Critically Compare the Different Impact of Political Blogs and Mass Media on Public Opinion Regarding the 2004 Presidential Election October 30, 2008
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Critically Compare the Different Impact of Political Blogs and Mass Media on Public Opinion Regarding the 2004 US Presidential Election
1 Introduction
The 2004 US Presidential Election
The United States presidential election of 2004 was held between Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George Walker Bush and Democratic Party candidate John Forbes Kerry. It is a special history moment of US, because existed the political background of the attack of terrorism in 2001 and invasion of Iraq in 2003. So there is no doubt that the next president will control the future fate of America who will be the important decider to lead the future of US. Those two candidates all have same strong Confidences to take over these history tasks to make America develop in a positive way. Therefore, they tried to master different medium to widespread their nomination political theme in order to shape public opinion which can strong support them during this 2004 Presidential Election.
1.1 The Usage of Mass Media and Blogs During the 2004 Presidential Election which Express that both Two Media Have Power to Effect on Voters
The US mass media including TV, Radio, and Newspaper have been seemed to become a key weapon of choices in the trenches during the war of politics. The power of media to perform its roles as government advocacy, information provider and defender or shape the public opinions is on the existence of a particular set of political conditions. Mass media mainly serve politics and has direct-effect or indirect-effect function on shaping public opinions, “which indicates the mass media transmits powerful messages to audience members, who absorb the meaning passively or positively and are strongly affected by it” (O’Shaughnessy, 2005, p.99). The strong power of mass media as main stream media that we called them play an important role, during the 2004 Presidential Election, and mass media coverage the whole campaign and process in details and different angles to the American. They tell people their Candidates’ campaign agenda, foreign policy and political theme in order to get their support to fulfil their political dream.
However, with the advanced development of internet technology, during this 2004 Presidential Election, Political blogs were suddenly attracted by Candidates to use disseminate their political theme in another way. Indeed, political blogs can be viewed as not a complete novelty media, but perhaps the first opportunity to hear the words “blog” or “Weblogs” to the average people in US because of this presidential election. Trippi argue “Although Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean’s campaign ultimately failed, his success with using the internet and his blog to mobilize his supporters and raise campaign funds drew both the media’s and, by extension, the public’s attention to blogs” (Trippi, 2004). As Trippi, the campaign manager for Howard Dean explained, the sense of online community was the products of effective communication between the candidates and the supports using interactive features of blogs. During this 2004 campaign, candidates widely use blogs to join in their campaign, which shows blogs as a new form of media have similar power as well as mass media; as a result, mass media are not the only way to have a power to their audiences. Inspirited by what the Dean campaign achieved using the internet, other candidates such as John Kerry, George W. Bush, and Wesley Clark also adopted these same methods in their own campaigns. George W. Bush set up his own personal blog to explain and answer his political theme to his audiences and supporters which help locked their confidences about Bush (Kim, 2006, p3).
What is more important, both Democratic and Republican National Committees invited some of the influential bloggers to cover their convention, which break the privilege granted only to traditional journalists until the 2004 campaign. So both candidates closely followed what was debated in the political blogosphere and used their own campaign blogs to respond and spread their own messages, And the main aim of their blogs have a vivid interactivity between candidates and the public , so not only candidates use blogs to shape the public opinion, but also they can get feedback from their audiences by discussion and understand what their think about me and think about my political theme in order to reshape their public opinion both in a positive and negative way in my opinion. In addition, there is an argument that political blogs reportedly attracted higher number of readers than that of a major newspaper (Klam, 2004). In a word, the only aim of wide usage of blogs demonstrates that blogs have a power and effect on public opinion. (Kim, 2006, pp.3-4)
1.2 Mass Media and Blogs Have an Influence on Public Opinions Showing in Different Ways in Different Social Groups
When it comes to election campaign, we always think while reaching the media and the members of a campaign staff are very important, but ultimately the major goal of any political party presence on media to attract voters and influence on their public opinions. So I think mass media and blogs will critically influence on public opinion in different ways in different social groups, because their of present time, times of usage, different participates, forms of participatory and the liking. Mass media have a long history, compared with blogs with only almost 10 year-history. It has been said, that mass media technology is inherently politics. Mass media as technology or as assemblages of technology meaning which is a special technology form, which transform political (Terry, 2002). As a result, one of the aims of them has a close influence on public opinion. So far, because of its long history and widespread, we always call them main stream media, in turn; blogs are referred as non-main stream media. So I think it will expose that they will shape different public opinions according to different social groups. Another point of my view, when mass media were born, it is inescapable to sever for politics and it has a close relationship with politics, however, when it comes to blogs, they focus on the interactivity between bloggers and participants. And tell people the truth of political events without bias and take sides and sometimes as a main stream media watchdog to criticize the main stream political coverage. So generally speaking, I think Blogs will have an objective effect on public opinion. All in all, in the next section, I will address this different impact on public opinion, according to 2004 President Election in America. Seeing mass media are a little slower than blogs when they shape public opinion. And mass media have a bias impact on public opinion, while blogs have a comparative objective effect on public opinions.
