Introduction
The 2016 American presidential election demonstrated the ability that mass media has to completely sway political discourse. The modern 24-hour news cycle brought a range of political issues to the national stage in a matter of minutes, but how these issues were seen by Americans widely varied. News sources, ranging from the far-left to the far-right, portrayed political issues in a way to promote their political views, often disagreeing on how to present basic facts. Social media was also influential in the election, affecting the way that Americans communicated with those of the same and opposing political views and how they distinguish news. These elements of social media contributed to the deterioration of the American political discourse and led to the rise of party polarization.
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The development of these adverse elements raises this question: how is mass media increasing party polarization and creating echo chambers in American politics? This essay will investigative how mass media has increased political polarization between the Democratic and Republican parties of the United States with the growth of echo chambers where Americans are increasingly only reading sources that reaffirm their beliefs. The essay will discuss how partisanship is the cause of this divide in information and how mass media is pushing the divide through the creation of liberal or conservative leaning outlets and “fake news” that deliberately mislead
In Chapter 4, “Polarization and Pluralism” Bibby’s focus is on how problems may come about when extremists of different natures, some being very religious from others being not the slightest bit religious, come together in Canada. He concludes at the end of the chapter that this balance, this polarization within Canada may actually be good for our own unique country (p.97).
Some changes in party polarization in Congress over the last several decades are the party division between Republicans and Democrats as having widened over the last several decades, leading to greater partisanship. What caused this change was increasing homogeneous districts and increasing alignment between ideology and partisanship among voters. I feel this can be good because the original congress was just one and if you did not agree with this opinion you could not do anything about it. Now at least you can fall under a category which is Republican or Democrat. In fact, I believe there should be more than just two parties because I know most people like some of the ideologies from Democrats (such as being more liberal) but they also like
Politics. What does it do to us and our views of people? In “Divided We Now Stand,” Susan Page, the current Washington Bureau Chief for USA today, explains just that. She spends the article giving readers studies and insights as to how people oppose simply because the party says to oppose, and she shows us how people feel about opposing parties and treat them as a result of partisan views. In this article, Page has many good points and strategies, but her argument could be improved.
The elections of 1800 and 2016 show a similarity in the way each party attacked each other. Many people think that the 2016 presidential election was the worst for mudslinging that there has ever been. However, if we look back to the presidential election of 1800 between Jefferson and Burr, we would see very similar picture. In the 1800’s, the candidates and their political parties would use their influence with the media to spread lies and misinformation about the other candidates, just like they did in the 2016 presidential election. It seems the media of today has definitely chosen sides just like they did in the 1800’s.
The extreme partisan polarization and the hostility between Democrats and Republicans that we see in Congress is the product of a long evolution starting in the mid-1960s that has rendered the system a low-functioning machine. In her examination of how the ideological gulf now separating the two major parties developed, Sinclair offers some insights into how today 's intense partisan competition affects the political process, lawmaking and national policy. As Sinclair (2006) describes, the atmosphere in contemporary Washington is intensely partisan and highly conflictual. Congressional Republicans are more uniformly conservative and Democrats more uniformly moderate and liberal than at any time during the past half century.
Several factors are given throughout the earlier chapters of the book to explain why the myth about polarization persists such as conflating political activists with the public and the media. Morris Fiorina also notes that most of the public is not proficient in political issues nor do they take the time to learn
Polarization in politics refers to a sharp division of political attitudes as a party, into opposing parties. Partisan polarization over the past thirty years has negatively affected Congress’s ability to govern. Because of this polarization of the parties, Congress is now divided and practically dysfunctional. Similar voting between the Republicans and the Democrats was common through the 1980’s, but in the 1990’s the parties became ideologically distant with a decline of a center ground and began pulling away from each other. The main causes of this polarization are that Republicans have become more consistently conservative while Democrats have become more consistently liberal.
