Page 194 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere
P. 194

DISCOURSES ON POLITICS 183

              resources to maybe reduce the national debt and allay the fears of
              future inflation.
            Also  when  asked to comment on  how the media portrayed the  four
            issues, several respondents used an economic frame and suggested that
            the media’s main concern was ratings and profits:
              I just think that they want to make a buck. You know?… So they
              want  to  get the  mass population  watching their show, which is
              what they have to do, in order to appease their sponsor, who pays
              a lot of money.

            Not surprisingly, the Americans in  this  study  did not talk about
            economics  in terms of  class difference or a conspiracy among  the
            wealthy. Rather, they tended to focus on more particularistic and cost-
            benefit types of arguments.


                                  Human impact
            The human impact theme was used by American interviewees to discuss
            the issues in terms of the effects they have or do not have on people.
            This theme had a very strong affective component as it was marked by
            feelings of caring, worry, compassion or disregard for others.
              The human impact theme can be divided into concern for people in
            three different spheres. The first includes the individual respondent as
            ‘self.  The second  sphere consists  of societal  groups to which  the
            respondent belongs: family, friends, community, the United States and
            even the world. The third sphere is  made  up of groups  to which the
            respondent does not belong, but with whom s/he can empathize. Often
            respondents would speak of two or three of these spheres to arrive at a
            coherent understanding of the four issues confronting them.
              The  human  impact theme reflects primarily  a personalization of
            issues: the interviewees tended to discuss the issues with reference to
            people. Sometimes, the human impact theme expressed a distance
            between the individual and the issue under consideration:

              But I can look at it as like, almost  like I’m on another planet
              (pause) and I can look at it and say, well, almost draw a fence
              around myself and…isolate myself from these other problems
              that are going on like cocaine and AIDS…I don’t equate myself
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