2 Political Blogs have Effect on Main Group of Online Political Citizen’s Opinions during the 2004 Presidential Election
A new community of citizens online is defining the 2004 presidential campaign; these citizens indulged in surfing blogs, and support their candidates by posting their comments and join the discussion group, reading the political weblogs, and make political contributions over the internet. By those activities, blogs have impact on those people opinion, to some extent, they build up solid relationship to support each other and the same aim to support their same candidate in order to enlarge their range of influence. The study shows that “OPCs are nearly seven times more likely than average citizens to serve as opinion leaders among their friends, relatives and colleagues” (The Graduate School of political Management, 2004, p.2). So blogs not only have effect on OPCs’opinions, but also have an impact on the people around them. Indeed, blogs have an impact on those online political citizens; there is a study that Online Political Citizens are significantly more likely to donate money to their support candidates or their supportive party. “At the early stage of 2004 Campaign, 46% have donated to a candidate or political party in the last two or three months, compared with 10% of the general public” (The Graduate School of Political Manage, 2004, p.3). In addition, OPCs are willing to forward positively e-mail and comments on political blogs in order to show their opinions which will help influence on others such as their friends, family and colleagues, moreover join in the political groups and political chat much more often than the general public. ” (The Graduate School of Political Manage, 2004)
2.1 Who are Online Political Citizens?
In fact, OPCs only consist of a small group compared with a huge amount of the general public, but blogs have a strong power that I have mentioned before, which have an impact on their political opinion when OPCs participate in political activities. On one hand, OPCs use easy and convenient blogs and internet resource to communicate, argue and discuss with each other. On the other hand, blogs help them build up their opinions about their better understand of politics and their supportive candidates. There is survey to demonstrate that “about a quarter of Online Political Citizens view or post comments on political weblogs (27%) or visit political discussion groups (25%). Very few people in the generate public do these activities (less than 4%)” (The Graduate School of Political Management, 2004, p. 6).
To really understand the definition and components of OPCs, I think that those group first appeared would be during the early of 2004 President Election. “We defined Online Political Citizens as people who have within the past two to three months (1) visited the blogs of a candidate or political party, and (2) taken part in political activities” (The Graduate School of Political Management,2004, p6). Look closely at the components of them, it is said that they are twice as likely as members of the general public to have a college degree which means they have a high education qualification and should be well-educated in different disciplines with the similar opinion of politics. And what is more important, these part of OPCs include some slightly younger who usually do not care about the politics in their daily life. But political blogs attract their eyes on politics and try to help them shape their political opinion and force those young people to activate in political activities. In America those of the OPCs are most white, single and male. In summary, Online Political Citizens are even more highly educated and wealthy. A majority of OPCs have had some past involvement with politics; most of them have never worked for a campaign, but do campaign donation, and join in the campaign event during this 2004 Presidential Election.
2.2 They are willing to Donate during the 2004 Presidential Election
Political blogs have four aims and four main activities, from the study of Mckenna. One of the main activities is to raise money to their candidates and their supportive parties. The power of Blogs tries to persuade their Online Political Citizen to donate their money to their candidates. And indeed, Online Political Citizens are more likely than the general public to donate money to their supportive candidates. By the end of 2003 to 2004 primaries were in full swing-about 46% of OPCs donated to a candidate or political organization in the last two or three months. One–half of those donations were made online. By comparison, it found that about 10% of the general population has donated money to a candidate or political party in the last two to three months, and 17% of that general population did on line. (The Graduate School of Political Management, 2004)
2.3 Mass Media Have Impact on Widely General Public Opinions during the 2004 Presidential Election
During the 2004 Presidential Election, all the media (TV, Newspaper and Radio station) in America coverage the whole process of this campaign. This campaign interfered in people’s daily life and become an important part of their life. Citizens in USA got the popular topics, when they have a conversation with friends, family and colleagues. Why this campaign was so popular among America? Many political analysts believe that since President Bush’s State of the Union address on January 23rd, 2004 many campaign themes, agendas, and possible all mass media all pay more attention to report his politics theme(Polsby et. al, 2004). So the answer should be this is the media effect. I think mass media have a whole and wide impact on public opinion including any group of people, compared with blogs which only have mainly effect on OPCs and people around them. Mass media have a wide distribution and possibly have access to all the public anytime and anywhere. Sometimes we can imagine that mass media have how strong power to have impact on the general public opinion, and we can see that Mass media shape the general public opinion in directive and non-directive way as well.
