Essay

CW1: Essay
By (Name)

The Name of the Class (Course)

Professor (Tutor)
The Name of the School (University)
The City and State where it is located
Date
 Essay

Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................1

Purpose of News Media...................................................................................................................1

Digital Media and the Renewal of Democracy................................................................................3

Mediated Ethnic and Racial Stereotypes.........................................................................................4

Success of #MeToo Movement.......................................................................................................5

Potential of Media in terms of Inciting Violence............................................................................6

Potential of Media in terms of Producing National Imagined Communities..................................7

Role of Media in producing Compassion for Distant Suffering......................................................8

Use of Culture and Media in Social Movements.............................................................................9

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10

References......................................................................................................................................11
 Essay 1

Introduction

The following essay has been prepared to conduct a critical evaluation of the relationship

that exists between politics, media, and culture. For this purpose, the essay has provided a

detailed explanation about the purpose of news media, including the different forms of digital

media that are leading to the renewal of democracy. In addition to this, the essay has also

provided relevant reasons to explain why mediated racial and ethnic stereotypes are becoming

persistent under the current times and it has also given an in-depth analysis on the potential of

media to incite violence among the people. Moreover, within this essay, the social movement of

#MeToo has also been analysed to determine its success and these analyses have also been

presented to determine the potential of media in terms of producing imagined national

communities in today’s world.

Furthermore, the role or ability of media in terms of reporting the distant suffering of

others has also been examined in this essay in order to determine its potential with regard to

producing a sense of compassion among people. Finally, the essay has also provided relevant

explanations on how social movements utilize media and culture for garnering support. Based on

these analyses that have been conducted on the relationship between media, culture, and politics,

a detailed conclusion has also been provided at the end of this essay.

Purpose of News Media

Upon analysing the purpose of news media, one can infer that it is mainly based on

broadcasting information across different mediums with the goal to reach the masses and satisfy

the needs of the people in terms of gaining information or knowledge through surveillance (i.e.,

Gratifications and Uses). This also includes the goal of making profits for the

owners/shareholders of the news agency or organization (Graziano, 2019).

 Essay 2

Traditionally, it has been observed that news media used to rely significantly on the

mediums of television and newspapers to provide or broadcast relevant information to their

target audience in order to satisfy their needs related to gaining knowledge on different topics,

events, or incidences (Tully et al., 2020). Moreover, when significant developments under

television were noted to emerge globally, various channels were developed by the news

companies in order to satisfy the needs of the people not just in surveillance (i.e., gratification

and uses) but also in terms of assisting them in meeting their needs related to safety, survival,

self-actualization, self-esteem, and social belonging (Zollmann, 2019).

However, while meeting these needs through providing television and print-based news,

many news companies were also found to face problems with regard to providing different

choices or options to their target audience, especially in terms of giving them the needed freedom

or discretion related to receiving the information according to their interest or preferences

(Martens et al., 2018). However, this problem was gradually addressed by the news companies

when the internet started to expand and become more accessible for people all over the world.

This is because the internet made it easier for the news companies to provide different types of

information online in order to give more convenience and options to their target audience related

to satisfying their needs associated with surveillance (Wettstein et al., 2018).

This also enabled the news companies to achieve their goals related to making more

money and higher profits for their owners/shareholders. This is because they were able to use

both the traditional mediums of providing news (i.e., TV and newspaper) as well as online

platforms for gaining more sponsorships and requests from companies related to advertising their

products and services on their channels (Strömbäck et al., 2020).

 Essay 3

Digital Media and the Renewal of Democracy

As stated earlier, today many news companies are increasingly using both the traditional

mediums of newspapers and television, as well as the internet (i.e., digital media) for providing

or broadcasting relevant information on different topics to satisfy the needs of their target

audience. However, it has been observed that under the current times, the new forms or practices

of digital media are increasingly playing a crucial role in renewing democracy by reshaping both

the election campaigns and political parties all over the world (Chadwick and Stromer-Galley,

2016).

Nevertheless, it has also been observed that these practices, including the different forms

of digital media, such as social media, blogs, articles, etc., that are renewing democracy are

primarily driven by a tension between interactivity and control (Freeman and Hutchins, 2016).

However, the overall results of these practices and different forms of digital media are becoming

more and more uncertain for political parties and organizations. In this regard, recent evidence

has also contradicted scholarship on the so-called “death” of political parties by suggesting that

these parties might be experiencing or going through a long-term process related to adapting

post-material political culture (Hofmann, 2019).

