The Media Influence in Politics: an essay

INTRODUCTION
     The news media, television in particular, affect and influence the political arena in Canada. The media ownership, the few elites and their political connections play a huge role in this topic of influence. The major differences between the French media and English media will be seen. The interpretation done by media and its impacts to the public will be discussed, as well as polling and voting. The aim of this essay is to argue that the news media, television in particular, influence the political arena in Canada. This will be accomplished through the sub-headings and their corresponding paragraphs in the Discussion.

DISCUSSION
The media and political influences
     With the media owned by a few firms, the supposed objectivity and neutrality are being compromised which in turn contribute to the detriment of the public. Most of the people rely on television media for news, information, weather, and so on. With the increase in viewers, the media run the risk of political influences. Politicians establish relationships with the media, so that when the right time comes, politicians can expect a return on elections. An example is when the media indirectly in some way or form cleverly "endorse" the political party to the voting public.

Fraudulent connection between media and politics
     In a perfect world, the media ideally should serve and safeguard the public and its interests. To do this, the media should be founded on integrity, objectivity, professionalism, and ethics. They should ensure fairness in reporting and without any trace of bias. But this is not the case in Canada. The media is owned by the wealthy elites which in turn have connections with politicians. They work together to satisfy their greed of profit and much more profit. News and media information are manipulated and carefully structured in such a way to take advantage of the public. Fraud is actively taking place. Through the media, wealthy elite and their political partners gets richer and richer at the expense of the public. It is not a question of "Will this news coverage be helpful to the masses?" but an emphasized question of "Will this news coverage help me to gain profits from the masses?" In most cases, the writing, reporting, and broadcasting of the media are carefully controlled and crafted to serve the interests of the media owners and not the public.

Media interpretation problems
     The media, especially with the use of television, can simplify political information that are not easily understood by the average citizen. The media then present these information to the citizens, but, while doing so, they (the media) can see how are the citizens going to be affected by those information from politicians. The problem is, when the media simplifies, it can mislead or confuse the voting public, thus causing him or her to be undecided, voting the wrong candidate, or not participating in elections at all.
     They try to generalize content and fail to clarify details crucial to the issue. The media’s inability to interpret the issue to the level of understanding appropriate to the public makes a negative effect to the level of involvement of the public in political issues.

The Francophone and Anglophone media
     The French media tend to focus more on what matters to Quebec while the rest of Canada are treated as any other foreign country. If it benefits Quebec, then it is more likely to be given extensive coverage and emphasis. The English media on the other hand, see Quebec as any other province of Canada and give more importance on the issues that affect the English-speaking citizens. When the political parties set out their agenda, both English and French media receive the same messages but when they cover it, they have different emphasis and area of focus. French media puts more coverage on matters concerning language and constitution while the English media covers the economic issues more extensively.

Polling and public feedback
     Polling is highly important in political campaigns. Politicians are able to determine the feedback of the public concerning policies. The media play a very significant role because they serve as the bridge between the politicians who make the policies and the public which are affected by these policies. The media can either sponsor or conduct the polls themselves. Through the media, politicians have a way to "test" if their proposed policies are able to make way for their possible victory in elections. Polling would strategically be used by politicians to see which areas would cater or get the attention and approval of the public. Politicians can then use polling as a potentially effective survey tool to customize or tailor platforms (which they might or might not really do) that would let them possibly win. Public opinion surveys made available by the media to the public play an important role in political campaigns. Polling agencies that are commissioned by the media and political parties are taken into big consideration and the results of these polls greatly affect the way policies are made. They are made to appeal to the public.

Influence of newspapers on the voting public
     Newspapers, whose political ideologies affect how they interpret and present events, can influence the voting public. Given the same topic or the same event to write about, two newspaper media companies will have different opinions depending on which political party that each one of them is leaning towards. Newspapers that tend to support the Liberal party for example will try to influence the reader to be more in favor of the Liberals. Newspaper media can influence voters by creating bias and employing other means to try to lead them to the side where they wanted them to see the issue.


CONCLUSION
     Throughout the discussion, the news media, television in particular, are proven to influence the political arena in Canada. This could also be true in the USA and most countries (if not all) in the world. The true role of the media is primarily to serve and safeguard the public and its interests through news and information. Unfortunately, however, this role is now being compromised by many factors such as profit, conflict of interests, language, and power.