The lectures given by Dr. Scott and Dr. Patterson are about media and its influence on the political scope. These men speak about media roles in the political system and explain how people are engaged in this influence. Moreover, these lectures denote some involving concepts related to media. It is essential to look at both lectures to understand the differences and similarities in ideas concerning media and politics.
The lecture given by Dr. Patterson starts with Nixon and Kennedy’s debates video excerpt and explains multiple concepts of media’s impact on people. Dr. Patterson starts his speech by investigating previous times, slightly from the formation of the newspaper. He speaks that the newspaper was the most prominent source of information. Later, when cable television appeared, it became easier to inform people about political events. Then, the rise of cable TV in 1980 created a more informed public; people were ready to watch the news almost constantly. CNN became the first channel that provided the 24 hours translation of reports (Patterson 00:05:04-00:05:32). Overall, Dr. Patterson introduced the beginning of the formation of media in the previous century.
Dr. Patterson claims that people are becoming less aware of current political world events. He uses statistics to show how people’s political awareness has decreased in the last several years. It is happening because young adults might be more likely to use their smartphones to chat, watch entertaining videos, and play. As a result, people do not know about severe issues in the world. I agree with Dr. Patterson because it is true that people now use smartphones to entertain themselves rather than learn what is happening in the political scope. At the same time, I cannot entirely agree with him on this controversial issue; I think device usage does not spoil or decrease young people’s awareness of political things. I would say that young people acquire news almost immediately because of online sources.
Another lecture given by Dr. Scott is also about politics and media. Dr. Scott provides viewers with multiple media and political sphere concepts in this video. He also questions many things and digresses reliability, manipulation, objectivity, and media biases in the political scope. For example, Dr. Scott provides spectators with the situation to show how media may influence people. He tells about John Nixon and John Kennedy’s debates, which people saw on TV. Nixon refused to wear makeup, and was nervous and unconfident, while Kennedy controlled himself and was calm.
It influenced people’s choice and favor; they were pleased by Kennedy’s confidence, leading to his election victory. Dr. Scott also speaks about the role of the government in media in politics. There is government regulation, and the doctor says that “the government controls media” (Scott 00:21:01-00:21:08). There is censorship and strict rules of news publishing. The mechanism controls what people see on TV and hear on the radio. It is prohibited to promote or impose someone’s subjective point of view on spectators and abuse any person.
Dr. Scott talks about many notions and includes psychological aspects in his lecture. For instance, he speaks about “selective exposure,” a psychological element that denotes people’s ability to ignore what they do not want to know (Scott 00:14:36-00:14:42). It is connected to the psyche’s factor to filter and avoid unpleasant information potentially harming the person. I agree with Dr. Scott here because it is true that the person sometimes strives to ignore what he does not like. For example, many people know about the current situation with starving children in Africa but prefer to ignore unpleasant information and shift to something pleasant and friendly (Tavernor 1). Although there are many ways to help these children using donation websites nowadays, unfortunately, we often forget to pay attention to this issue.
Next, Dr. Scott explains that the diversity of media sources makes it harder to manipulate the person. It is because humans can shift between multiple opinions, and there is less chance of being influenced by one form of media, Dr. Scott says. It is also essential Dr. Scott states that media “reinforces people’s biases”; it means that people can choose what to believe, and their choice will affect them (Scott 00:23:51-00:24:03). He also claims about the factors which make the news interesting for people. There are some points; the first is high impact, which means the relevance of the news reported. The information should draw attention to become an impactable source.
The second factor is familiarity, and it is about the degree of fame of the person being interviewed or reported. Moreover, people are more likely to watch local news than international ones because humans are interested in what is happening near them. I cannot fully agree with the doctor because many other people and I are interested in international issues.
These lectures have two topics in common; both doctors provide examples of the elections and debates of Nixon and Kennedy to show the degree of media’s impact and explain how media influences people’s political choices and preferences. The differences are that Dr. Patterson’s lecture refers to a more modern period and speaks about contemporary impact. Additively, his lecture does not explain the psychological aspects of media compared to Dr. Scott. Both doctors explore the interconnection of media and politics so that viewers understand how these systems work.
Works Cited
Patterson, Thomas. “The Media.” American Government. N.d., Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts. Lecture.
Scott, Patrick. “American Democracy and Citizenship.” N.d., Missouri State University, Missouri. Lecture.
Tavernor, Rachel. “Liking Visuals and Visually Liking on Facebook.” Global Humanitarianism and Media Culture, 2019. Crossref. Web.