Moreover, it is still contended that the different forms of digital media are playing an

important role in terms of fostering cultures of organizational experimentation. This also

includes the mentality associated with party-as-movement that has motivated many people to

reject the norms related to habitual partisan and hierarchical discipline (Chadwick and Stromer-

Galley, 2016). This context has also been observed to accommodate angry protest and populist

appeals on the right, as well as on the left. In this regard, many people are now also increasingly

viewing election campaigns within their countries as another opportunity for contentious and
 Essay 4

personalized political expression, which can again be considered as another important factor

behind the renewal of democracy through digital media (Nielsen and Fletcher, 2020).

Based on these observations, it can also be inferred that as different forms of digital

media are enabling citizens to become more knowledgeable and informed by also giving them

the ability to raise their voice, this, as a result, is renewing political parties from the outside in. In

addition to this, such an increasing use of digital media by the public is also positively impacting

democratic engagement, as well as decentralization of political power (Gerbaudo, 2019).

Mediated Ethnic and Racial Stereotypes

It has been observed that besides the benefits that news media offers to the people in

terms of enhancing their knowledge, there are several problems that news media also creates in

societies, one of which is related to fostering racial and ethnic stereotypes (Dixon et al., 2019). In

this regard, it has also been noted that mediated racial and ethnic stereotypes are increasingly

becoming persistent, primarily due to the fact that many news companies in different countries

are getting paid for creating a negative image of a particular race or ethnic group, just to help

certain politicians or political parties in accomplishing their varying goals (such as creating

hatred among the people to gain more votes and support) (Appel and Weber, 2017).

In this regard, it has also been noted that media narratives are providing a substantial

amount of information related to culture and race across different ethnic groups and such

narratives are also shaping the ideas that people have about inter-racial and inter-ethnic relations.

This can also be considered as another reason why mediated racial and ethnic stereotypes are

becoming persistent through media since many news companies are positioning, for instance,

several ethnic and racial groups as “the other” mediocre or exotic counterparts with the goal to

bolster white characters, as well as storylines (Dixon et al., 2019).

 Essay 5

In this regard, it has also been observed that between the sensationalized coverage of

media related to the incidences that are linked with police brutality, as well as the

disproportionate number of black people or characters who are getting portrayed as criminals, the

representations of ethnic or minority groups are increasingly getting harmed or limited all over

the world (Ramasubramanian, 2016). This can also be considered as one of the important reasons

why youth from marginalized or minority groups are increasingly getting left without sufficient

role models within the media due to their persistent stereotypical representations (Dixon, 2016).

Success of #MeToo Movement

Despite the potential of media in terms of promoting racial and ethnic stereotypes, it is

also playing an important role in empowering minorities, including people from different race,

gender, sexual orientation, and so forth, to raise their voices against the unfairness, injustice, and

the brutality that they are facing in their societies (Bowd, 2016). This is because media is

allowing these people to carry out different social movements in order to gain the support of the

public. An example of one such movement can be taken from the #MeToo movement which was

started to take action against the sexual harassment and sexual abuse of women and where

people or supporters of this movement were found to publicized allegations associated with

sexual crimes (Nilsson and Lundgren, 2020).

This social movement is considered by many people as highly successful since it was

found to assist people and societies to comprehend the magnitude of issues and problems that

women were facing and allowed people to stand in solidarity and support for all those women

who had faced hardships (or even had lost their lives) due to sexual crimes (Manikonda et al.,

2018). Moreover, again the digital media was found to play an important role in terms of making

this movement a success since this movement was noted to explode on social media and it also
 Essay 6

gave an opportunity to many survivors of sexual harassment, assault, and abuse to share their

stories online that went viral all over the world. This, as a result, was also found to increase

pressure on the regulatory authorities globally to take stringent actions against the abusers to

provide justice to those women who had to suffer both physical and mental abuse after becoming

the victim of sexual crimes (De Benedictis et al., 2019).

Potential of Media in terms of Inciting Violence

Another drawback or demerit which is linked with news media that is also often criticised

all over the world is related to its potential in terms of inciting violence among people. In this

regard, it has been observed that media violence is not only posing a threat to the health of the

public but is also increasing aggression and real-world violence among people in different

countries. Several research studies have shown that fictional film or television violence is

contributing significantly to both a long-term and short-term increase in violence and aggression

among people, especially in youngsters (Anderson and Bushman, 2018; Anderson et al., 2017).

