http://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0911/Poll_More_prefer_Fox_News.html
This is an article from Politico that shows the results of a Poll done recently in the United States about News Channel preferences. I think is article is very interesting because as we know, different channels have different political affiliations and can greatly influence the views of the people, and that is especially crucial in politics because often times, this news channels will influence voters, thus they have a role to play in electing the leaders of a country.
In this case, the most popular cable channel was Fox News, owned by Newscorp, a Murdoch held corporation. Fox is known to have a very strong conservative right wing position. Although they do not want to admit it, it is very easily seen through there programs and the way the present the news, especially when it has to do with politics.
This is not just my personal view, a lot of analysts and intellectuals agree on the fact that Fox News is often misleading in the way the information is delivered, even the polls show that the people who believe wrong information usually watch Fox News. What is impressive here is that this shows that Television has a very strong reach and can influence people in making some serious decisions such as voting for the President. Television actually has an important role to play in important nationwide aspects. However the problem is that they do not need to be the best, they just need to be the most convincing, so marketing and communications techniques to be as persuasive as possible.
For me, this is a serious concern because I think that when interest is mixed with the News, it can lead to a disaster.
This is an article from Politico that shows the results of a Poll done recently in the United States about News Channel preferences. I think is article is very interesting because as we know, different channels have different political affiliations and can greatly influence the views of the people, and that is especially crucial in politics because often times, this news channels will influence voters, thus they have a role to play in electing the leaders of a country.
In this case, the most popular cable channel was Fox News, owned by Newscorp, a Murdoch held corporation. Fox is known to have a very strong conservative right wing position. Although they do not want to admit it, it is very easily seen through there programs and the way the present the news, especially when it has to do with politics.
This is not just my personal view, a lot of analysts and intellectuals agree on the fact that Fox News is often misleading in the way the information is delivered, even the polls show that the people who believe wrong information usually watch Fox News. What is impressive here is that this shows that Television has a very strong reach and can influence people in making some serious decisions such as voting for the President. Television actually has an important role to play in important nationwide aspects. However the problem is that they do not need to be the best, they just need to be the most convincing, so marketing and communications techniques to be as persuasive as possible.
For me, this is a serious concern because I think that when interest is mixed with the News, it can lead to a disaster.
Very interesting news and reflection. Why do you think is the secret of Fox News popularity? What do you think should be make quality news channel? Are there some national particularities that make a difference? For example BBC is trusted and popular in the UK, while Fox is in the US.
RépondreSupprimerTowards your article I would like to add http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/technology/31iht-arabtv31.html?_r=1&ref=technology
where Pan Arab leading news channels are also "tagged": "Al Jazeera, for example, was generally seen as supporting the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya but was accused of soft reporting on the government crackdown on the uprising in Bahrain, a neighbor to Qatar. Al Arabiya, on the other hand, was more supportive of the old regime in Egypt, and is generally seen as more conservative than Al Jazeera."
I believe that Fox News uses "fear tactics", to pass it's message. They often times use words that sound scary to the American people such as Islamist, Terrorist, Communist, Nazi and so on... This goes towards showing that the American people have certain predispositions such as the Cold War or 9/11 that make these fear tactics work perfectly.
RépondreSupprimerI think it is a shame and a scam for Fox News to use such wording to scare people to rally popular support.
It is very hard to have an objective point of view when delivering News because as soon as you start explaining it, a judgement is made. That said judgement can be right or wrong, or even both depending on where the viewer stands. It is true that Fox News pushed this to the limit and is not even trying to come as objective even when their slogan is "fair and balanced".
I think that there are two things that should be done in order to be as effective as possible when delivering News. The first thing to do is for News channels to give both sides of the information and provide different points of view. On the other hand, the consumers of News have to look themselves for alternative points of view and make their own judgement, not just believe anything that is presented to them.