The people(s) behind the media

"[Rupert Murdoch] publishes 175 newspapers, including the New York Post and The Times of London. In the U.S., he owns the Twentieth Century Fox Studio, Fox Network, and 35 TV stations that reach more than 40% of the country" (American Progress). Many Americans are unfamiliar with who Murdoch even is or what his role in the media is. Judd Legdum, American Progress writer shows readers he is one of the biggest media holders in the country and this has a lot of impacts. Murdoch has been known to control the right side of politics, taking extra time to cover issues that benefit Republicans through his station Fox News. 



John Malone seemingly controls the left or the more liberal side of politics. He owns the media holding of Liberty Media which in 2013 was revealed to have been funding a PBS news cast for over 20 years. Both men are splitting the media down the seam, pulling it in a direction in which only issues are shown that support one specific political party and then seemingly trash the other side.

In the comic above, we see a fairly apparent bias in terms of the 2012 presidential election. The first thing most readers would see and read would be the adjacent headline next to both of the candidates heads, which seems to support Obama by criticizing his critics and making fun of Romney by calling him a wimp. The editor of this magazine also added a picture of Romney where he looks to be fooling around while Obama looks tremendously more serious. This is an example of media polarization and it can affect the way American citizens vote and make decisions in voting, which eventually hurts democracy. (Continued Blog post on media democracy HERE)