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Mouna Ez-Zouaq (LCS) Week5 Report

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Mouna Ez-Zouaq (LCS) Week5 Report

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Ez-zouaq Mouna
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UNIVERSITY SIDI MOHAMED BEN

ABDELLAH (USMBA), FES


FACULTY OF LETTERS DHAR LMEHRAZ
(FLDM)
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
AND LITERATURE

Fall: 2024/2025
Abdelaaziz
Professor El Bekkali Module Language and Media Studies Semester 3

Student’s Name: Mouna Ez-zouaq

Political Communication Shaping Both Civic Agenda And Democracy Challenges Through
News and Post Truth Politics

In his opening chapter of Public Opinion, 1922, Lippman said, “The World Outside and
the Pictures in Our Heads.” in this, Lippman captures the essence of the Agenda Setting Theory
though not mentioning the word. The quote pictures news media as a window through which
people perceive reality. The construction of the Pseudo-enthronement or, as defined by
Lippmann, the world constructed by media, was also a remarkable shift in the perception of news
media and its basic rule, at the time, as mainly a source of political information not persuasion.
However, the body of research conducted at that period of time was all supporting a Minimal
Consequence effect, suggesting a minimal to no correlation between news media and people’s
minds, attitudes, and perceptions about the political arena. The studies conducted by McCombs
and Shaw in the 1960, particularly, the Chapel Hill studies were a turning point directing
Scholars’ attention once again towards the agenda setting hypothesis and the potential effects of
news media on shaping public agenda. Accordingly, how political communication is shaped by
nowadays new forms of news media? And is the Agenda Setting theory still relevant in that
context?

Political communication is a solid bridge connecting the ruling class, politicians, and
state organizations with the people and citizens. Nowadays, this communication is highly shaped
and mediated by new forms of news media, marking the evolving nature of political
communication from the past with traditional media to the present new media. Traditional media
aligns with political communication classical definition which fish out political communication
as an up-down process without feedback and citizens’ participation, approaching news media as
purely a source of informing the public according to traditional journalism norms. In contrast,
new media has brought about two key innovative features. Low Entry through giving voice to
oppositions, marginalized groups, and minorities. Despite the social costs of low entry such as
allowing extremists’ ideas to perpetuate in society, it can also help maintaining democracy
through equal access and representation.

The second key feature that new media offers to its users is User-Generated Content.
Things being what they are, Politicians can establish direct contact with a wide range of
audiences, among them_supporters. Politicians, thus, can receive direct feedback on their posts,
including suggestions, support, or critique. this features makes today's social media platforms a
large arena for political communication that generates big data about people’s attitudes and
perceptions related to the political sphere. As a result, this data can be used by politicians to
better and enhance policy making. Similarly, it can also be used to manipulate people and
fabricate their consent. That being the case, new media forms can be used to maintain democratic
practices in mature democracies, as well as to manipulate and oppress people in autocratic
regimes.

Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal comes as a reminder of the sensitivity and


importance of security and privacy on social media platforms. In the 2010s, personal data
belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected without their consent by British
consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, predominantly to be used for political advertising.
Subsequently, The data was used by Cambridge Analytica to analytically assist the 2016
presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. The hazardous condition shakes people’s
trust on new media platform and the extent to which they can share their private data freely and
openly on these platforms. It also highlight how new media, these days, can interfere and prevent
democratic practices from being implemented through manipulating the core principle of
democracy which is voting.

To conclude, political communication forms are continually evolving and developing in


alignment with new media technologies. Scholarly studies and real life scenarios reinforce that
new media, at this time, is a double edge sword, which can be used in both positive and negative
ways. From another perspective, the belief of a total Agenda Setting Theory is not accurate in
today's ever evolving world as it ignores the role these platforms play in empowering grassroots
anti-establishments movements, oppositions in autocratic states, protests, and boycotts, calling
for change and democracy around the globe.

References:

 Acemoglu, D., Hassan, T. A., & Tahoun, A. (2018). The power of the street: Evidence from Egypt’s Arab
Spring. The Review of Financial Studies, 31(1), 1-42.

 Bakshy, E., Messing, S., & Adamic, L. A. (2015). Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on
Facebook. Science, 348(6239), 1130-1132.

 Falck, O., Gold, R., & Heblich, S. (2014). E-lections: Voting Behavior and the Internet. American Economic
Review, 104(7), 2238-2265.

 Financial Times. (2024). Facebook’s Zuckerberg finally speaks but not everyone is satisfied: Chief’s comments
after Cambridge Analytica scandal meet mixed response. Financial Times.
https://www.ft.com/content/e6a30e10-2d77-11e8-9b4b-bc4b9f08f381

 Schaub, M., & Morisi, D. (2020). Voter mobilisation in the echo chamber: Broadband internet and the rise of
populism in Europe. European Journal of Political Research, 59(4), 752-773.

 the New York Times story about Cambridge Analytica by Rosenberg et al. (2018)

 King, G., Pan, J., & Roberts, M. E. (2013). How censorship in China allows government criticism but silences
collective expression. American political science Review, 107(2), 326-343.

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