Documente Academic
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Documente Cultură
Michaela Fujita-Conrads
Through the past 2016 election, social media feeds were being plastered with
articles links. These articles conveyed governmental conspiracy theories and rumors of
political leaders. The individuals who had shared these links comment on their
disapproval with the governmental structure. American citizens engaged in these false
articles. They agree with the ludicrous information and digitally communicate them to
forms of yellow journalism have been apparent. However, through the recent election,
and the increase of mass media news outlets, yellow journalism has become more
widespread.
American citizens have developed habits where they check their social media
platforms and engage with political articles from unreliable sources dismissing critical
thinking. They accept that these forms of news are the unbiased forms of the truth. As a
result, the public opinion becomes altered. A skewed public results in a skewed
democratic system. The public possesses the power to implement change into their
government by electing political leaders in office and voting on specific policy changes.
However, how can democracy survive if these individuals are making these decisions
analyzed this decline in the democratic system through their books, Public Opinion and
The Public and Its Problems. Both discuss how the democratic system is becoming
more complicated the more vast the country is becoming. The idea of collaborating,
discussing policies in a small town hall meeting was more effective in the past. However,
as both Lippmann and Dewey establish, this concept becomes more complex with the
massive nation that America has expanded to today. The entire American population
cannot all meet and communicate their concerns and praise for the current governmental
procedures. In these books, they provide two contrasting solutions to build a sustainable
In Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann, he identifies the primary issue with our
the governmental representation and media representation. Through these two categories,
governmental press releases and big news corporations, to the common American. These
forms of news outlets are easily skewed and manipulated to represent a certain instance
or event for the public viewing. Vague framing leads to a strong development of
a culture or person without fully submersing the individual in that setting and with that
person. No matter how unbiased a news story is set to be, it is still framed a specific way.
Lippmann proposed a solution for this trickle down issue. He wanted to develop
an elite public that would be seen as experts. These experts would specialize in specific
areas where they would relay their knowledge to common non-expert people. This, in
information on election polls and political party candidates without their individual
perspectives influencing their information. However, this would discard the voice of the
public. These experts would act as the elitist body of intelligence within a society.
In the book, The Public and Its Problems by Walter Dewey, he criticizes the
possess private interests and fulfill their private knowledge. He questions how a
homes. By having experts, the minority of the elite will be muted. However, Dewey
states that these individuals deserve to be upliftedbecause who else experienced what
they have experienced. The world has suffered more from leaders and authorities than
public. He puts most of the fault to an uninformed public in the human nature of building
habits. Dewey states that habits are the routine aspect within any individuals day. He or
she reads the paper in the morning or watch the night news before bed, and believe he or
however, there is also a lack of critical thinking or desire to further research these current
events. These are regarding the people who take the time to implement current events into
their routine. This does not account for the mass quantity of those who do not read or
watch the news at all. By doing these mundane day-to-day tasks, Dewey states that these
individuals begin losing their sense of self. They limit their knowledge by reading from
news outlets that support their beliefs and communicate with peers who also share the
same values and outlooks. They lack the motivation to broaden their perspective by
Deweys main argument throughout this book is that it does not take an expert or
through debate, discussion and persuasion, an educated public is formed. In order for a
democracy to grow and a public to be sustainable, Dewey proposes that communities can
be built and issues can be fully discussed in order for individual citizens to build
Comparing these two writers, each possessed a rational solution to strengthen the
effective between the two. Just based off the results of this election alone, the
conservative minority admittedly voiced their concerns for being left behind in this
liberal progression from past political leaders decisions. Through the implementation of
the expert strategy, the masses Dewey identifies, will feel unvoiced and unimportant.
Therefore, the same form of activist frustration will grow, leading to more instability in
our political health today. However, where would we start? With the vast accessibility of
the Internet, how would we limit what can or cannot be put on the web? How do we
determine the educational merit behind every news article? Furthermore, if these all of
these concerns are met how do we strike the passion and desire for citizens to want to
beginning in primary schooling, students can gain more critical thinking skills and
passion for knowledge. Majority of the uneducated public is due to the lack of basic
academics. By the time they are able to make decisions to impact our political future,
they believe they are uneducated and either do not participate or make assumptions. By
starting in primary education, individuals will be gain the skills to view news articles and
social media posts critically and subjectively. Both Dewey and Lippmann identify the
decline of democracy in the 1920s and the same concerns are still if not more applicable
today. We, as a community, can take these theories and use them for a more prosperous
governmental system.