Media Strategies
Embedded Files
Social media was designed to keep users clicking and engaging with the topic they want and related information. This chain reaction is usually harmless until you watch one conspiracy video after another; or content that contains theories about different racial and religious groups. Issues that arise from social media are not only in false information; they are in the structure of the media; this structure is called flow. Flow is how companies keep users engaged with their websites; flow, in turn, makes them money. When social media is used for political messaging, it uses flow in the political process, even if the messages they carry are truthful. That makes these media a threat to political understanding. Flow threatens political coherency by showing only some information and spreading disinformation; this can relate to media bias and censorship in the way you only view some of the necessary information for coherent political ideas (Bolter).
There is an “epistemic” (knowledge) crisis that threatens politics. This crisis deals with the speed and amounts of information people get, the processes we use to gain information, and the forms of knowledge we form from technology. Many technologies benefit democracy, but there is growing concern about conflicting ideas in media. In the present day, there is a growing threat to credible information spreading to the already unstable politics in America. This threat breaks down the shared understanding of reality while being egged on by the public’s general distrust of media (Dahlgren).
How the government uses these strategies
We know that the media can manipulate politics, but how can the government influence the media? Government officials and the press constantly struggle to control America’s political perception. According to M. Ethan Katsch, "[l]aw does not simply consume or produce information; law structures, organizes, and regulates information. The effectiveness and operation of law depends on controlling access to some information and highlighting or directing attention to other information.” Though the media has significant control over what information gets attention, government officials employ various means to manage what the media receives. Some believe that government officials manipulate the press to further public opinion of the government; for example, more than seventy-five percent of government policy-makers stated that they attempt to influence news coverage of their office or agency. Sometimes, the government censors the media simply by censoring itself, like when a judge issues a gag order on a case (Oswald).
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