Moreover, violence that is getting portrayed on different news channels is also

contributing significantly in terms of increasing violence among people, primarily in the form of

promoting imitative acts of aggression and suicides (Vossen et al., 2017). Similarly, video games

are also increasing aggression, as well as violence among people, especially in the short-term,

which is also the reason why many critiques are raising their concerns related to monitoring and

regulating the content which is shown in media (including the content that is used in creating

video games (Bowman et al., 2020).

This is because such content is adversely impacting the behaviours or mindset of people.

In this regard, several research studies have also suggested that the relationship between real-

world violence and media violence, as well as aggression, is generally moderated by the nature
 Essay 7

of the media content. This also includes the characteristics of such content, including its social

impact on those individuals who are exposed to this content (Han et al., 2020; Anderson et al.,

2017).

Potential of Media in terms of Producing National Imagined Communities

Another important concept that is receiving increased attention, especially after the

emergence of digital media, is linked with “imagined community.” This concept was developed

in 1983 by Benedict Anderson, primarily to analyse nationalism. In this regard, Anderson

depicted a nation or viewed a country as a socially constructed community, which was imagined

by people of that community/country who perceived themselves as a part of a social group

(Morimoto and Chin, 2017). Moreover, in creating these imagined communities, media has also

been found to play a crucial role since it can target a large number of people and address or

generalize citizens as the public. In addition to this, media has also been noted to create such

imagined communities through the utilization of images and videos (Castelló, 2016).

This is because it has been found to play an important role with regard to perpetuating

stereotypes through certain vernaculars, as well as images. In other words, by showing different

types of images or videos, media has been noted to empower people in terms of allowing them to

choose the most relevant image or video with which they are able to relate the most (Cui e al.,

2016). This, as a result, has been observed to assist in furthering the relationships that are found

to be developed under imagined communities. Moreover, under the current times, it has also

been observed that social or digital media has also been playing an active role in creating

imagined communities by providing political space for various communities so that they can be

imagined successfully into existence (Iwabuchi, 2017).

 Essay 8

Role of Media in producing Compassion for Distant Suffering

Upon analysing the existing literature, one can also infer that media plays a key role by

creating a sense of compassion among people for distant sufferers. Such a sense of compassion is

typically demonstrated by people through an outburst of emotions (such as anger, tears, etc.) or

even in the form of protest to motivate their regulatory authorities or government to provide all

the necessary support on different international forums (like United Nations) to help the distant

sufferers (Zhang and Luther, 2020). However, research has also suggested that a sense of

compassion among people can only last if they are constantly provided with information about

the distant sufferers including their hardship, or else they can forget about them rather than

taking an action to help the distant sufferers (Huiberts and Joye, 2018).

Moreover, today it is also becoming an ethical duty for many news media companies to

not just show or broadcast only that information or content to the public which might be

profitable or beneficial for them in gaining higher viewership ratings. This is because it is also

becoming necessary for these news media companies to report on those issues as well that might

be outside their countries to provide necessary help to the people who might be experiencing

hardship in different countries. This can also include creating awareness among the people of

their own country (including the government) so that they can take action in order to provide

help to the distant sufferers (Markham, 2017).

In this regard, media has also been noted to cultivate a disposition of engagement with or

care for distant suffers by creating a sense of social responsibility among the public to help those

people that might be experiencing hardships or difficult times within their countries (Kogen and

Dilliplane, 2017). An example of this can include natural disasters like earthquakes, causing

people to lose their lives, as well as their properties, and making them vulnerable to problems
 Essay 9

like hunger. Another recent example can be taken from the current times of the Covid-19

pandemic that has killed many people in India and has also created a shortage of ventilators in

the country (Bhardwaj, 2021).

This, as a result, motivated many other countries around the world to provide aid and

support to help the people of India in saving their lives. In addition to this, media is also helping

to create a sense of compassion for distant sufferers by promoting an ethical sensibility among

people that extends beyond their own neighbourhood. In this regard, media has also been noted

to create a sense of unity among different countries to help each other in difficult times, and

again, digital media is playing an active role in developing such unity and a sense of compassion

among people. This is because it is allowing them to gain information on the distant sufferers,

and raise their voices on social media to support these sufferers who might be crying for their

help (Kogen, 2019).

Use of Culture and Media in Social Movements

In most social movements, it has been observed that culture and media often play a

crucial role in making such movements successful by allowing them to gain support from the

people (Kidd and McIntosh, 2016). Moreover, in almost every important aspect associated with

the social movement, culture is often considered highly important for garnering support as the

activities that are conducted by the participants of a particular social movement are often

significantly shaped by the cultural conditions of their countries in most cases (Salman and

Assies, 2017).

