What are four functions of mass media in democracy?
- surveying contemporary events important to welfare of citizens
- Identifying key sociopolitical issues
- Providing platforms for advocacy
- Transmitting content across factions of political discourse
What are four more functions of mass media in a democracy?
- Scrutiny of public officials
- incentives and information to become active and informed participants
7.resistance to subverting media autonomy - Respectful consideration of potentially concerned and effective citizens
What are major areas of study in political communication?
- Formation and change of opinion
- Cognitive effects
Elaborate on the formation and change of opinion area of study
political media messages have much stronger effects than once thought
elaborate on the cognitive effects area of study
encompasses agenda setting research, priming research, knowledge gain, and framing
Factors influencing political media effects
- party preferences
- personal motivations for particular gratifications
- personal images of the news media
Information processing
the more attention a person gives a story, the more the person learns from it
What is polarization?
- aligning groups into “camps” along lines of disagreements
- Growing constraint on individual choices and preferences
why has political party divide increased in US?
- fragmented news landscape
- people can choose media - reinforcing spirals
- social media algorithms
misinformation
happens for one of three reasons
1. lack of information
2. out of date information
3. false information considered useful
disinformation
inaccurate, misleading, or false information designed to cause public harm or profit
third person effect
thinking other people will be more strongly affected by messages than you are
