Politics in Media Essay

Submitted By Dylan-Poor
Words: 743
Pages: 3

Dylan Poor
10/24/12
Comm 101
Politics in Media

Media is such an important part of the American culture, and many other cultures around the world. People consume media in many different ways, including, television, radio, movies, and the internet. These different media have many channels which are owned by different people, and the owners can convey different messages within their information being produced. Some of that product has political views that may tie into anything that their media produces. Although the people who consume any type of media may not know they are receiving bias messages, they in fact may be, either directly or indirectly. Politics in media has been a rising factor of media in general, and now it is a very big part, whether people know it or not. News channels are the most known aspect of media to include politics in their output. Radio stations, such as talk radio, may talk about politics, and this involves the commentary with a bias. There is a bias because they obviously want to talk about their opinion on the subject. Politics in media is mostly seen in these parts of media.
Political messages can be taken from many other parts of media, including movies. Movie producers can use large audiences to try to persuade. Most moviegoers watch movies because they are very intereseted and they seem very good, and not good because they believe in a certain political view. But, a movie can have certain politcal stances portrayed in a quiet way; quiet meaning played into the plot in some way. The producer may not even know their is a political message in their movie because they did not intentionally place it in. For example, in class the movie Knocked Up was discussed, and one thing talked about was that there might be a political view of abortion. In the movie, two people had a one night affair and the woman became pregnant. She had the baby, which means they did not want an abortion. This could be a case of a quiet way of playing their view into abortion.
The audience may not even think about the stance on abortion, and may just continue to focus on the main storyline of the movie, which is a good one in Knocked Up. Most people will walk away from the movie talking about what happened and what there favorite parts are, and most times they will not talk about the stance on abortion because it probably is not on their minds. However, if someone were to bring up the fact there was not an abortion, then people probably would start talking about their stance and whether they agreed with the movie or not. Abortion is a very split subject of social politics and can be very sensitive.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a movie that touches on the subject of abortion, but more than in Knocked Up. In