In addition, the public spend a lot of time on following and reading the report from all different mass media during 2004 president election. Effective mass media campaigns typically are good approaches which can strongly have impact on general public opinion, because they feature well-designed messages, and those messages are delivered to their intended audience with sufficient reach and frequency to be seen or heard and remembered. Indeed, it is noted that the public communication field has been perhaps too focused on issues of message design. And those designs are suitable to any average people in USA, but only to a majority of a certain concrete group. In a word, in my opinion, I believe that mass media interventions that seek to influence general public opinion directly or in-directly. So it seems that the audience absorbed the message and information from mass media like a sponge, or drugs are absorbed into bloodstream. Therefore, this kind of influence should be powerful to shape general public opinions.
We have to think about reasons about why mass media have a function to persuade people to shape their opinions depending on their access media or their supportive parties which they are interest in, not thinking about the truth of political events and candidate’s personal interest. What is more important? Some of the general citizen in US is not high-educated, and most of them have no correct idea about politics. They are easy to get an incorrect opinion instead of understanding the politics. Therefore, mass media have a possibility to have a bias on general public opinion.
3 Mass Media Have a Bias Effect on Public Opinion
Negative opinions regarding mass media and suspicion of possible their reports have been present when they served in politics, and according to recent surveys, that negative opinion toward the bias of mass media remains present even during the 2004 President Election. Indeed, much of today’s media within the United States have been labelled by some as liberal because of allegedly presenting the news in a slanted manner that seems to support the Democratic Party and oppose the conservative agenda or support the Republican Party instead of excluding the Democratic Party and their political agenda. It seems that liberal media bias in news reporting or in TV reporting seem to increase during times of 2004 USA President Election, but especially during the final months leading up to a presidential election. “There is probably not an American today who has not heard charges that the media are biased (Stempel, 2003, p. 133)”. It is well-known that the mass media is used widely to serve politics. There is a coexisting relationship between politics and the mass media. On one hand, news is essential to the mass media for programs production, but on the other hand, politicians also need the media to promote their political policies and their personal reputation. Media will focus on certain of political party disseminating to their audiences and pay more attention to attract the middle process-their audiences in order to make their report meaning and power.
Even former ABC anchorman, Peter Jennings, acknowledged that there is a liberal bias amongst today’s media. And this kind of bias will have impact on the general public opinions. The reason is that media itself label the liberal bias which follows the certain party. And which brings an aim to have impact on the public opinions to support their candidate. It should be misleading their audiences and readers who will grab bias opinions or mistaken understanding about reports and their supportive party. Jennings, whom the author labels as a liberal admits: “Historically in the media, it has been more of a liberal persuasion for many years. It has taken us a long time, too long in my view, to have vigorous voices heard as widely in the media as they now have a bias impact on general public opinion”(Cummings, 2006,p. 4).
Indeed, there have been many accusations as well as a number of studies that show today’s media are very powerful in persuading or changing attitudes and opinions of its general audiences on matters of policy and politics. There is a truth to all of these presented evidences and accusations that some of the media are supporting liberal agendas and are not conducting a fair and balanced approach in their news reporting efforts. During 2004 President Election, they all help strongly advocate their supportive candidates at the final mouth of election. (Cummings, 2006, p.3)
Mass media are to find evidence in favour of a particular presidential candidate or they were unbalanced in their overall coverage of the election. And several approaches are concerned with audiences, media paid more attention to their audiences, especially, audiences with low-educated or having limited political information. Assuming to influenced or effected on them, in some ways, media realise that they play a key role in communication chain. So media are not possible to balance the political reports, the native and function of media has to inescapable to politics, presenting the news in a slanted manner that seems to support a certain party, and then they have been haven a bias or negative effect on the general public opinions. This is the essence of the mass media.
