Part I: Examples about how Political affecting the media
Game
Far Cry 5
Even if the game is obviously political, developers often say that it does not contain these contents. Ubisoft released Far Cry 5, a game related to the religious militia that rages in modern America. Meanwhile, Ubisoft claims the game is not political.
Tommy Francois says Ubisoft games are not apolitical despite avoiding making explicit political messages.
Francois clarifies the company’s position in its political statement that Ubisoft games are inspired by real-world people, places, politics, and issues affecting society. Ubisoft’s ultimate aim is to present a 360-degree view of life.
This company’s position is a marketing technique that attempts to borrow the freshness of contemporary politics without taking a clear enough stance to alienate gamers or damage the bottom line.
Film
The Candidate
Initially saw Bill McKay (Robert Redford) in The Candidate was seen as a young California Governor Jerry Brown. But the film’s director Michael Ritchie and screenwriter Jeremy Larner later denied this opinion. They said that the film was based on the political campaign for California Senator John Tunney in 1970.
This film is a political satire in a semi-documentary style, set in 1972, before the Watergate scandal. The Candidate is also a product of the New Hollywood Cinema movement. This film talks about American political elections, and puppet politicians follow the tide of the era’s counter-culture movement. The Candidate focuses on the nature of political elections. It is also a chronicle of a politician’s growth and the transformation of an aspiring young man into a political puppet.
TV
The Wire
The Wire is an American crime drama television series, primarily created and written by author and former police reporter David Simon.
There is an explicitly political element to the creation of The Wire. Each season focuses on an element of Baltimore, Maryland, and the political issues behind it.
The five seasons’ main characters are drug dealers and the police, blue-collar dockworkers and unions, the political system’s internal struggles, educational resources in poor neighborhoods, and the consumption of the media.
Advertising
I Like Ike—Eisenhower For President (1952)
I Like Ike was the first televised political ad in history. Disney Studios produced this political ad. The word Republican never appears in the ad, although it contains donkeys and elephants from both major political parties. By the standards of current advertising and animation, it was just a funny black and white cartoon. But this political ad ushered in an era of personalized campaigns centered on candidates.
Before I formally talk about politics and media relations, I found some information about the concept of media.
(1) Definition of Media
The word “media” comes from the Latin word “medius,” meaning between two. Media is the medium through which information is transmitted. It refers to the tools, channels, carriers, intermediaries, or technical. It also means people can transmit and obtain information, as well as the tools and means of transmitting text, sound, and other information. The media can equally be viewed as modern technology for achieving the transmission of information from the source to the message’s recipient. Media have two meanings: objects that carry information and entities that store, present, process, and transmit information.
(2) Major types of Media
1. Television
2. Radio
3. Newspaper
4. Periodical (Magazine)
5. Internet
6. Mobile Phone
7. Direct Mail
There are four traditional media: television, radio, newspapers, and journals (magazines). In addition, outdoor media also be used, such as advertising space on street signs or lightboxes. With the development of science and technology, new media are gradually derived, such as electronic magazines. They are developed based on traditional media, but the essence of them is different from traditional media.
(3) Classification of the Media
The CCITT (Consultative Committee on International Telephone and Telegraph, a branch of the ITU of the International Telecommunication Union) classifies media into five categories.
1. Perception Medium: It refers to the media that directly affects the human sensory organs and makes people feel directly. For example, the sound causes an auditory response, images that cause a visual response, etc.
2. Representation Medium: It refers to the intermediate media for transmission of sensory media, i.e., the coding used for data exchange. Such as image encoding (JPEG, MPEG, etc.), text encoding (ASCII code, GB2312, etc.), and sound encoding.
3. Presentation Medium: Refers to the media for information input and output, such as the keyboard, mouse, scanner, microphone, camera as the input media; monitor, printer, speakers, etc. as the output media.
4. Storage Medium (Storage Medium): refers to the physical medium used to store the media. Such as hard disk, floppy disk, disk, CD-ROM, ROM, and RAM.
5.Transmission Medium: Refers to the physical medium used to transmit the expressed media. Such as cable, optical fiber cable, etc.
What we usually call “Media” includes two meanings. One is the physical carrier of information ( the entity that stores and transmits information), such as books, flip charts, disks, CD-ROMs, tapes, and related playback equipment. Another meaning is the form of express information (or form of communication), such as text, sound, images, animation, etc. The term “Media” in multimedia computers refers to the latter. In other words, it is meant that media in multimedia computers can handle text, numerical values, and different forms of information such as sound, graphics, television images, and so on.
(4) The main functions of the media include the following six aspects
1. To report the truth impartially and objectively.
2. Coordinating and supervising social relations.
3. Preserving culture.
4. Focusing on public concern issues and passing on new information so that the public’s needs can be more directly transmitted to the government agencies.
