December 2016
December 2016
The media has changed
While the media has received criticism from politicians throughout history , it is regarded as the “ fourth-estate ,” providing an additional “ check ” on government and politicians by keeping the public informed . In this election cycle , that role was eroded by the type of news and how it was disseminated . The rise of partisan news is a relatively new phenomenon . According to Pew Research , Fox News was created in October of 1996 and boasted over two million viewers in this past August . Also founded in 1996 , MSNBC had about 1.2 million viewers in August . In the 1980s and 1990s , ABC , CBS , and NBC combined to reach over 30 million viewers a night . Now , that total is below six million .
Partisan news has helped create deep divides based on viewpoints as people gravitate towards news that matches what they believe . In addition , the overall number of viewing options has taken many people in the political middle or people without interest in politics towards non-news based programming .
Possibly an even more critical change is the way people access news . Large numbers of people , many of the non-news watching group , access information via social media . Items that are shared via Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter may not have been reported by journalists or even factual . For the most part , traditional print media and the televised media have more transparency and are responsible to readership and viewership for what they publish and televise . Stories are fact checked by competing news organizations , public media watchdog groups , and members of the government .
Traditional organizations can be sued more easily for libel or slander because of clear ownership and viewership . False stories or social media posts by a member of the general public are not subject to these same checks and balances , nor do they serve the public in the same way . Once a false story has been disseminated through social media , it becomes a truth among the people .
While the mainstream media can be criticized for its reliance on revenue and ownership by large , multinational corporations , the transparency is greater than among the emerging sources of false stories and how they are disseminated .
California voted differently than the US
In California , we have some views that don ’ t necessarily match the rest of the United States . In the Presidential race , Clinton received 61.5 % of the vote as of November 17 ( about 80 % of the votes have been counted ), which is a current lead of over 3.2 million votes . In comparison , Trump is leading by 12,000 votes in Michigan and won Wisconsin by 29,000 . That is a drastic difference .
In addition , Californians passed propositions that will legalize marijuana ( 56 % -43 %); we placed restrictions on the purchases of ammunition ( 63 % -37 %), restored local control over bilingual education ( 73 % -27 %), and voted to stop allowing grocery stores to give us plastic bags ( 53 % -47 %).
On November 8th , Donald Trump won the necessary amount of electoral votes to win and assumed the role of President-elect .
Photo courtesy of 270towin . com
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