Influence of the Media

How does one take a position on national events?

To have personal knowledge of a certain activity one must be a witness of that event. If one cannot be there he must talk to someone that has been there; be able to ask the right question to clarify all the situations. If It is a local issue, one can personally investigate it and become involved with the people that are there and make observations of any physical evidence that might exist. When it becomes a national or international event one has a greater difficulty in coming to an accurate position. Not being able to be there we then have to rely on newspapers, Television news, or other types of media. We then can make a decision based on what the is reported in the news. The Iraq war is a prime example. The news papers and other organization take opinion polls of how people like the way the war is going or dislike the way the war is going. But the only way that most people have to decide how the war is going is what they see on TV. When there were a lot of casualties there was an opinion pole almost every day. A certain number of people were asked questions. Is the president doing a good job or is the president doing a bad job?

Now the war is going better there are no more opinion polls about how the war is going.

It is the same with the presidential candidates. Opinions of the people are formed somewhat by what they read in the papers. The major TV networks will investigate some candidates more than the other trying to find out the "dirt."