Influence And Power Of The Media example essay topic

The American media, through its choice of news content and manner of presentation, has changed and shaped the course of American history and American policy. The medias powerful influence can be seen through its portrayal of major events like the Vietnam War, the Spanish-American War, the "Tweed Ring", Watergate and several other minor events. Through the years the role of media in public affairs has changed as its influence has grown. When the media began, it had a political agenda. It was an outlet through which the common people could criticize the aristocracy and the government. This right to criticize was established in 1735 by American John Peter Zenger.

Zenger was the first journalist to publicly criticize the government in his newspaper, the New-York Weekly Journal. Zenger was jailed by the government but was later found not guilty by a jury. This was the first time anyone had publicly protested the government, fought persecution in the courts and won. This case set the precedent a half-century later for the First Amendment, which guarantees the freedom of the press.

Most newspaper articles were editorials in the early history of American journalism. As the medias influence grew and it gained in popularity, government began to take notice. Beginning in the 1920's the government began passing regulatory laws and set up the Federal Communications Commission to monitor and regulate the broadcast media. Over the years new laws have been passed and repealed both in favor and in opposition of the media. Today the media reaches over 100 million people a day. It has even been described as having enough impact to set the public agenda each day.

Another name for the media is the Fourth Estate. This came about in British Parliament one day. A member of Parliament wa describing the structure of British Parliament and the "three estates", the House of Commons, the House of Lords, and the Prime Minister; then the member looked into the balcony surrounding Parliament and noticed the members of the press. He then referred to the press as the "Fourth Estate" because he said they had as much an impact on politics as the other three estates. Due to its tremendous audience and the impact it has, the media has been able to shape public opinion, American policy and even American history. The far reaching influence and power of the media was illustrated quite well in the 1870's.

William "Boss" Tweed was one of the most corrupt politicians in the history of New York. He totally controlled politics in New York during the 1870's. He regularly fixed elections, took bribes and bribed other politicians himself. His greatest exploit, though, was what led to his downfall. The newspapers were always attacking Tweed, but they could never uncover any hard evidence. However, in 1871, the New York Times uncovered Tweeds grand scheme.

Over the course of 30 months Tweed and his cohorts, the Tweed Ring, swindled New York out of nearly $2,000,000. Tweed was arrested but made bail and instantly disappeared. During this whole time political cartoonist Thomas Nast was making a name for himself by drawing Tweed. One of Nasts cartoons was seen by Spanish soldiers in Santiago who recognized Tweed as a sailor in port. The soldiers instantly arrested him and turned him over to the American military. Had it not been for Nasts cartoons Tweed may never have been caught.

Nasts cartoons were so powerful that "one of the Tweed miscreants said he didnt care a straw for all the papers said of him, as most of his adherents couldnt read, but those pictures, whose meaning everyone could see at a glance, they hurt him badly". The Tweed incident helped establish political cartoons as a powerful tool for the media. Nasts all-telling caricatures were an effective tool in ending that period of misgovernment in American history. The media was, in some respects, the most powerful tool of all. An example of the medias influence is the Spanish-American War. In 1898 negotiations were going on between the United States and Spain over the two countries involvement in the Caribbean.

William Randolph Hearst, editor and owner of the New York Daily and media pioneer, sent artist Fredrick Remington to Cuba to paint pictures of what was happening because Hearst believed war was eminent. Remington reported back that there was nothing to paint and negotiations were going well. Hearst responded "You furnish the pictures and Ill furnish the war". The USS Maine mysteriously sank off the coast of Cuba, and a painting of this was sent to Hearst. Even though it was never discovered what made the USS Maine sink, Hearst printed a story that said Spain was directly responsible. The American people were so outraged that they called for immediate action against Spain.

Congress had no choice but to declare war on Spain. From this war the United States established itself as a superpower, annexed the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. These annexations affected the United States, in that, Hawaii became the fiftieth state and Puerto Rico is pushing hard to become the fifty-first. What Hearst did was one of the earliest and most notorious examples of yellow, or tabloid, journalism. He used the power of the media to mislead the people for his own gains. Today the terms slander and libel have been created to combat yellow journalism.

