The Influence of the Media on Politics in America - Research Paper Example

This is all the more relevant because the voter turnout in America has always been less than half of the total number of voters (Denton and Woodward, pp.1). So, what is interesting to probe, along with all the other aspects of the relationship between media and politics, is whether the television or new media have any role in voter turnout or voter behavior. The mutual dynamics between media and public life has come under scrutiny in many research works. Craig (2004, pp.3) has put forth the idea that “media are an indissoluble part of the contexts, the messages and the relationships that create and give shape to politics and public life.

” In other words, one can say that though the public life had existed even centuries before the new media forms were born, once the mass media came into being, they have become part of the rich social fabric from which the political processes emerge as consequences. Here, politics is defined as “a specific sphere of society incorporating the workings of formal institutions and their legal relationships” on one side, and on the other, the term is defined to represent the “struggle over the values that inform all social relations” by Craig (2004, pp.24). To make functional any element of this process, communication is an inevitable factor and this is where the role of media becomes crucial.

From cave drawings and social orator ship to internet and ICT-enabled new media, in all formats, media have supported the political processes, whether it has negative or positive consequences for the society, as a whole. It is also observed that media is not merely an onlooker and reporter of social events or a simple fictional entertainer, but has a mediating role to play in the society (Craig, 2004, pp.3). And most importantly, it is this mediating role that determines to an extent, the political life of the society (Craig, 2004, pp.4). During Gulf War and William