The Role of Media in Shaping and Manipulating the American Public Opinion
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2018
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
UNIVERSITY OF ABBES LAGHROUR-KHENCHELA
Abstract
Abstract
This research paper involves a deep interpretation of media’s role in constructing the
American public opinion, and explains the different methods that media use to brainwash and
influencepeople’s perception of issues. The purpose of this work is to understand how the
disseminated information by media control the public’s reactions and interpretations of events
that happen in their daily life. The study seeks to find out to what extent media influence the
public’s perceptions of 9/11 events and Chavez coup, as most important events that show how
the media propagandists manipulate and brainwash the people in order to elicit certain
attitudes or stances vis-à-vis controversial issues. This work is divided into three chapters: The
first one is a representation of the historical background of public opinion in general and
American public opinion in specific, in which it becomes a matter of debate in the period of
the two World wars and the way it should be measured. The second chapter is an introduction
of the fourth estate, which is the main source of news, and acts as a link between the
government and the public, and it helps this latter to be well-informed. However, most of the
information presented to the public are made by propagandists, who are manipulate people to
serve the elite’s desires. The last chapter is an attempt to identify the relationship between
American public opinion and media and further explain the media strategies of shaping the
opinions of people during major events, which include wars and foreign crises.