Power of the Media

American Politics has always been a strong focus in the media. While i was growing up in Cape Town South Africa we were very limited when it comes to television stations. We had 3 local channels and in the late 80's one (subscriber) channel were added and also CNN started to dominate the airways in the afternoon.

CNN and BBC was seen as the most trusted News gathering source in South Africa. When I moved to the states I realized that there were other major networks that also gather news. At one point I was told that CNN was too liberal and I should not watch it, that Fox was the best source of news. I even heard preachers making suggestions as to what news source to watch. It took me a while to understand the different ideologies between Republicans and Democrats. These ideologies results in preference. Rome Hartman - executive producer of BCC World News America, and former executive of CBS news thinks that "brand " matters more and that those in the mainstream media aspire to tell the story "straight". "A trusted brand means something to people" - like the AP - brands that are impartial and have value tends to be important to people.

As one spokesman put it - the role of a news network these days is to make sense of what is going on. In order to do this a lot of discussions and debates form the core of this. Where experts get invited to share their professional opinion. Multiple opinions help to make a new network seem impartial.

To add another twist to this, the recent election saw the web as a driving force for setting the agenda , adding fuel to debates that mainstream networks televised. One area websites that makes websites handy are opinion polls and this sometimes acts as the plot for todays news story. In the end it all comes down to selling the brand and chasing after rating points in my opinion.