How Society in the United States Views Abortion and What Impact the Media has on that View - Research Paper Example

Table of Contents Preface ………………………………………………………………………… 2 Introduction …………………………………………………………………….. 2 Abortion Opinion Measurement …………………………………………………4 Biased Media …………………………………………………………………… 5 Left or Right Bias ……………………………………………………………… 6 The Media and Partial Birth Abortion ………………………………………… 7 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….. 8 Works Cited ……………………………………………………………………. 9 Abstract The aspect of imparting living status on the fetus has profound impacts on the abortion policies which, in most cases, are advocated through the media. The media, therefore, holds a specialized and centralized place in the heart of the abortion debate. US has one of the highly opinionated public on matters pertaining to abortion controversies. Abortion had already become a diabolical issue even before the famous landmark ruling on Roe v. Wade (1973) by the US Supreme Court. This ruling and other subsequent legislations only served to provide the impetus for polarization of opinions with no point of consensus. Many of the opinions that the public holds come courtesy of the media which is accused of being biased. Biased media leads to an influence of the opinions of the public without necessary changing their attitudes. Preface The reason for choosing to do a rhetorical analysis on how society in the United States views abortion and what impact the media has on that view is because of the profound connection existing among media public opinions. The public usually relies heavily on the media to bring to its attention the different issues that happen and affect the country. In this regard, the media is very important in influencing how the public generates opinion on different issues of national interest. The abortion debate has been around for a long time and has become quite contentious due to a polarized public about the way forward. In any democratic society, such an outcome is expected since everyone is entitled to their own views. Much of this polarization is caused by the media which covers news disproportionately in a biased manner. This paper brings together an analysis of different resources that are borrowed from different fields so that the true association of the media and public perception of the abortion debate can be known. These resources are qualitative in nature and they trace the effects of how the media informs public polices through its partial way of information dissemination. As such, the paper employs a multidisciplinary approach of tackling the central issue of media influence on public debates along the continuum of time. Introduction The aspect of imparting living status on the fetus has profound impacts on the abortion policies which, in most cases, are advocated through the media. Many policies have been crafted to promote fetal rights, which have negatively impacted the women’s right to abortion (Iyengar and Hahn 23). As such, the media has played a crucial role in the analysis and communication of information to the public which has had potential bias. Previous research has shown that the presentation of information to the public impacts the public’s perception of different policies and their preferences. Bias in how media houses present information to the public is known to have been in existence for a long time now. Therefore, the public opinion on abortion is of two extreme positions and the media seems not to favor these two extreme groups according to research (Esacove 84). Way back before the famous landmark ruling on Roe v. Wade (1973) by the US Supreme Court, abortion had already become a thorny issue in the US public domain. In this debate, the arguments revolve around the rights of a woman to terminate the life of unborn child. In this regard, this debate has become an enigma that revolves around sexual morality, human life and religious morality. Thanks to the media, the US public has become extremely polarized where competing groups have risen and a lot of finance expended towards swaying of the public opinion as well as voting patterns. This great interest that the US public has vetted in the debate has confounded the politicians as well as dumbfounded plaudits alike. Many social scientists have spent instrumental time in analyzing the attitudes and opinions of US citizens towards abortion and they have come up with very interesting results. Every American is opinionated about abortion and they give an indication that their rationale is very important to them (National Survey of State Laws 1). Much of the debate on abortion is conceptualized as having taken place in a time when the public has had very little information, but there were many pro-life advocacy groups. In this regard, these groups have used a lot of surveys and research on how to present their information to the public. Most of these undertakings have been carried through the media which has also done its part in trying to move and influence the public to support partisan stands on the debate. Much of the previous studies carried out before have dealt with how the public perceives abortion without looking into the part played by media. The media is very crucial in relaying and informing the public on crucial national debates, and the way they present it also influences the public opinion on the matter (Rohlinger 545). Abortion Opinion Measurement Wording of how abortion questions and opinions are presented by the media is very important on how the public digests and views it. Many of the US