This tribal mentality – engrained in our evolutionary need to belong to a group – aims to oversimplify and distort “complex problems by dividing the world into an ‘us’ and a ‘them,’ vilifying the latter.” This mindset can lead to irrational group favoritism and produce hostilities. Byers believes that MSNBC also presents ideologically biased information, although in a less outrageous manner. Imagine what they would do to it.” His wording is carefully selected to categorize people into groups and create a shared sense of belonging to a threatened community. During the 2020 presidential election, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson – television’s most popular political host with an average of more than three million viewers a night – claimed that “the leaders of today’s Democratic Party despise this country… we cannot let them run this nation because they hate it. This type of ‘identity journalism’ reinforces identity and binds people into communities. The divisive tone of cable news has become the very nature of its appeal, and this type of journalism hardens polarization because “the more political media one consumes, the more warped their perspective of the other side becomes.” Partisans tend to view each other negatively because polarized media weaponizes the differences between political and social groups instead of emphasizing commonalities. Estimated ideology by channel year: Each point corresponds to the estimated ideology of the news channels based on phrase usage, with 95% confidence bounds shaded. To compete, MSNBC has “pumped up its ratings by recasting itself as a left-leaning riposte to Fox News.” It is important to note that although both MSNBC and Fox have strong viewpoints and ‘opinion’ hosts, the former lives in the world of fact while the latter “spins its own reality.” According to Jones “much of what we see on Fox News, especially in primetime, is not based in truth.” Fox News is therefore deliberately misleading the public while causing dissension. While this may negatively affect the American political system, it is profitable for founder Rupert Murdoch. Fox News has established itself as the most-watched cable news network in the country by airing less news and more “opinions-about-the-news” to garner larger audiences. It has, therefore, increasingly blurred the lines between information and entertainment. Cable news is a business that runs on ratings and advertisements and, in order to capture people’s attention, it needs to be engaging. Cable news networks – of which Fox News and MSNBC are frequent targets of media bias allegations – have become “birthing centers for polarizing rhetoric.” In the 21 st century, modern Americans have access to a plethora of news sources, and the competition for audience and “the threat to journalistic business models” has changed the way political news is produced and consumed. 2), and both liberal and conservative partisan media are likely contributing to polarization in the U.S. Media polarization has increased in the past half-decade (fig. Traditional and social media channels have exacerbated political polarization by spreading disinformation to their viewers, posing a threat to American democracy. It is hard to find another example of polarization in the world that fuses all three major types of identity divisions in a similar way.” An essential driver of this polarization is the changing media landscape in the U.S., particularly that of cable news and social media. In a seminal paper on political division, Carothers and O’Donohue confirm that a “powerful alignment of ideology, race, and religion renders America’s divisions unusually encompassing and profound. The Pew Research Center illustrates the increasingly stark divide between partisans on important topics such as “the economy, racial justice, climate change, law enforcement, international engagement and a long list of other issues.” Partisans believe that their differences are not only about politics but also about “core American values.” In his book, Why We’re Polarized, Klein argues that the divisions between the two parties have grown over time, as people’s social identities have slowly become intertwined with their political identities. Her research interests include international and intercultural communication, climate security, environmental policy, US, UK, and EU affairs.Īmericans are more polarized than ever (fig. By: Flavia Roscini Flavia Roscini is a MAIA candidate at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, specializing in International Communication.
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