Media’s influence on elections

Social Media influences how  people vote

Lee Trauple

Social Media influences how people vote

Stephen Kaddis, Staff Writer

The media claims to cover the “important”  issues when it comes to the presidential election, but they’re usually biased. Not everything covered during the debates are free of bias and influence.

News stations are usually owned by big businesses that insert their ideology into their coverage. Also, money from private owners/interests groups influence the ideology and casting of that station. Fox News tends to have a conservative view because the business that owns it has a conservative view. As a result, conservative republicans tend to get more air time in their stories. Additionally, people like Hillary Clinton donate to stations like CNN to get air time and support from that station.

Social media also contributes to the bias regarding the presidential candidates. According to “How will Social Media Impact the Presidential Election?”  by Lauren Dugan, “4 out of 10 people will use social media to help make a decision come election day.” These people use social media and not the actual candidates policies to decide their vote. This is poisoning the debate process by using small videos to determine the actual view of the candidate and the media is to blame.

Media spins the truth in the debates to appeal to their own beliefs. Many broadcasting stations alter the responses of candidates to make them seem bad for the country. Ben Carson had a second place lead until the media spun some of his statements causing him to lie to get out of the issue. This alteration of statements that caused him to lie probably cost him the presidency. Lying in journalism won’t help anyone but the people of the opposing ideology.

Although all of these are a factor in media’s control on society, the media doesn’t control anyone’s free will. Stop listening to the media and start watching and listening to the truth. Watch the debates or the listen to the true words of the candidate to understand the politicians.

Though the media is useful for many things, it is not ideal for presidential debates or topics.The amount of “he said, she said” opinions are too controversial and usually have a lie or two in their story.