How Media Influence Public Opinion?

Why it is important to see how the media influence the public?

The influence affects many aspects of our lives. It can include views, beliefs, and changing a person’s understanding of specific topics because of being given erroneous or partial information – mostly partial information.

The Media are a never-static field and is getting blamed more and more by the public (us).

How Does the Media Influence Public Opinion?

I will go through a few examples that are not based on today’s political, social, or economic circumstances.

As many know, I was raised in France. My first example is about the French liberal President Mr. Mitterrand, who was in office from 1981 until 1995. He was considered the greatest man of all time until his death in 1996.

Then the French discovered the true color of Mr. Mitterrand. Many like me went, WHAT????

The leftist President started in 1934 with his adhesion to the infamous “Mouvement de la jeunesse de la droite nationaliste, ” a far-right youth group. He even assisted and took part in 1935 with groups against “l’invasion métèque” (against immigration and antisemitic)!!!!

During WWII, he joined the Vichy’s government (pro-German) but quickly realized it was a political impasse. He joined one of the 3 resistance groups and helped war prisoners to escape while still working for Vichy. He earned “l’ordre de la Francisque, ” a special reconnaissance from the fascist government!!!!

In 1980, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and made doctors lie about it so he could get on the 1981 ballot. Only 12 years later, the French learned the truth about his health.

I remember during his reelection bid in 1988, some came up with his fascist past and caused a huge media outcry, “How can you talk like that about such an honored resistant?” French didn’t know about his past, so they moved on.

At Mr. Mitterand’s funeral, there were three women. The first Lady (his wife), Anne Pingeot, and Mazarine Pingeot, Anne was Mitterand’s mistress, and Mazarine, his 22 years old daughter. We all thought he was married to the First Lady, Danielle Gouze. He was, but he had another “wife”. We all were 🤦‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

We soon after learned that his mistress and daughter were living in luxurious quarters in Paris. His daughter went the luxury private schools, all paid for by French taxpayers, and they had no idea about it because the media decided it wasn’t important!!!

In this case, how do the media influence public opinion? By hiding the truth, by not reporting facts and by deciding for the public (us) what is important, and what is not important.

Recently, I read a French writer’s essay about whether Mitterrand was a conservative instead of a liberal. He would have been lynched by the liberal press, thus not being elected.

What about the conservative media? The two were Le Figaro and L’Express, but at that time, the chief editors were center left, thus keeping it quiet. The few regional right newspapers who dared to report Mitterrand’s life were sued for defamation, and the few who persisted went bankrupt quickly because of huge settlements.

A newspaper I read at the time was Le Canard Enchaîné didn’t talk about it because “it wasn’t the mood of the moment.”

Who elected Mitterrand? The French? No, the media. If the press reported his start as a far-right anti-immigration, antisemitism, his honored participation with the Vichy government, his anti-decolonization of Algeria, his other wife, his illnesses, his greedy friends, his political destruction of other liberal candidates… I do not think the French would have elected and re-elected him.

Another one for the road 🙂 Climategate or the theft of Climatic Research Unit emails between 1996 and November 2009. The emails were released conveniently two weeks before the Climatic Copenhagen Conference.

The emails described the manipulation of data to show that the earth is warming up – international conservative news media cried at a scandal, and international liberal media cried at anti-climate change groups’ manipulation. Both sides fought over scandal or manipulation. No one presented bold facts.

The investigations were inconclusive, as investigators felt that the media pressure was too high. One investigator said, “You say yay, you’re the target of the conservation media. You say nay, you’re the target of the liberal media. Both would have no problem having me, my family, my peers investigated to make sure I disappear.”

What did we learn from that email breach? nothing, no way to make our own opinion, and as usual, we moved on.

So, how does the Media influence public opinion? by hiding facts, selling us their own point of view, and exaggerating or diminishing the impact of facts.

A good friend of mine went into journalism and entered in our state newspaper as a junior writer. His first appointment was to write about a city’s social project. His paper was about the excitement but also the lack of real progress, the frustration of the social workers, the underfunding, and issues that affected the ones in need.

His boss told him that the article would make the mayor unhappy and rewrote it. When my friend read the mayor’s happy version, he was stunt as it was about how great the project was doing and how grateful the social workers were for the mayor’s pet project. The complete opposite of what he saw in the field. He is now working in IT as he can’t deal with real fake news to please politicians.

It is how the media influences public opinion by telling the “truth” seen from their eyes and their own opinions.

The media shapes public opinion by displaying biased reporting, and through this, people are encouraged to make their own conclusions.

Some journalists may exaggerate stories or fail to provide both sides of an issue, leading people to draw erroneous conclusions. Besides reporting stories, the media may also be motivated by people’s need for entertainment.

As a result, the media can be characterized by sensationalism, which again promotes a certain point of view on a certain issue. Through the use of fear-mongering, exaggeration, and reporting on only certain sides of an issue, the media has a powerful influence on public opinion.

The media can persuade people toward a certain opinion by controlling what people hear and see. Thus, it is not only how the media influences public opinion by telling the “truth” seen from their eyes and their own opinions, but also by manipulation and misrepresentation of news.