The role of news media, if any, on dictating/setting the political agenda in the caribbean - Research Proposal Example

Download file to see previous pages The Caribbean is a good choice of subject due to the region’s high reliance on mass media as a form of communication between the islands. This means that both its people and government are highly exposed to media technologies. In such case, it can be inferred that the Caribbean people are more or less informed of recent events within and outside the community as compared to the other regions of the world. During elections, Caribbean political candidates utilize the forms of media to introduce their identity and platform of governance which in turn serve as the people’s basis in casting their vote. The Caribbean is the best region to demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of news media in shaping the political election agenda. Literature Review and Contextualising the Topic Within Existing Knowledge It is my contention that this proposed study should tackle the following subtopics in order to elaborate the research subject: the news media in the Caribbean and Caribbean politics and election. The News Media in the Caribbean Patricia Mohammed, in her feminist book, includes the topic on Caribbean’s mass media. The section uses the ideas of researchers and journalists to elaborate the presence of women in the Caribbean media. Quantitative research (specifically statistics) is utilized to support the claims made by De Bruin. In part VI, section 21 of the book, it is emphasized that broadcast media as a form of news media is the most popular in the Caribbean. The factors accounting its popularity were enumerated. This includes the following: affordability, Caribbean oral tradition and adult literacy (De Bruin, qtd. in Mohammed 385). In the later part, it is stated by De Bruin that the respective governments of the English-speaking Caribbean sovereign states own some of the long-established mass media especially the electronic media (qtd. in Mohammed 385). I believe that this finding is relevant in knowing the kind of political election agenda that is shaped by the news media in the Caribbean. Basing on this fact, it could be theorized that the political agenda in the Caribbean during elections is partly influenced by the government. Stated otherwise, the many government-owned forms of media have the capacity to set the political agenda for the Caribbean people. Nonetheless, De Bruin emphasizes that print and broadcast media in the Caribbean have recently been largely owned by the private sector (qtd. in Mohammed 385). This discovery is actually in contrast with the first formulated theory. Since private ownership characterizes the Caribbean print and broadcast media, it could be presumed that news media in the Caribbean is not bias. It could further be stated that the Caribbean political election agenda is mainly the effect of media exposure and people’s perception. In such case, the public’s perception essentially depends on how political issues are presented by the news media. This goes to say that whatever the media presents during elections, the voters’ perception can be more or less influenced. Accordingly, all these facts shall be explained more using the theories of mass media. In addition, De Bruin argues that government ownership can mean an over time discontinuity of policy (qtd. in Mohammed 385). This is due to the fact that every new regime assigns new set of newsroom administrators (qtd. in Mohammed 385). In an online article written by Rosalind Silver, it is claimed that the Caribb ...Download file to see next pagesRead More