On the other hand, there is the distorted mirror model; which gives distorted news to the public in order to “agree” with the journalist opinions and beliefs. The ownership model maintains that “news are dictated primarily by the interest of the huge corporate empires that own so much of the Canadian media” (Tarras: 8). In the audience model, news are given according to what the audience wants to hear or see; however, the main goal is to entertain the public. In the organizational model “the structure and purpose of the organizations within which journalist work condition how the news is produced” (Tarras: 19). The cultural model aims to reflect and contribute to the culture of one’s country. Finally, the political model in the one approach that sees the journalists as the main actor. In the political model, the journalist’s most important goal is to shape public opinion.
Nevertheless, according to Tarras, there are two main theories about media effect on the viewers. The “magic bullet theory” and the “minimal effects” theory. The magic bullet theory maintains “media images could directly penetrate people’s conscious and unconscious thoughts” (Tarra: 27); while, the minimal effect theory argues “people watch or read selectively and in accordance with their previous beliefs” (Tarra: 28). Nonetheless, according to the Marxist media theory, “media institutions are regarded as being 'locked into the power structure, and consequently as acting largely in tandem with the dominant institutions in society. The media thus reproduced the viewpoints of dominant institutions not as one among a number of alternative perspectives, but as the central and "obvious" or "natural" perspective'”
After looking at some of the theories about newsmaking, the importance of the media in democratic regimes will be established. In democracies like Canada or the United States, freedom of speech is one of the most important values. In the political arena, the main benefits from “enjoying” free media are journalists inform the viewer with the most recent facts, provide the information voters need in order to make their decisions, the media lets the viewer see and at the same time, understand the problems faced in the community, journalists discover corrupt politicians, re-shape public opinion and allow the citizens to get more involved in politics. However, in the past 20 years, the ownership and audience model of newsmaking have become very dominant in news coverage. Journalists are constantly looking for shocking news concerning politicians’ private lives. Also, news are shaped in a certain way that will not damage the social and economic order. But, the most important fact about distorted news is the public is misinformed and individuals are led to believe twisted or unreal facts about different political aspects.
According to “An introduction to government & politics sixth edition – A conceptual approach” by Mark Dickerson and Thomas Flanagan, there are four branches of media politics: public relations, the world of paid media or advertising, public opinion polling, and finally, direct mail. These four types of activities have become essential to politics. “Public relations, as managed by the so-called “spin doctors,” whose job is to release news stories to, and answer form, print and electronic reporters. Insiders refer to the world of daily news coverage as the unpaid media.”(Dickerson and Flanagan: 418). On the other hand, paid media consist on advertisements paid by political parties. The commercials are carefully done, studied and prepared and their efficiency is measured. Public opinion polls are have very important. There are seven main types of polls which are frequently used in election campaigns (the bench-mark study, the follow-up survey, omnibus polls, panel surveys, tracking, the riding study and focus groups); however, many times, polls are used by the candidates to promote themselves or to misguide the voters. Finally, direct mail is advertisement send to the voters via mail.
However, there is one more type of media politics. Unpaid media has become very important in political campaigns. Televised presidential debates like the ones in the United States or televised prime-ministerial debates like the ones in Canada play an essential part in political campaigns. The debates are important because they address the general public and; in many cases, the debates “help” the indecisive voters decide who they will vote for.
Paid advertisement can be divided in four categories: Leadership spots, testimonial, argument spot and the black negative add. In the article “Campaign ads can mislead voters” by Liz Sidoti, the author shows the reader campaign ads distort candidates. For example, one of John Kerry’s ads maintained 3 million Americans lost their jobs during George Bush’s term; nevertheless, only 1.8 million Americans lost their jobs. On the other hand, George Bush’s commercial states "John Kerry will raise taxes by at least $900 billion in his first 100 days in office"; yet John Kerry never said he will raise taxes, besides, the figure is established on GOP calculations. There are no federal regulations in campaign advertisements, which means, candidates are not required to tell the truth in the advertisements. On the other hand, in the 1988 prime-ministerial elections in Canada, the Liberal party most impacting ad was the “erasing the border” commercial which represented the fear many Canadians encountered to being taken by the United States. One the other hand, the Conservatives most impacting ad concerned Canada’s health care system. According to the NPD, Canada’s health care system was in danger by Mulroney’s free trade deal. Both commercials were the argument spot type of ads. But, there is an interesting fact which differentiates American and Canadian political advertisement. According to David Tarras, black negative ads are not widely accepted in Canada because Canadians see black ads as a “hit below the belt.” On the other side, Americans do not react negatively to black ads and they find them highly effective.
