Mass Media

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I think Fox News is influencing and kind of manipulating voters to vote for a Republican candidates, such as Barbara Comstock or Ed Gillespie.

Our last example is commercial ads. This doesn't just go for just Fox News, it goes for all of mass media. Because of the midterm elections, if you have noticed, commercial ads have really started to rack up on both sides of the two political parties.

We looked at an article on FoxNews.com about the 2014 midterm elections, and evaluated the source. The first thing we noticed was how they stated that the outcome of the next five weeks till election day was going to be gloomy for the democrats, which is an example of separating fact from opinion and detecting bias.We also saw another bias statements, and it stated President Obama his approval ratings are in the basement. Also, stated in the article read, it said that the democrats had a lot more money than the republicans did, but the democrats still didn’t have much of a chance of winning.

Candidates Identified over Television

Fox News uses the four functions of mass media during elections. Some candidates identified over Fox News are Ed Gillespie, Mark Warner, and Robert Sarvis. Ed Gillespie's political platform is to lower taxes, to increase private health care, and less regulation of business. Mark Warner's political platform is rising taxes, increasing universal healthcare, and more regulation of business. Robert Sarvis' political platform is introducing new ideas, but focusing on the issue of Government reform.

To detect bias, you look for strong uses of opinion or criticism. Finally, evaluating your sources is when you evaluate where you receive your information from. An example is separating the information from a tabloid or blog from a newspaper. Evaluating sources and separating facts from opinions usually tie together as one.

Another function is broadcasting different viewpoints. An example of this is when people share their viewpoint on an election or debate and then they look at others viewpoints and compare. This usually happens when two or more candidates debate on a news channel on different issues. The third function is writing editorials, political cartoons, and Op-Eds. Political Cartoons use comics dealing with politics to send messages to the publics. Editorials are opinionated articles, while Op-Eds are commentaries on editorials. The last function is identifying propaganda. Propaganda is facts used in a way to manipulate or influence the reader.

Example of Modern Propaganda

Fox News and the 4 Functions During Elections

What are the Four Steps to Evaluate Mass Media

Public opinion plays a large part during elections, and pretty much runs our democratic government. Fox News Channel communicates to the public by focusing on select issues. Individuals throughout the US want to know who to vote for, what that candidates platform is and why they should vote for him or her, so they watch or listen to major media outlets like Fox News.

Another reason we chose Fox News was because 85.1% of Americans with cable get the Fox News Channel for free, expanding the amount of “Fair and Balanced” news information spread throughout the United States. With a variety of different programs and up to 15 hours on air a day, many people watch this news channel. The more people watch a channel, the better the reviews are.

The 4 steps for evaluating media is separating facts from opinions, identify propaganda, detecting bias and evaluating sources. A fact is President Obama is our president, and an opinion is President Obama is the best president. A poster saying President Obama's brother is the devil is an example of identifying propaganda.

URL's

Why we chose Fox News

http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/262933/speedreads-poll-fox-news-most-trusted-news-source-for-accurate-information

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2014/01/fox-news-once-again-most-and-least-trusted-name-in-news.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_Channel

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/30/crunch-time-dems-face-gloomy-midterm-forecast/

http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=bven916

http://olbroad.com/tag/political-cartoons/page/18/

Citations

1. "Poll: Fox News Most Trusted News Source for 'accurate Information'" The Week. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

2. "Fox News Once Again Most and Least Trusted Name in News - Public Policy Polling." 'Public Policy Polling' N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

We chose Fox News for our topic because, according to theweek.com, 25%-35% of voters said they Fox News was the most “accurate information about politics and current events.” MSNBC and “The Daily Show” were voted in the bottom 6% because of their "inaccurate information." To top off my point, Fox News has been on the top of the list of the PPP (Public Policy Polling) for the fifth year in a row.

3. "Fox News Channel." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Oct. 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

4. Stirewalt, Chris. "Crunch Time: Dems Face Gloomy Midterm Forecast." Fox News. FOX News Network, 30 Sept. 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

"Add To Lightbox." 'Fred, I Want You to Sanitize This, Punch It Up, Dumb It Down, Leak It to the Media and Then Be Fully Prepared to Deny It!' N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

"An Ol' Broad's Ramblings." An Ol Broads Ramblings RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

Mass Media

Nathan Pruzina, Bardia Morshedian, and Liam Bayfield