citizens are very opposed to the direct questions or statements that are extreme. It is actually more palatable for people to answer questions based on a scale as opposed to asking general questions. Most of routine questions on abortion focus on the reasons that may compel a woman to procure an abortion. This question is rather narrow and obtrusive in that it does not consider time and how the abortion would be carried out. Many respondents on matters pertaining to abortion are very keen and particular on which questions they would answer and which they would leave blank. Many people interested in the question are quite liberal about permitting abortion during the first trimester but do not support termination of pregnancy during the 3rd trimester. The question of timing is closely supported by the type of abortion which shows that a lot of importance is attached to how it occurs (Weitz and Yanow 103). There is ambivalence with regards to abortion in the US public where it is faced with competing values under certain circumstances. This can be explained by the assumption that some people believe their views or beliefs when presented in particular circumstances whereas when the circumstances change, their beliefs also change. For instance, Catholic adherents may support abortion in the context of severe traumatic experiences and medical reasons but fail to advocate it in the context of poverty or accidental pregnancy in married women. The media presents the different conditions under which an abortion may be procured, but fails to take into account the reasons why women would need an abortion as their right. In such a scenario, there is a disconnection between what the public is being presented with and the real reason why abortion may be beneficial to a woman (Esacove 92). Biased Media The issue of bias when it comes to reporting of issues by the media is almost entirely based on opinions which make it arduous to prove. As much as it may be difficult in proving these allegations about media bias, there have been several studies about how bias is propagated by the media. For example, the choice and diction of words in news article influences how people respond to an issue. It follows then that the wording a news item employs to put across its information impacts the generation of opinions on controversial debates such abortion. Some other arguments are of the opinion that media bias is mainly seen by individual readers of information. Proponents of this view are of the opinion that the media is usually biased on all sides of a debate. Therefore, any bias that may be detected can be regarded as counterarguments and response to other media claims. In other perceptions about bias of the media, media houses are seen as political institutions that have to align themselves with their sponsors’ views and the popular opinion by the public. This is geared towards attracting more sales and remaining popular among consumers (Iyengar and Hahn 34; Weitz and Yanow 104). There is known status quo that exists between different media and it is facilitated by funds from advertisers and public opinion. All these boil down to the issue of funding without which many media houses would not survive in the cut throat business of journalism. An example of bias is usually seen in newspapers that endorse either democrat or republican presidential candidates. It is expected that depending on which candidate the paper endorses, the policies being advocated or favored in that newspaper would be aligned or favoring its candidate of choice. This presentation of information is very important in how the public perceives information and news about debates of national interests. Besides being biased on both sides, the media has also been accused of being either conservative or liberal in different matters which is not clearly understood (Rohlinger 551). Left or Right Bias There are rampant counter accusations between the conservatives and liberal people in media bias which has been shown to be a strategy for seeking attention. All these two groups claim unfair presentation of facts and coverage of their issues relating to their alignments. In this regard, there is a dynamic relationship that plays out itself between the media and politicians’ interests. Most of consumers of news usually buy those newspapers that they know have a biased view towards their expected opinion. In such a move by the news consumers, confirmation of their political views and expectation with regards to a debate leads to the polarization of the public. In the end, a wide divide develops that cannot be bridged, hence claims of biased media (Weitz and Yanow 102). In another theory about media bias, it is claimed that the media is usually more conservative as opposed to being liberal. This is because the media is always very successful in seeking out liberal views and comprehensively expounding on them. As such, the media is concerned about putting across conservative arguments about any debate which shifts the equilibrium towards the right. With these arguments about media bias on either side, it follows then that media coverage of the abortion debate should also be biased along the lines of liberalism and conservatism. Many people are usually caught in between the opinions presented by different media houses as far as extreme points are concerned, which is due to the concept of partial birth abortion. The debate becomes more controversial due to variation with regards to partial birth abortions and how they are carried out. Human characteristics usually conferred on the