Media Power

The media clearly has a lot of influence in both the distribution and framing of information. After 9/11 a lot of people were scared and turned to elected officials and media sources for answers. This gave the media a ton of power because they could decide how the "conversation" would proceed. We see this all the time with how different events are framed by the media, and different sources of media. For example, when Michael Brown was murdered by police the media was able to spin it anyway they chose. The more right wing news sources, such as Fox News, chose to focus on the bad characteristics of Michael Brown's life. They only chose to report on things that made him look negative or more of a criminal, which influences people to believe Michael Brown was a "thug", so the police's actions were justified. While the left wing media, like MSNBC, instead focused more on the police and the rising rates of police violence. Through that they were able to influence their base that Michael Brown's murder wasn't justified and the police are the bad guys in this situation. This just illustrates how much influence the media has over their consumers. By selecting the things that fit their agendas and ignoring the parts that do not, they're almost able to tell people what to think. One could make the argument that the Bush administration used it's supporters in media to spread anti-Islam sentiments, in hopes to influence the population into supporting the invasion of Iraq.