4 Blogs Have a Comparative Objective Effect on OPCs and General Public’s Opinions
One of the main activities of political blogs is be a watchdog to check the main stream media’s errors and bias; political blogs are essentially media watchdogs. So in my opinion, blogs can give their audiences some precise information and have a comparative objective effect on their audiences’ opinions. As Trippi, “point out the benefits of blogs to assist in 2004 president election, to not only gather donations for campaigns, and advocate their supportive candidates, but also they can censor the main stream bias and mistake” (McKenna, 2008). There is a report said that political bloggers, they write down some errors and omissions of newspaper or TV reports in their political blogs, which complete the function of filter and watchdogs. They are willing to tell their readers including both OPCs and general public about errors and omissions in the mass media. There is a study to prove that “Nineteen percent of bloggers with low traffic level (17 out of 89) frequently report errors or bias in the media, while 33 percent of high traffic levels are more likely to notify their readers about articles in the newspaper” (McKenna, 2008) . All of them try to notify the errors and bias in the main stream media, and in an objective way to tell the truth. And it is worth of trusting some comments from their political blogs, because I have noticed that most of online bloggers who have high quality of education and are good at understanding the politics, as we know, most of them are the main participants during the campaign or raise money and donate fund. In a word, blogs do link to the main stream media quite often; they also take a job as media fact checkers quite seriously as well. Blogs indeed, post some objective and truly political during the campaign, which can have a comparative non-bias effect on the whole public opinions. (McKenna, 2008)
5 Conclusions
During the 2004 America Presidential Election, both main stream media and blogs all play significant roles to disseminate those two candidates, but those of which seem to complete different functions and play different role in elections. Still, I think even though they complete different tasks in election, they are all the communicative tools for politicians to advocate and spread, consequently have a strong impact on the public opinions among the different social groups in order to achieve candidates’ aims in election and to more protect candidates’ interest. To some extent, those two kinds of media sound that they have the similar aim which just fulfil the function of communication among the participants. There is a special relationship between mass media and blogs-coexisting and collaboration, and they all have impact on the public opinion during the 2004 American Presidential Election in different ways.
However, it is said that blogs are smashing the mass media monopoly and giving individuals power in the politics ideas. This is a new development of political arena. Frankly speaking, by studying the 2004 President Election, it makes me make sense about the difference between blogs and mass media which have distinguished ways to have an impact on the public opinions. Furthermore, I also find some results about how they work in different ways.
1 Finding
Critically think about the impact on public opinions during the 2004 Presidential Election between blogs and mass media, they have influence on different social groups among American. And much of number of the public, mass media as main stream media have a large amount of audiences than blogs have audiences. So indeed, they work in different social groups with the different number of people. By studying the different impacted groups, blogs focus on having an effect on Online Political Citizens’ opinions and people around them. However, mass media have a wide effect on every social group’s opinions in a directive or in directive ways. Those results are showing mass media have a long history of development than that of blogs. And mass media have wide distributions including different forms of media such as Newspaper or TV. All the general public can have an easy access to communicate with mass media. To sum up, mass media are easier to have an impact on the whole social groups opinions, but blogs comparatively have an effect on a small amount of group called OPCs’ opinions.
2Finding
There is no doubt that media (mass media and blogs) have effect on the public’s opinions, but facts that I think mass media have an bias effect on the general public opinions and blogs try to be their watchdogs, which have an objective effect on the public opinion especially OPCs’ opinions during the 2004 Presidential Election. Mass media is inescapable to cater for the politics which will have bias reports in order to support their candidate and oppose their opponents. To some extent, they maybe mislead their audiences and build up an error political opinion, however, blogs take the jobs to censor the media mistake and bias, which have an objective effect on the public especially OPCs’ opinions.
In my opinion, mass media now are not one-side influence (medium have an influence on the public opinion , in turn, public opinions will give media a feedback), but compared with blogs, I still think they get their feedbacks more slowly and incompletely than blogs do the feedbacks or comments from their audiences. Blogs foster community and conversations by allowing readers to comment by posting immediately, in turn, media have to take some political poll to work out the results of public opinions after they reported news, so it is slowly when they work out those comments and feedbacks. To summary, even though, mass media and blogs have different ways to have influences on the public opinions, I still hope they can work and support together and help each other develop in a positive way. And for us, we should have an ability to judge those two medium, make most use of the media resources and positively participate in this media world.
Bibliography:
Cummings, Jimmie (2006) ‘Unbalanced Media Coverage and the 2004 Presidential Election: The New York Times VS. The Washington Times’. University of Alabama: The Manship School of Mass Communication.
Kim, Eunseong (2006) ‘Political and Non-political Bloggers in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election: Motivations and Activities’. Indiana University: UMI.
Klam, Matthew(2004) ‘ Fear and Laptop on the Campaign Trail’. New York Times Magazine, 26 September 2004, 42-45.
Mckenna, Laura(2008) ‘ What do Bloggers Do: an Average Day on an Average Political Blog.’ Public Choice.134, pp97-108.
O’shaughnessy, Michael (2005) ‘Media And Society: An Introduction’ Jane, Strader(ed.), What Do the Media Do to Us? . Oxford: Oxford University Press, P99.
Polsby, Nelson(2004) ‘Presidential Elections: Strategies and Structures of American politics’ Aaron, Wildavsky(eds). Washington D.C. Post, 3 October 2004.
Trippi, Joe (2004) the Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything. NY: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
Terry, Flew (2002) New Media: An Introduction. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
The Graduate School of Political management (2004) Political Influential Online In the 2004 Presidential Campaign. Washington D.C.: The George Washington University.
Stempel, Guido (2003) ‘Meida Bias in presidential Elections’ Published: ABC-CLIO, p133.
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