However, such social movements are typically found to create their own culture or

subculture in order to bring changes into the societies, and the resulting popularity of these new

cultures, in turn, trigger the rise of new types of social movements (Amenta and Polletta, 2019).
 Essay 10

An example of this can be taken from those social movement campaigns that were organized

around promoting the rights of LGBT people, which in turn, helped in paving the way for more

social movements for the LGBT community on different issues, such as legalizing same-sex

marriage (Ghaziani et al., 2016).

On the other hand, media also plays an important role in terms of helping social

movements to gain support from the people since it has the potential to reach the masses not just

in the country where such movements are organized, but also in other countries. An example of

this can be taken from the campaign of Black Lives Matter, which was originally initiated in the

United States but was later found to gain attention and support in many other countries. This, in

turn, also caused people from different countries to organize this movement within their own

nations to stop the unfair violence, discrimination, and brutality against black people (Mundt et

al., 2018).

Conclusion

By considering the analyses that have been presented in this essay, it can be concluded

that media can become both a bane and boon for nations since it can be used to promote violence

or aggression among people, but at the same time, it can also be utilized for promoting unity,

compassion, and a sense of responsibility among the people to help each other. It can also be

concluded by considering the analyses of this essay that the content which is shown in both the

traditional channels of media, as well as digital media plays a crucial role in shaping the mindset

and in influencing the behaviours of the people. Thus, the content which is displayed by the

media should be regulated and validated before considering such content as trustable in order to

avoid the prevalence of false information that often incites violence, hatred, and biases among

the people.
Essay 11
 Essay 12

References

Amenta, E. and Polletta, F., 2019. The cultural impacts of social movements. Annual Review of
Sociology, 45, pp.279-299.

Anderson, C.A. and Bushman, B.J., 2018. Media violence and the general aggression
model. Journal of Social Issues, 74(2), pp.386-413.

Anderson, C.A., Suzuki, K., Swing, E.L., Groves, C.L., Gentile, D.A., Prot, S., Lam, C.P.,
Sakamoto, A., Horiuchi, Y., Krahé, B. and Jelic, M., 2017. Media violence and other
aggression risk factors in seven nations. Personality and Social Psychology
Bulletin, 43(7), pp.986-998.

Appel, M. and Weber, S., 2017. Do mass mediated stereotypes harm members of negatively
stereotyped groups? A meta-analytical review on media-generated stereotype threat and
stereotype lift. Communication Research, p.0093650217715543.

Bhardwaj, T., 2021. India has less than 50% of the ventilators than needed for Covid-19
treatment: Ashok Patel, Max Ventilators. [online] The Financial Express. Available at:
<https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/health/india-has-less-than-50-of-the-
ventilators-than-needed-for-covid-19-treatment-ashok-patel-max-ventilators/2237378/>
[Accessed 19 May 2021].

Bowd, K., 2016. Social media and news media: Building new publics or fragmenting
audiences?. Making publics, making places, pp.129-144.

Bowman, N.D., Ahn, S.J. and Mercer Kollar, L.M., 2020. The paradox of interactive media: the
potential for video games and virtual reality as tools for violence prevention. Frontiers in
communication, 5, p.104.

Castelló, E., 2016. Anderson and the Media: The strength of “imagined communities”. Debats,
(1), pp.59-63.

Chadwick, A. and Stromer-Galley, J., 2016. Digital media, power, and democracy in parties and
election campaigns: Party decline or party renewal?.
 Essay 13

Cui, X., Rui, J. and Su, F., 2016. From immediate community to imagined community: Social
identity and the co-viewing of media event. Global Media and China, 1(4), pp.481-496.

De Benedictis, S., Orgad, S. and Rottenberg, C., 2019. # MeToo, popular feminism and the
news: A content analysis of UK newspaper coverage. European Journal of Cultural
Studies, 22(5-6), pp.718-738.

Dixon, T.L., 2016. Understanding how the internet and social media accelerate racial
stereotyping and social division: The socially mediated stereotyping model. In Race and
Gender in Electronic Media. Taylor & Francis.

Dixon, T.L., Weeks, K.R. and Smith, M.A., 2019. Media constructions of culture, race, and
ethnicity. In Oxford research encyclopedia of communication.

Freeman, J. and Hutchins, B., 2016. Digital media and local democracy: news media, local
governments and civic action. Australian journalism review, 38(2), pp.19-30.

Gerbaudo, P., 2019. The digital party: Political organisation and online democracy (Vol. 240).
London: Pluto Press.

