Page 194 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere
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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