Media Spectacles
Following comprehensive research by scholarly authors, media spectacles create different emotional responses through framing and fake news. Emotions develop influence and polarize strong opinions. Often, media spectacle is viewed as an element focusing internationally on constructing media events. Media events come about through the existence and massive growth of social, political, and media structures in society. Spectacles existing in the current media space are capable of creating events that are easily altered and shifted to fit the desired spectacle state. Researchers have shown that in the modern days where the Internet has been embraced, media spectacle has become more variable, diffuse, and also unpredictable.
In the digital culture, media spectacle holds an essential quality in online communities who can create, sustain, and extend a scene as long as the mainstream media supports them. Media spectacle has been viewed to be a form of spreadable media. Spreadable media has the potential for which the audiences can share content for individual purposes, or as directed by the rights holders (Mihailidis & Viotty, 2017). Sometimes the audience may share information against the wish of the holders. Proper use of advancing technology and practice creates an environment where the desired community emerges through the harmonious intersection of people. Spreadable spectacle mainly develops through efforts of a well-networked society that is determined to spread fake news.
Several ways and methods have been found in which the spreadable spectacle evolve emotions among people in society. Firstly, the fundamental element is the legitimization of the spreadable spectacle (Mihailidis, & Viotty, 2017). Excessive support on the mainstream media creates a digital environment full of inaccurate content. The digital platforms are majorly composed of misleading information challenges the news organizations since they have to identify and do away with the fake news to avoid causing chaos. The news organizations, therefore, tend to give out a report according to their emotions. Pressure from technological, social, and political sectors have contributed to the problem of the existence of online fake news. It is a scenario that is driven by the need of news organizations to achieve their objective of attracting more audiences. As a result, organizations have an influential role in contributing to differences in opinions.
The second aspect contributing to emotional responses is the role of media bias perception. Authors of the articles, Lee and Song, have a similar argument. The social networking sites popularly used have the nature of accommodating massive posting of news to the public. Since users value the act of social networking sites, different perceptions of the media evolve. Many people believe that making many posts helps alter the thoughts of the users. A significant group views the press to have persuasive nature, while others do not understand the spectacle. Some individuals perceive social networking sites as less-visible and have a sense of consuming time (Lee & Song, 2017). Such people believe that networking sites are complicated innovations that possess a great challenge to people; therefore, they end up avoiding social sites.
Media bias perception often influences the decisions of people. The authors, Weeks et al., show contradicting evidence compared to Lee and Song. It is believed that some news organizations have the tendency of favoring a particular sector and people such as the influential people. Focusing on the correct behavior yields positive emotions, while the wrong perception makes one view the media spectacle as irrelevant. Also, the opinion that media is a biased platform that drives one to seek alternative ways of getting information (Weeks et al. 2019). For example, one may decide to try other news sources than the preferred source since they believe information conveyed may be misleading. Eventually, going for alternatives results creation of differing opinions since each one views their perception as the most accurate and fair. Media bias perception thus acts as a tool for measuring the ability of an individual to embrace or decline media spectacle.
Hostile media perceptions are believed to be created by the competitive media environment. The accusations channeled by politicians contribute to hostility view by the public (Weeks et al. 2019). Political elites created by social media hold strong beliefs that the media is biased in its communication ability to the public. The origin of social networking sites created an opportunity for the public to communicate with each other easily. People all over the world prefer passing information through social media platforms due to its advanced technology. For this reason, the creation of responses continually increases in the day to day activities.
Hostile medial perception is mainly associated with individual emotions, as expressed by authors in the articles. Researchers believe that there exists a secure connection between responses shown and the extent of media hostility. Emotions such as anxiety, angel, and enthusiasm are among the feelings encountered. Hostile media perceptions, without a doubt, result in negative feedback. Some emotions may not necessarily mean that the media is viewed as biased or hostile instead of signals that events happen as expected. In the political arena, politicians express their enthusiasm as a way of informing the public that they may achieve their political ambitions and emerge as winners against the bias perception. Enthusiasts may tend to positive about hostile media views, although the situation is also received with different concepts.
