Page 17 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

Public Trust, Media, and

the "War on Terrorss

Academics have long speculated about the impact of the news when studying
the relationship between the media and public opinion. One relevant question
comes to mind: what specifically is the influence that the media has, if any, on
the public in terms of influencing, shaping, or manipulating opinion? A failure
to demonstrate any clear links between media coverage of important political
events and issues on the one hand, and the formation of public opinion on the
other, would surely deal a critical blow to projects that are undertaken by aca-
demics analyzing societal effects of media.
Many academics analyzing the media have long taken for granted the idea
that messages disseminated through the media can, and typically do, have a ma-
jor effect in shaping American public opinion. The assumption typically oper-
ates as follows: if consumer trust in media is strong, then propaganda originating
from within that media system will be more effective in influencing the opinions
and ideologies of audiences; conversely, if public trust in media is relatively
weak, media propaganda may be less accepted or convincing to those who fol-
low the news. In other words, if the public, by and large, does not trust media,
then why bother studying the effectiveness of media propaganda in the first
place?
This work approaches the study of media propaganda from the understand-
ing that the American press does retain significant power in influencing and
manipulating public opinion. There are a number of past academic studies that
have elaborated upon the relationship between media reporting and public opin-
ion formulation at length. These studies demonstrate that the media remains an
instrumental agent in influencing public opinion and in informing, and even
misinforming, the American public about the world around them.
While the studies discussed below are far from exhaustive, they do allow an
introduction into how media affects public opinion in democratic societies.