau of Economic Research. Goode, L. 2009. Social news, citizen journalism and democracy: New Media Society. Vol.11(8): 1287 – 1305. Kuhn, R., & Neveu, E. (Eds.). (2013). Political journalism: New challenges, new practices. Routledge. Kuhn, R., & Neveu, E. (Eds.). 2013. Political journalism: New challenges, new practices. Routledge. Lule, J. 2001. Daily news, eternal stories: The mythological role of journalism. Guilford Press. McCombs, M. 2013. Setting the agenda: The mass media and public opinion. John Wiley & Sons. McNair, B. 2000. Journalism and democracy. London: Routledge. McNair, B. 2012. Journalism and democracy: An evaluation of the political public sphere. Routledge. Napoli, P. M. 2011. Audience evolution: New technologies and the transformation of media audiences. Columbia University Press. Parmelee, J. H., & Bichard, S. L. 2011. Politics and the Twitter revolution: How tweets influence the relationship between political leaders and the public. Lexington Books. Pfetsch, B. 2004. From Political Culture to Political Communication Culture. In: F. Richards, B. 2007. Emotional governance: politics, media and terror. Palgrave Macmillan. Semetko, H. A., Blumler, J. G., Gurevitch, M., Weaver, D. H., & Barkin, S. 2013. The formation of campaign agendas: A comparative analysis of party and media roles in recent American and British elections. Statham, P. 2006. Political journalism and Europeanization: pressing Europe?. Centre for European Political Communications. Tankard, J. W. 2001. The empirical approach to the study of media framing. Framing public life: Perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world, 95-106. Voltmer, K. (ed.) 2006. Mass Media and Political Communication in New Waisbord, S. R. 2013. Watchdog journalism in South America: News, accountability, and democracy. Columbia university press. Willis, C. and Bowman, S. 2003. We Media: How Audiences Are Shaping the Future of News and Information. The Media Centre at the American Press Institute. Read More

Political Journalism Obscure Political Process Political process refers to the formulation and the implementation of public policies by the government through the interaction between the public and the political leaders (Statham, 2006). Political journalism should facilitate the political process, but this is not always the case due to political bias among the political journalists. Political journalists also take a political position, although not openly as the politicians. Journalists are supposed to be objective and fair, but this is not always the case because the two important principles of journalism are not are not inborn, but are influenced by the external factors.

Political journalism only concentrates on the recipient of the news and they only air information that attracts the attention of the public. There is increased commercial bias among the political journalists because the media houses have become money-making organizations that openly violate the media ethics. The political journalists concentrate on the news that will give the media houses they are working for profits and they ignore useful political issues that are important for the political process (Gentzkow & Shapiro, 2005).

Political journalists define good news in terms of the number and the quality of the viewers without regard to the content of the news and the information they pass to the public. They concentrate on the conflicting political agendas in the society and ignore good news because harmony does not attract more readers and viewers compared to the conflicting news. Commercial bias among the political journalists hampers political process. In addition, bad news portrays political leaders as crooked and bad that they are actually should be.

The political journalism also helps in maintaining the status quo by the politicians. Political journalists spend a significant time covering political campaign process and a very limited time on governance (Deuze, 2005). Therefore, they do not help in providing the alternative ways of governance, which help politicians in maintaining the status quo. Political journalists do not spend their time to monitor and interrogate the structure of political systems and they ignore important political issues that can help in changing the society.

Failure to cover issues related to governance and the structure of political systems prevents the public from accessing the necessary information, thereby obscure the political process. Expediency bias among the political journalists also makes them to obscure political process. There is stiff competition among the media organizations as they compete for the prime time and the market share making them to run for the information that is readily available. Media organizations are also profit-oriented and they go for the information and the news that can be obtained at the least cost in order for them to maximize the profit (Tankard, 2001).

Political journalism, especially the modern journalist and their respective media organizations obscure political process because they rarely adhere to the standards, principles and the ethics of journalism. There is increased commercialization of the journalism where the main objective is to make money. This has led stiff competition among media organizations, which makes them to forget their vital role. Do Journalists Shape the Public Think about Politics? Journalists greatly influence the way the public thinks about politics and that is the reason why may politicians are craving for media coverage.

Journalists immensely contribute to the structure of the information available to the public, which shape how people think politically and about the politicians (Biocca, F. 2013). When a person reads newspaper or watch news, he gets a lot of information about the subject of interest, including politics. Media is therefore the main source of information for a large number of people. Millions of people rely on the journalists to update them on the various political issues that happen around them and beyond and they end up shaping how people think about politics (Semetko, 2013).

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