Thirdly, media spectacle leads to polarized opinions through too much valuing of partisan strength. Partisanship is often believed to be a factor that brings political differences in a country (Lee & Song, 2017). People tend to identify themselves with either of the great parties. For instance, in the United States, citizens identify themselves as supporters of the Democratic or Republican party. Political communication shows that individuals with strong political ideology participate more in political behaviors in online platforms. They use social networking sites to campaign for their desired political leaders. Partisan strength, therefore, is a determinant to an individual’s willingness to engage in communication regarding civic behaviors in the media.
Political ideologies and behaviors embraced by both their supporters and opponents hold contradictory views regarding the media and its content. They believe that media spectacle tends to be against their party and shift its favor to the opponent party. After comprehensive research, studies in media content have nullified the claim that news organizations may favor one side. The conclusion by researchers raises a question as to why partisans perceive the media as biased, yet evidence shows systematic structure and action of the media. Partisan strength is an aspect that is also created by politicians themselves. Politicians view the media as a biased tool against them hence publicly expressing their beliefs. A good example is illustrated by the decision from some politicians to avoid direct engagement with journalists since they believe that their concerns will not be addressed to the public.
Although politicians and partisan strength often influence media spectacle, media is the best method of covering news for both the voters and the politicians. Trough social media, the politicians, get an opportunity to hold direct conversations with the constituents (Rossini et al. 2018). The high utilization of the media spectacle offers a chance to articulate polarized opinions. Traditional news keepers are no longer famous hence guarantying the media the authority to manipulate political emotions in any way possible. Therefore, the effect of media spectacle is continually felt since politicians use social media networks as strategic components to reach the audience. Consequently, the audience has responded adequately. Most of the voters have embarked on following politicians’ messages on their social sites. Since it is easy to persuade voters through online engagement, politicians make maximum use of the platforms to express their emotions to the public. Influence from partisan strength may strengthen people’s perception of hostile media if one’s expectation is not met.
Lastly, media spectacle brings out emotional responses through the existence of platform differences. Since the theoretical models have shown that following politicians on the social network sites are often associated with a touching conclusion, it is evident social platforms’ differences impact differently. Although similar information may be posted in the platforms, differences in architecture, functional aspect, and the audience involved in each platform result in differences in political extremes. The divergence of political opinions also determines a different utilization of the platforms. The broadness of the platform dictates the magnitude of the audience. The more the audience, the more different emotions are expressed hence varying opinions discussed.
To effectively accommodate media spectacle, researchers suggest that a consistent approach to digital culture needs to be implemented. Competent literacies have been encouraged to enlighten citizens with skills to understand the culture. Media literacies are well-equipped and can identify and analyze media content. They create information that protects the public from hostile perceptions as well as media bias. Engaging in meaningful conversations motivates people to embrace the positive effects of social media.
References
Lee, J., & Song, H. (2017). Why people post news on social networking sites: A focus on technology adoption, media bias, and partisanship strength. Electronic News, 11(2), 59-79.
Mihailidis, P., & Viotty, S. (2017). Spreadable spectacle in digital culture: Civic expression, fake news, and the role of media literacies in “post-fact” society. American behavioral scientist, 61(4), 441-454.
Rossini, P., Hemsley, J., Tanupabrungsun, S., Zhang, F., & Stromer-Galley, J. (2018). Social media, opinion polls, and the use of persuasive messages during the 2016 US election primaries. Social Media+ Society, 4(3), 2056305118784774.
Sveningsson, M. (2015). “It’s only a pastime, really”: Young people’s experiences of social media as a source of news about public affairs. Social Media+ Society, 1(2), 2056305115604855.
Weeks, B. E., Kim, D. H., Hahn, L. B., Diehl, T. H., & Kwak, N. (2019). Hostile Media Perceptions in the Age of Social Media: Following Politicians, Emotions, and Perceptions of Media Bias. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 63(3), 374-392.