Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. The media has had a huge influence over citizens of the world for many years in many forms. For the United States, it all began with the first amendment of the Constitution. It states that U.S. citizens have the freedom of the press. This guarantees the right to express ourselves without the government interfering or preventing us from doing so. The first amendment alone, whether the fathers of the constitution realized it or not, created a “4th branch” of government.
The fourth branch of government is the action of the citizens for which it reports on. It has been existent since colonial times. During colonial times, colonists were like a pot of water over the fire. It remained dormant, but with a little heat began to boil. With the power of the fourth branch, a revolution began. An easy example would be the “Boston Massacre”. Tensions were already high between colonists and the British, but with the media playing its role, a volcano erupted.
The “Boston Massacre” was an event played by the media in order to gain support from colonists in order to create a revolt against the British during a time of high tensions. According to the Boston Massacre Historical Society, only five colonists were killed in a fight that they provoked. The newspapers the next day reported it as a “massacre” in order to dramatize and hype the occurrence in order to get more people to oppose the British troops. This is a great example of the fourth branch of government in play because many believe that if it were not for the over dramatization of “Boston Massacre”, Boston would have never had such a big movement in the revolution and may not of even been part of it.
This is not the only example of the fourth branch at work in the United States. The fourth branch also has a large effect on who becomes a member of office, such as the President of the United States. When analyzing political campaigns, the media will make or break that politician. The first notable occurrence of this would have to be Thomas Jefferson in his pursuit to become president of the United States. According to an article “How Presidents and Presidential Candidates Use The Media”, Thomas Jefferson created a newspaper sponsored by himself in order to promote is political campaign. By using his own paper, Thomas Jefferson was able to make himself look professional, advertise any policies for his campaign, advertise information that only he wanted to make public, and argue any statements made against him by his opponents. It was a genius idea for his period of time and definitely helped him on his way to office.
In more modern times, it is a lot more difficult to do. For politicians to look professional in the present is a hard thing to do with the multiple news sources that are available. Everything can now be publicized instantly whether through radio, blogs, phone and tablet apps, internet, and television news feeds. In an instant, whether a debate, public speech, or even a sneeze, can be made public to the world. By having such power, the media plays a large role on the chances of a candidate wining office. Having such instant media is a great tool in order to see and here things instantly without the influence of anything else, when it is live.
Recent examples can easily be seen of the fourth branches power with the Republican Party receiving so much attention for the Presidential run. According to cnn.com, Herman Cain was the former leader in the Republican polls for the Presidential candidate slot. Due to media coverage, the whole nation now knows of Herman Cain’s unpopular activity while working in the restaurant industry. Ever since his misconduct was exposed, his support in the polls have dropped. This is because of the fourth branch of government controlling the outlook of Herman Cain and then expressing the public opinion as well as influencing the public opinion of which it controls. This is a wonderful way for U.S. citizens to be actively involved in politics as well as have influence and understanding in what happens in society.
The media does not only influence the personal image of politicians, but it also has influence over social movements. The Wall Street Occupiers are an example of the fourth branch at work. At first, the Wall Street Occupiers were simply people protesting Wall Street without a set goal or idea in mind. Through the media, attention was brought to these protesters and more people joined this protest and began having a target as to what they are doing and what they should do in order to have demands met. Without media coverage, this movement would not have been as effective or as large as it has become.
The fourth branch of government may seem like a great thing, but like everything else there is also a negative side. The fourth branch of government can also use its power for corrupt purposes. Many examples come to mind when the fourth branch has used its power in order to control the population. The biggest events that media uses in order to do this is disease/infections/epidemics/etc. The H1N1 virus is a perfect example of the media latching on to something in order to gain ratings and influence the actions of people.
H1N1 began recently in the year 2009 when people began reporting cases of this flu. During that time, every news source imaginable latched on to this for months and declared that it was a pandemic which resulted in many people panicking over the virus. It was almost as if nobody had ever heard of the flu before as multiple cases were being reported and in some instances death. According to Center of Disease Control, the average number of deaths from the H1N1 was 12,470 and the average number of hospitalization was 274,000. This seems like a lucrative number and something many should be concerned about until the regular influenza statistics are taken into account. Reports by the Center of Disease Control are as follows in reference to the regular flu: It is estimated that, on average, approximately 5% to 20% of U.S. residents get the flu, and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized for flu-related complications each year. Over a period of 30 years, between 1976 and 2006, estimates of flu-associated deaths in the United States range from a low of about 3,000 to a high of about 49,000 people.
By doing more research and truly being aware of the extent of H1N1, it did not seem as serious as the media made it out to be and yet many people feared this disease that they knew nothing about and resulted in mass spending and a need for the vaccine for H1N1. Not that it is important or discredits anything, I have never received a flu shot and have only been infected by the flu once in my life and I certainly did not need hospital attention to become healthy again.
Although it is nice to be informed about such things, it is also nice to have valid information on the subject at hand before going Armageddon. Besides H1N1, there are many things that the fourth branch of government uses in order to gain power from the public through fear of minimal information. This includes reports on Y2-k being Armageddon, December 21, 2012 being Armageddon, microwaves creating harmful radiation levels to your body by standing in front of them, President Obama’s religious backround, former President Bush’s search for secret weapons in the Middle East, President Obama supporting the construction of a Mosque near the 9/11 World Trade Center site, and so on.
Y2-k obviously never happened, the Mayan prediction is based on loose interpretation and small amounts of information, tests on microwaves showed that it was impossible to be exposed to radiation (unless you stick your head in the microwave while it’s on), President Obama’s religious backround has no factual support to prove the claims made against him, former President Bush was never able to find the “secret weapons” that he claimed existed, and the Muslim Center built near ground zero wasn’t as close as the multiple Mosques that are near ground zero. This is just to name a few of the hypes that the media creates in order to persuade and influence the public in a certain favor that had minimal information, but a large impact.
By using the media many politicians and organizations can influence the nation on a wide scale. What media tends to report on that the government tends to avoid is religion. Religion has had a strange alteration over the years in terms of media coverage and how the general public perceives different religions. For example, Christianity has taken a wide turn in society and is at its demise through media coverage. More and more the radical, beuracratic, fundamentalists are viewed in the news instead of the general, average community of Christianity and yet people believe Christianity is dysfunctional due to news coverage. For example, Wethro Baptists received huge publicity and gave the image that Christians are almost cult like by preaching hate messages and holding anti homosexual and military protests. Things such as this receive publicity which give a negative outlook on Christianity. Many media sources report on this and yet did not report the positive things that Christian organizations did for the nation. For example, after Hurricane Katrina happened the only thing reported was the lack of action done by the government. The untold story was the amount of Christian organizations that responded immediately and did most of the clean-up and volunteer work during the recovery of the area. Even in sports it is visible that Christianity is something that reporters don’t like to cover. When Tim Tebow involves his faith in football, media absolutely hates it which is why he is not present in many interviews. It is even present in SEC football when very few football players are interviewed because the media is aware at this point that many of them are Christians and will talk about God helping during the game as they are being interviewed.
It’s not just Christianity that gets a bad rep in the news, but Islam has been getting an excessive amount of negative coverage ever since the United States went to war back in 2003. Due to only certain coverage and a lack of understanding, many people believed all Muslims were terrorists and enemies to the United States and only found in the Middle East. After years of being at war with terrorist groups, studies were finally done and information was let out about the different degrees and levels of Islam, which gave Americans a better understanding, but many still remain skeptical or opposed to Islam. Some people even blame Muslims for 9/11 even though it was acted upon by a terrorist group.
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