Natural Enemies
How does the president get to the eyes and ears of the public? How do we allow presidential policies and information to be transmitted? It is through newspapers, television, and radio that we as society get most of our political resources. The media is an essential part of yesterday and today's political scene. In Newsmakers: the Press and the Presidents, Howard Smith and Luanne Norris portray how the media affects individual presidencies, and what kind of concerns each side projects. Overall, the press plays a vital role in reflecting information between the president and the public. Together the press and the president create news and coverage, but through it all they have become natural enemies. It is a battle for each party because every president needs the press to inform the public of what he says. Policies need to be known by society and with the media being the natural conveyer there are bound to be issues. "The media agenda seems to have direct, sometimes strong, influence upon the policy agenda of elite decision makers."(Rogers, Deaning) This idea seems to ring truth. The media may influence attention by policymakers in less direct ways; however, the public's familiarity with politica
Lets take the Bill Clinton controversy for example. The press consistently flooded our lives with Clinton's personal life, and in doing so neglected to report the real presidential issues. We allow the media to entrap our thoughts and concerns until we realize that all we are paying attention to is hyped up drama about our president's personal life. Whether or not the president engaged in sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky became the focus of our nation. We completely abandoned the idea of assessing the president's real attributes. We didn't allow ourselves to pay attention to the fact that he has helped in strengthening our economy and funding our schools. He has also come up with several ways to combat drugs and crime. So in a way we find the personal issues of our president more gratifying than what he has actually done for the well being of this country. The press portrays each individual presidency differently. Whether or not the press agrees with the president, and whether or not the president agrees with the press, entirely effects what news will be considered important. l matters is closely related to the amount and duration of attention these affairs receive in the mass media. We don't tend to realize the capacity at which we rely on the media for direct
Some common words found in the essay are:
Luanne Norris, Truman American, Bill Clinton, Harry Truman, Monica Lewinsky, Natural Enemies, Thomas Dewey, policy agenda, personal life, press president, press media, bill clinton, president engaged, press truman, natural enemies,
Approximate Word count = 869
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