5. Enlightenment. In addition to guiding public opinion, the media can also create public opinion to arouse the audience’s awareness of the importance of issues and correct unjust policy biases.
6. To relieve stress and bring pleasure to the public.
Part II: Political influence on the Media
Some of the Internet’s roles in democracies or developed countries may not be similar in many ways to the less democratic developed countries. Especially some places where can not be guaranteed freedom of communication and state control of the media.
In a comprehensive summary of Internet policy, Andrew Chadwick (2006) explains that the Internet influences existing political systems and new political norms, rules, and procedures. He argues that the Internet is not just a medium. In the current fast-moving social environment, both ideologies and network structures have been made stronger by technology. He also elaborated on the impact of political election campaigns on the Internet. Firstly, there is a competition between the parties. The Internet allows marginalized former parties or even new parties to emerge the competition. This segment of parties is allowed to compete with established players (Andrew Chadwick, 2006).
The Internet has become a powerful weapon that political parties can use to build public relations and use their influence to spread power. The use of the Internet may lead to the decentralization of networks, thus transferring power from party leaders’ control to grassroots activists. (Gong, R. 2011)
Part III: My personal views about the influence of Media
(1) Politics
Politics can use social media as a platform for advocacy. This kind of advocacy is a low-cost campaign and an effective way for the media to access news resources in the first place. This act of communication has significantly increased the public’s interest in politics. It also plays a role in lowering the participation restriction requirements, allowing the public to participate in interactive discussions and monitor politics effectively.
(2) Consumerism
Consumerism cannot be separated from media propaganda. In media propaganda, the content and dissemination of information can be controlled. This situation leads to the fact that the media can also manipulate the masses’ reception of information. With the huge amount of data transmitted daily in today’s society, people are selective in remembering too much information. Therefore, once a message (advertisement) is repeatedly projected into various media messages, people’s memory of the message will be deepened. When people need to choose in their shopping time, they will subconsciously choose a more familiar product in their memory. Thus, the product can be promoted through media use to increase the product company’s turnover.
(3) Ideology
The media have greatly enriched people’s ways of learning, living, entertaining and interacting, and expanding their horizons, thinking spaces, and learning spaces. The media has the characteristics of rich information resources, fast and convenient communication, personal freedom and equality, entertainment time fragmentation, personalized choice, and use, etc. It can help people study better and faster to acquire knowledge and learning methods, enrich their knowledge structure. It will also help people better engage in social work of all kinds, develop their potential, and promote good moral character and independent personality.
While the media brings convenience and speed to the public, it also brings some negative effects. On the one hand, the media’s information is very complicated that it is not filtered effectively. On the other hand, the worldview, outlook on life, and values of some young people are still unmatured. Young people’s ability to choose information, distinguish between right and wrong, and self-regulate still needs to be further improved and enhanced. If they accept undesirable information, it will inevitably affect their values, political attitudes, psychological development, moral concepts, and behavior patterns.
(4) Evil corporations(An evil corporation is a trope in popular culture that portrays a corporation as ignoring social responsibility in order to make money for its shareholders.)
1. Only a few interest groups have a decisive role in national decision-making.
2. Interest groups, as “intermediaries” for public participation in politics, have monopolized public access to government power.
3. There are few democratic institutions within the various interest groups, and a few individuals largely control them.
4. Interest groups provide a fertile ground for government corruption. Interest groups operate to the extent by buying political influence with money and breeding ground for corruption.
(5) Current events
Due to the rapid growth of the internet, it has become easier to circulate information online. Information is often updated on many different social media platforms regarding the current concerns focused on the new crown epidemic. The advantage is that people can keep up with the outside world in a comfortable home without having to leave home. The downside is that the accuracy of the information can be widely disseminated without confirmation, leading to uncontrolled public opinion and potential public panic.
Part IV: Two topics of research for animation based around politics
(1) Paying attention to political correctness and the embodiment of values in animation
As a carrier of information, animation first needs to ensure that the content is politically correct. There should be no distortion, exaggeration of facts, or promotion of false information. Share awareness of values in multiple forms within the context of political correctness. Ensure that viewers remain informed and not confused by falsehoods when watching animation. Help the public understand the current state of society in a more light-hearted format.
(2) The influence of political content in animation on teenagers
As modernization progresses, teenagers’ values are changing in tandem with the messages of the times. Most adult viewers exposed to political messages in a mature mindset, ensures that the extent to which they are influenced by the messages is manageable. But teenagers still have not developed mature values. As a medium of information, animation needs to guide teenagers to politically correct content and develop positive beliefs.