However, during election campaign, the public-owned media and the private-owned media have different roles. Some scholars argue public-owned media do nothing but “reflect” the government. In other words, public broadcast is biased and therefore, it favours and it supports the government. Nonetheless, if the media controlled by the government is impartial and “correct” there are no problems; for example, PBS in the United States, CBC or Radio Canada in Canada. Yet, one example of government dominated broadcast is the case of the USSR. In this case, the Russian population had to watch a very biased television which supported the communist regime. Accordingly, other scholars argue private broadcast has become too commercial and less informative; consequently, public media is not a good source of information. Although private media provides the viewer with different views of various topics, there are some major problems with the ownership of private media. Big corporations have monopolised the market.
In the case of Canada, there are seven media corporations: Bell Globemedia, CanWest Global, G.T.C Transcontinental group, Shaw communications inc., Hollinger inc., Québecor and Rogers communications. In the article “Media ownership in Canada” by Jennifer Chen and Gary Graves, the authors argue the role of these corporations in Canada’s media. Bell Globemedia is the fusion of two enterprises, Thompson Corp. and Bell Canada Enterprises Inc and it owns CTV, The Globe and mail and Sympatico-lycos amongst other. CanWest is the biggest newspaper editor in Canada, owning the Ottawa citizen, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun, various newspapers, Global television networks, Prime TV and many more. G.T.C Transcontinental group is the second largest publisher in Canada and the largest newspaper publisher in the province of Québec. Shaw Communications consist of 49 radio stations, Nelvana Limited, YTV, CMT and more. Hollinger inc. owns Jerusalem Post, Chicago Sun-Times, and London's Daily Telegraph. Québecor owns Canoe.ca, Québec’s largest cable television network, TVA, Québec’s largest television network, Vidéotron and other. Finally, Rogers Communication is the largest cable television company and it owns various magazines and shares various television networks. An important fact about this article is, it states “the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) oversees ownership of media in Canada and imposes regulations meant to ensure fair competition and diversity of ownership.”
Moreover, in the article “Canadians benefit from media convergence: execs” by the CBC News Online Staff, executives from Canada’s largest (and private) media corporations argue cross-ownership of the media benefits Canada. It has been argue cross-ownership has many negatives aspect; such as, “ limiting the diversity of opinion represented in the media.” However, the vice-presidents of these companies maintained cross-ownership is essential because it allows Canadians to have a place in the market of international media. Canadian media corporations, in order to attain international goals, must remain together; but, small media business have less chances to success due to the monopolisation of the media.
In conclusion, one cannot state media does not influence individuals. Every aspect of the everyday life is influenced by the media. The realm of politics is not an exception to the rule. Now, more than ever, television plays an essential role in politics. Television provides the viewer with information about the campaign, the latest news, polls, advertisements and the presidential and vice-presidential debates in the case of the United States or the prime-ministerial debate in the case of Canada. However, the media can also damage or twist information, in order to, increase their ratings.
Television in democracies has a crucial role because it helps and gives the viewer a chance to decide who they might vote for. Also, it provides the citizen with the different choices they have and non-biased journalists and broadcaster allow individuals to understand and follow the political process. Therefore, broadcasting is very important for politicians. Nevertheless, public-owned media companies and private-owned corporations “shape” people’s attitude towards politics. Public-owned media in Canada is not as influential as it was (or is) in another countries; but, private-owned corporation have a monopoly over the Canadian media. Although it is essential in democratic countries to have non-governmental media institutions, the state is right to control and regulate the private companies in order to maintain some kind of order in the media. Moreover, media is here to stay, specially advertisement. Nonetheless, if the state would regulate political campaign advertisement, for example, forcing the candidates to give accurate data about their opponents, would political commercials have the same effect on the voters or would voters be more likely to find information about their candidate of choice in more reliable sources?
http://www.aap.org/family/tv1.htm
http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=medialiteracy&page=fastfacts
http://tv.yahoo.com/nielsen/
http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-spt-debate15.html
http://www.eim.de/Events/Downloads/CJBEngdoc-final.pdf
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism05.html
http://www.med.sc.edu:1081/misleadingads.htm
http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/mediaownership.html
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/11/27/media_ownership021127