fetus also contribute immensely to the public opinion division (Rohlinger 539). The Media and Partial Birth Abortion The coverage of partial birth abortion (PBA) by the media has not been without media bias especially in regards to framing of words. Its coverage by the media is disproportionately to its reality. Many of conservative groups have seen this as their wild card to influence policies and gain publicity mileage in the abortion debate. Cropping up of PBA has been beneficial to both the media and conservative groups who have exploited one another. On the one side, the conservative groups were very prominent in creation of a debate on the PBA issue. On the other hand, the media saw this as an opportunity to harness more profits owing to the controversial nature of the issue. This is a classic example of how the media uses controversies to attract more readers while at the same time helping them influence policies. The way issues are framed in the media is also a mode of swaying the public opinion especially by social organizations (Esacove 78). Framing of the PBA issues has been very articulately done especially with the usage of either fetus or baby. The word “fetus” is usually used when the media is against the ban of PBA while baby is used in instances where the media is advocating PBA ban. This exclusive diction of words in different situations serves to influence and sway the public opinion. It has been argued that how an argument is framed is very crucial in swaying political opportunities as well as ideological impacts. The use of other equally canning techniques such as priming in presentation of an argument has potential to change the public opinion without necessarily changing its attitude. It follows then that the media’s way of framing debates of national interests such as abortion is important in impacting how the public develops opinions on the framed issues (Esacove 83). Conclusion The aspect of imparting living status on the fetus has profound impacts on the abortion policies which, in most cases, are advocated through the media. The media is quite a powerful tool which different entities use to propel their arguments forward and influence the public opinion as well as policies. The debate on abortion in the US public has been covered in a biased manner which has served to create a polarized public and a stalemate on the way forward. Much of the bias found in the way media presents issues is through framing of words and, therefore, influences the public opinion without necessary changing their attitudes. Works Cited Esacove, Anne W. “Dialogic Framing: The Framing/Counterframing of ‘Partial-Birth’ Abortion.” Sociological Inquiry 74.1 (2004): 70–101. Print. This is a secondary article that provides a discourse analysis on the concept of partial birth abortion (PBA), which is very prominent within media coverage of abortion. It provides an in-depth analysis of both sides in this debate. The framing of this debate is such that it creates two polarized sides that are aligned along political lines. As such, this source is very important in providing information about the public opinion on the abortion debate. Iyengar, Shanto, and Kyu S Hahn. “Red Media, Blue Media: Evidence of Ideological Selectivity in Media Use.” Journal of Communication 59.1 (2009): 19–39. Print. This article is geared towards showing that the public is always aligned towards media houses that cover news that are aligned to their political interests. It follows then that there is a partial selectivity on the news that people watch on national television due to a perceived bias. Such a trend is worrying and may erroneously inform the public, which negatively impacts the society. The article concentrates on proliferation of biased media houses, which is important for this paper in the abortion debate perception. National Survey of State Laws. “Abortion.” 16th Nov 2012. Web. 2008. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/abortion.aspx. This is the primary text that provides information about the different legislations that govern the abortion debate. Most of these legislations are quite controversial and they have led to a polarized public with two extreme views on the debate. Rohlinger, Deana A. "Friends and Foes: Media, Politics, and Tactics in the Abortion War." Social Problems 53.4 (2006): 537–561. Print. This paper concentrates on how politics and the media interplay to inform the public about the abortion debate. Both politics and media strategies influence each other in presenting facts about sensitive debates touching on the US public. The media on its part employs different tactics to bring out their messages to the public which influences perceptions of controversial issues in US. As such, this article provides important information on the broad tactics used by media, and enhances knowledge on the dynamics of politics in the abortion debate. Weitz, Tracy A., and Susan Yanow. “Implications of the Federal Abortion Ban for Women's Health in the United States.” Reproductive Health Matters 16.31 (2008): 99–107. Print. Authors of this article expound on the impacts of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 on politics. In this regard, the media plays a very important role in how the US public is informed about proceedings in the issue. The law has some negative effects on clinical issues with regard to women and access to procurement of abortion in US. The issues that influence the need of women to choose their own destiny as far as their fertility is concerned are also discussed at length. Read More