RESOLVED: The influence of the media is detrimental to the American political process.
Observation I: Definitions
Influence- the power to change or affect someone or something: the power to cause changes
without directly forcing them to happen
Media- mass media
Detrimental- causing damage or injury
American- of or relating to the U.S. or its citizens
Political Process- the process of the formulation and administration of public policy usu. by
interaction between social groups and political institutions or between political leadership and
public opinion
All of these definitions are provided by the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Observation II: Value and Criterion
The value for this debate will be that of Democracy. Democracy is both the ideology our country
was founded on and the political process that we adhere to. Through this system, the United
States have achieved equality, justice, and freedom for its citizens. For these reasons,
Democracy should be valued above all else. The criterion is that of an educated populace.
Contention I: Misrepresentation of the facts is unavoidable in mass media
Due to the consolidation of media ownership, mass media outlets are often subject to the
political bias of their owners. These biases are often so strong that the news outlets will distort
or misrepresent facts in order to support their bias. This is evidenced by the myriad
controversies that mass media outlets such as the Fox News Channel and MSNBC have been
subject to as a result of their political bias interfering with the veracity and quality of their
journalistic work. Unfortunately, such partiality is unavoidable in mass media due to the fact that
without the sponsorship of one of the large media conglomerates such as Viacom, News
Corporation, or Time Warner, news stations cannot obtain the funding necessary to gain the
influence and repute required to become significant. Thus, misrepresentation of facts due to
political bias caused by association with mass media conglomerates in unavoidable.
Contention II: These misrepresentations are detrimental to our form of government
The aforementioned misrepresentations are undisputedly detrimental to Democracy.
Democracy, whether it is representative or direct, is dependent on citizens who are wellinformed and aware of the problems facing their country. Without unbiased and accurate
information, the United States citizenry cannot accurately assess the problems in our society
and respond appropriately to fix them. A clear instance of when mass media bias could obstruct
voters’ ability to respond with an informed opinion to a domestic issue is as follows. During the
summer of 2013, the Fox News Channel featured coverage of the detrimental effects of raising
the minimum wage, stating that by doing so job opportunities would significantly drop. This claim
not backed with any proof or validation, although the news station repeated the misinformation
in a total of 24 segments. The Center for Economy and Policy Research senior economist John
Schmitt even responded by saying that there is "little or no employment response to modest
increases in the minimum wage.” proving that the news station’s claims were unfounded. This
misrepresentation is damaging to our political process in that it might inspire a citizen to cast
their vote towards a candidate who pledges to reduce minimum wage based on the assertion
that it indeed cause a loss of job opportunities, when in reality it does not. In this way,
misrepresentations caused by mass media are detrimental to American democracy.