Media In Politics

News media plays a critical role in today's political events and can have a huge impact on the average voter or citizens opinions surrounding politics. Yet, no matter what media you consume there is always a bias present even when the source attempts to be objective. Most news stations and sources lean either left or right with only some being very centrist and objective.

Just like our president, the Republican voters of our country seem to distrust "mainstream news media." Only 14% of Republicans surveyed believe that mainstream media is moral and only 18% of them believe that it protects democracy in our country. This is a contrast to when Republicans are asked about their own media sources that they most often consume news from. We can infer that the news sources they are reading or watching lean more conservatively. When these citizens are fed media with a point of view that aligns better to their own beliefs they understandably tend to trust it more and believe it is doing positive things for the country. In general, Democrats tend to trust ¨the news media¨ by more than double that of Republicans in every category. Judging by the data in the chart Democrats are more trusting of news media in general whether it is their chosen media or not.
Another trend we can see in the data of the supporting chart is the polarization of today's news media. As people move farther and farther from the center they begin to lose trust in other news sources on the spectrum that don't align with their ideas as strongly. This leads to more news sources popping up and catering to people on more extreme areas of the political spectrum. For example shows like Breitbart and The Blaze display heavily right-wing media in comparison to The New Yorker Slate which runs consistently. liberal-leaning news