Ghaziani, A., Taylor, V. and Stone, A., 2016. Cycles of sameness and difference in LGBT social
movements. Annual Review of Sociology, 42, pp.165-183.

Graziano, L.M., 2019. News media and perceptions of police: a state-of-the-art-

review. Policing: An International Journal.

Han, L., Xiao, M., Jou, M., Hu, L., Sun, R. and Zhou, Z., 2020. The long-term effect of media
violence exposure on aggression of youngsters. Computers in human behavior, 106,
p.106257.

Hofmann, J., 2019. Mediated democracy–Linking digital technology to political agency. Internet
policy review, 8(2).

Huiberts, E. and Joye, S., 2018. Close, but not close enough? Audience’s reactions to
domesticated distant suffering in international news coverage. Media, Culture &
Society, 40(3), pp.333-347.
 Essay 14

Iwabuchi, K., 2017. Introverted Jingoism in a Post-Imagined-Community Digital

Era. Precarious Belongings: Affect and Nationalism in Asia, p.39.

Kidd, D. and McIntosh, K., 2016. Social media and social movements. Sociology
Compass, 10(9), pp.785-794.

Kogen, L. and Dilliplane, S., 2017. How Media Portrayals of Suffering Influence Willingness to
Help. Journal of Media Psychology.

Kogen, L., 2019. News you can use or news that moves? Journalists’ rationales for coverage of
distant suffering. Journalism Practice, 13(1), pp.1-15.

Manikonda, L., Beigi, G., Kambhampati, S. and Liu, H., 2018, July. # metoo through the lens of
social media. In International conference on social computing, behavioral-cultural
modeling and prediction and behavior representation in modeling and simulation (pp.
104-110). Springer, Cham.

Markham, T., 2017. Banal phenomenologies of violence: media work cultures and audience
engagement with distant suffering. Conflict, Trauma and the Media: A Collection of
Essays. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.12-28.

Martens, B., Aguiar, L., Gomez-Herrera, E., & Mueller-Langer, F. (2018). The digital
transformation of news media and the rise of disinformation and fake news.

Morimoto, L.H. and Chin, B., 2017. Reimagining the Imagined Community. Fandom: Identities
and communities in a mediated world, 174.

Mundt, M., Ross, K. and Burnett, C.M., 2018. Scaling social movements through social media:
The case of Black Lives Matter. Social Media+ Society, 4(4), p.2056305118807911.

Nielsen, R.K. and Fletcher, R., 2020. Democratic Creative Destruction? The Effect of a
Changing Media Landscape on Democracy. Social Media and Democracy: The State of
the Field, Prospects for Reform, p.139.

Nilsson, B. and Lundgren, A.S., 2020. The# MeToo Movement: Men and Masculinity in
Swedish News Media. The Journal of Men’s Studies, p.1060826520913613.
 Essay 15

Ramasubramanian, S., 2016. Racial/ethnic identity, community-oriented media initiatives, and

transmedia storytelling. The Information Society, 32(5), pp.333-342.

Salman, T. and Assies, W., 2017. Anthropology and the study of social movements.
In Handbook of social movements across disciplines (pp. 57-101). Springer, Cham.

Strömbäck, J., Tsfati, Y., Boomgaarden, H., Damstra, A., Lindgren, E., Vliegenthart, R. and
Lindholm, T., 2020. News media trust and its impact on media use: Toward a framework
for future research. Annals of the International Communication Association, 44(2),
pp.139-156.

Tully, M., Vraga, E.K. and Smithson, A.B., 2020. News media literacy, perceptions of bias, and
interpretation of news. Journalism, 21(2), pp.209-226.

Vossen, H.G., Piotrowski, J.T. and Valkenburg, P.M., 2017. The longitudinal relationship
between media violence and empathy: Was it sympathy all along?. Media
Psychology, 20(2), pp.175-193.

Wettstein, M., Esser, F., Schulz, A., Wirz, D.S. and Wirth, W., 2018. News media as
gatekeepers, critics, and initiators of populist communication: How journalists in ten
countries deal with the populist challenge. The International Journal of
Press/Politics, 23(4), pp.476-495.

Zhang, X. and Luther, C.A., 2020. Transnational news media coverage of distant suffering in the
Syrian civil war: An analysis of CNN, Al-Jazeera English and Sputnik online
news. Media, War & Conflict, 13(4), pp.399-424.

Zollmann, F., 2019. Bringing propaganda back into news media studies. Critical
Sociology, 45(3), pp.329-345.