Thomas Hobbes once said that “curiosity is the lust of the mind”; that humans naturally gravitate towards knowing more of the unknown out of pure desire. In the context of power, this statement could not be any more truer. In history, we have seen countless examples of power-hungry figures who have only been detrimental to their societies. The Mussolinis and Maos of this world have proven time and time again that the desire to elevate one’s status of power ends more often than not in terrible consequences. The increase in party polarization that the United States sees today can be linked to a power-hungry society.
In Ruben Navarrette’s opinion piece in the USA Today, “Don’t be a 100 percent-er”, she discusses the partisanship involved in two major American political issues, guns and abortion. The beliefs of most people of these two political debates mostly coincide with their political party, with Democrats being on the side for gun control and be pro-choice, while Republicans are on the side of less gun control and be pro-life. Navarrette argues that this partisanship, these contrasting views with no grey in between, is fracturing the country, and politics is not about absolutes. She goes on to describe that there are people in the United States, including the author herself, that have beliefs in this grey area, and that going more to the fringes is
In “Political Polarization: Challenges, Opportunities, and Hope for Consumer Welfare, Marketers, and Public Policy”, Weber and the other authors state that “Political polarization is a marked political division in the population, characterized by multiple manifestations” (Weber para.1). An example of when the parties of American politics were extremely polarized was right before and during the Civil War era. Today, experts are noticing that the two major parties are becoming very polarized. Pew Research Center has conducted many studies and has shown that from 1994 to 2014, more Republicans have moved farther to the right while more Democrats have moved farther left. The article also stated that the two parties have grown more disdain for each other with negative views of each party rising (Geiger).
Despite the intentions of founding father George Washington to create a political system with the absence of dividing political parties, political and civic discourse in the United States has become increasingly aggressive and partisan throughout American history. From the first polarizing election of 1800 between former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to the unforgettable 2016 election where many independent voters struggled to choose between candidates the political environment in the United States has become increasingly hostile. While it is faulty logic to believe the two-party system alone has led to an upheaval of bipartisanship, it unfortunately is a main cause in the increasing political polarization and civilian disapproval in American politics. However, the current American political attitude could be changed through the application of deidentified politics and the creation of party platforms unique to each particular candidate.
In the 1960s, Republicans began to win over conservative voters in the South. By the 1980s, most states in the Deep South voted Republican in presidential elections, with pockets of Democratic support in urban areas. Political Party Polarization: In recent years, Americans have become increasingly polarized - to divide into opposing groups. Both parties have become more ideologically homogenous, meaning that party members and elected officials are more likely to agree on all points with the party platform and less likely to cross party lines on key issues.
(This topic will be explained in two parts – Partisanship and antipathy of the Democrats and the Republicans). 1. Even though American politicians have been characteristic of negatively rating their opponents, currently those negative ratings have more than doubled as compared to two decades ago. 2. Deeply negative ratings and the strong dislike of the Democrats and Republicans has risen to alarming levels with each side viewing the opponents’ policies as misguided leading to gridlocks in policy making processes.
Society expect to be constantly entertained; they have become so concerned with things such as who the latest star is dating, scandals, or dumb people doing rather idiotic things. Much of society have been consumed in their personal instant gratification and what makes them “happy”. When on an off chance that news does show things that are serious and impactful(not necessarily positive things that is happening in the world) people have become so numb that the best they could do is feel sympathetic and at worst continue on with their day. The other part of the problem is that those behind what is being published and shown on the news media have been absorbed in their avarice nature, whatever allows them to make as much profit they do. “Writing thousands of hours of coverage from what could have been summarized in a couple of minutes every few weeks, a new rhetorical strategy was developed, or-let’s be generous-evolved”(6), Saunders describes the new formula formed by mass news firms that would yield the most profit.
The bi-partisan government in the United States of America is further divided by the ways of the internet. The internet only makes it more readily available to find false information to prove your side of the arguement right. In the article titled “The Things People Say: Rumors in an age of unreason,” published in The New Yorker (November 2009), staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert discusses The spread of rumors across the internet and how it further divides the bipartisan government and argues that due to the filtering of ideas people are more likely to go against evidence when there are people that support their opinions. The author supports this claim by providing examples such as the study done in 1970, quoting multiple sources beyond her political