Through the media Hearst created a major war in American history which led to the annexation of territory, the fiftieth state and helped set the stage for yellow journalism and its role in American policy. In more modern times, one of the most famous and oft-argued events in American history was the Vietnam conflict. Today debate still continues about the Vietnam conflict. Should the United States have been there or not Few people realize, however, that the United States was present more then 10 years before war even broke out. What most people knew at the time they learned from the media. The Vietnam conflict is often referred to as the first war on TV.

Every day people sat around the television at dinner time to find out the latest news from Vietnam. This immediate and easy access to the war led to a period of protest and riots throughout the United States. Young people across the nation stood up and voiced their opinions. The National Guard and riot police had to be sent into several colleges to restore order. Some colleges even experienced periods of shut down due to the protests and riots. The 60's and 70's are known as a period of protest, among other things.

The Vietnam conflict provided the ultimate basis for the people to make their opinions heard. Due to the growing protest from the people, Nixon was forced to withdraw troops from Vietnam to get re-elected. Also, Congress was forced to pass the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which seriously limited the Presidents ability to commit troops to a foreign country or to use American troops to help fight a war without Congressional approval. However, without the media very little would have been known about the Vietnam conflict and the United States involvement. One of the most recent and probably most stunning examples of the medias power was Watergate. Watergate is a general term used to describe a complex web of political scandals between 1972 and 74.

A burglary arrest at the Democratic National headquarters (Watergate Hotel- hence the name Watergate) started the unraveling of the web. At first, the burglary seemed minor and unnewsworthy and no one was really interested. Two reporters assigned to the story by The Washington Post, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, found some unusual anomalies during their investigation of the story. They proceeded to follow up on the burglary after everyone else gave up. Their investigation led to the discovery of the scandals which had a tremendous impact on the United States. The term Watergate eventually took on broad and numerous meanings such as political burglary, bribery, extortion, wiretapping, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, tax fraud, illegal use of the CIA, illegal use of the FBI, illegal campaign contributions and use of taxpayers money for private purposes.

All of these crimes were committed by the Nixon administration and were uncovered by Bernstein and Woodward's investigation into the Watergate burglary. As a result of Watergate, Nixon became the first President to resign, and 40 government officials were indicted or jailed. Also as a result of Watergate, the media became more aggressive and investigative journalism became widespread. In 1976 a new wave of Democrats was elected as a result of the publics distrust of Republicans because of Watergate. On January 30, 1974, Nixon gave his State of the Union address and said, "I have no intention whatever of walking away from the job that the American people elected me to do for the people of the United States". After considerable pressure from the press, however, Nixon resigned the Presidency of the United States on August 9, 1974.

In his resignation speech Nixon said, From the discussions I have had with congressional and other leaders, I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter I might not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the interests of the nation would require. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with the problems we face at home and abroad. There are also several other examples of the medias power and effect on American history and American policy that werent as publicized as the aforementioned incidents. In 1914 the Atlanta Georgian began publishing stories about children in sweatshops.

It showed the poor and hazardous working conditions the children were exposed to and the low wages they received. In the 1930's the Houston Press did the same thing on the behalf of women. Because of the Atlanta Georgian and the Houston Press the government passed labor laws and forced factories to improve working conditions and wages. In the 1920's the New York World began a crusade against the. Many newspapers spoke out against the but were not brave enough to begin a crusade for fear of losing circulation. The New York World went on with the crusade anyway and documented numerous crimes committed by the.

By the time the New York World finished its expose the influence and power were severely lessened. In 1930 a fire broke out in Ohio State Prison which resulted in the death of 317 convicts and injury to 231 convicts. Not many people paid attention because it was a prison and only convicts were affected. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, however, began a crusade on behalf of the convicts. Their investigation uncovered serious fire hazards, a lack of safety systems and a lack of trained personnel to handle emergency situations. These conditions existed not only in prisons but also in state mental institutions, schools for the handicapped and state run nursing homes.

The state was forced to correct these conditions because of the Cleveland Plain Dealers expose, and other states soon followed. The medias influence over American history and American policy has been apparent through the years. The media has added to American history such events as the Spanish-American War, the end of the Vietnam Conflict, the first Presidential resignation and the weakening of the. The media has also added federal commissions, libel and slander laws, the War Powers Resolution, labor laws and safety guidelines for state institutions to American policy. Joseph Stalin once said, when referring to the Communist Revolution, "Print is our strongest weapon". Perhaps Thomas Jefferson best summed up the media when he said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter".

The media is one of the most powerful and influential forces in the world today. 310.