This is a class discussion post that needs to be approximately 2-5 paragraphs in length. 

***Discussion Post should be followed accordingly each question asked needs to be answered.

********I will post the students response below.  With the Student response it should be 1 paragraph in length reply to the students disccusion.

********************Discussion Post*****************

This module’s readings attempt to characterize the relationship between mass media and political parties/candidates. What is missing here? What don’t the readings explain? What questions do you still have? Find a news article that answers some of those questions and cite it here.

*Note: Reaction posts should be approximately 2-5 paragraphs in length. Responses to other students do not have a length requirement but serve as your participation grade (i.e., the more thorough the better)

LINKS FOR READING ASSIGNMENT.

 http://journalism.uoregon.edu/news/six-ways-media-influences-elections/

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-politicians-use-media-to-win-elections-2315204

https://www.wired.com/story/ossoff-social-media-campaign/

************************ Student Response***************************

One of the reading from this module is by Andra Brichacek, who writes a lengthy explanation for media influence over political parties and candidates. She makes very valid points on how exactly the parties and candidates are effected by the media. Brichacek writes in her article, that the media chooses who and how they are portraying certain party or candidates. Media coverage provides public with access to politics and ability to educate individuals who might not be involved previously. Social media takes into account on how they can generate the most conversation out of published stories, and thus leave the party/candidates that don’t out of the report and they catch less of the attention of the public.  I think that the author adressed the main points of media influence,  from agenda setting of the elections outcomes, to fact-checking of candidates and their parties. One thing that I found missing in our readings is the accuracy of the topics and issues that the media outlets put out.   

I thought was important  was the way that people interpret facts on the social media outlets. Public takes everything that the media outlets post very literally and also believe everything that they read. The fact of the matter is that not everything that news outlets post are accurate or even true. I found an article published  in Washington Post that addressed that issues, that “Gathering political information via social media brings an increased risk of digesting information from questionable sources.” ( Curry, 2016).  It’s important to always have multiple resources that are reliable to fact-check your topics and issues that are being reported. I found myself doing this with Kavanaugh vs. Ford case that I had to read multiple sources and different articles in order to establish my opinion on the case, but I know people who take a look at one news article and don’t go further to get a different perspective on the issue. This can also be harming to the parties and the candidates because of how media portrays them, whether its accurate or not most people don’t take the time to investigate the reports. 

Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/09/30/more-and-more-people-get-their-news-via-social-media-is-that-good-or-bad/?utm_term=.565f7fe19329