Part I:
1. What does the article and its charts say about the current trend in the United
States, as reported by those surveyed, concerning ideology differences
between Democrats and Republicans? Are the parties balanced or do they
lean more toward the ideological extremes? Compare this to party ideology
from 20-30 years ago.
Republicans and Democrats are more ideologically divided and lean
stronger towards political extremes than before in 1994 and 2004 as is
represented in the chart titled “Democrats and Republicans More Ideologically
Divided than in the Past.” In the past, the two parties shared more similar ideas
and extremism was far less common. Today, or in 2014, only a very small
percentage of Republicans were more liberal than self-identified Democrats and
vice-versa. In 1994 and 2004, almost half of the population was more moderate
with a relatively even mix of beliefs between liberalism and conservatism. As of
2014, the percentage of moderate individuals is down 10% as people begin
sliding farther into uniform and extreme ideas.
2. What is meant by political polarization and how and in what ways does
polarization influence activism among political parties?
Political polarization refers to when parties and individuals move away
from moderate, shared ideas and towards political extremes whether right or left.
When it comes to activism, politically extreme people are more likely than mixed
belief individuals to participate and vote in general. They are also more likely to
donate to political campaigns and organizations that support their political
ideologies.
3. Do the survey results indicate an increasing polarization overall?
The surveys do show an increase in polarization overall. Polarization has
been on the rise since 2004 and this is reflected in who votes, engages in
politics, and how political discourse occurs. There are still many moderate
people, in fact, they make up the majority of the United States population but
extremists are much louder about their views and therefore get more media
coverage, making them seem like a majority.
4. What implications does the current political and ideology climate have for
future elections?
This increased polarization implies that future elections will increase in
their extremist ideologies as candidates try to appeal to these groups with high
voter turnout. Around 54% of consistent conservatives and 34% of consistent
liberals say they always vote in primary elections compared to only 18% of mixed
ideology individuals. If more politically mixed individuals voted and engaged in
activism, this may not be the case but as of right now, it seems like political
polarization will continue to climb.
Part II:
● What impact has the rapid evolution of social media and communication
technology in general had on American society? Has the resulting effects
been positive, negative, or a blend of both? Give detail and rationale for your
response.
The evolution and rise of social media and other communication
technology has connected more people than ever before, allowed others to share
their opinions quickly and anonymously, and increased political polarization.
Before smartphones and social media, talking to long distance friends and family
and keeping up with them in a meaningful way was more difficult. Now, pictures
and text posts can be shared in seconds and keep people in the loop about
others’ lives, or at least what they want you to see. Social media is growing more
and more convenient each year. On Instagram today, an individual can post
pictures, include captions, add to their 24 hour story, send messages, scroll
through reels, and search up whatever they want. Individuals have a great
amount of freedom in how they want to present themselves. Whether they post
pictures every day publicly, or keep their accounts private and only post once a
year. Increasingly, on sites like Twitter (or X), discourse can be started about any
topic with many posters being completely anonymous. Anonymity gives people
the feeling that they can say what they want with little consequence to
themselves. Lastly, large quantities of discourse can quickly push a person to
greater political extremes thanks to sophisticated algorithms. These algorithms
cultivate feeds that present ideas it believes a user will engage with for the
purpose of getting them to use the site longer. This makes forming echo
chambers much easier.
While the majority of Americans, both Democrat and Republican, believe
that social media has a negative impact due to its ability to quickly spread
misinformation, hate, and political extremism, I believe it has both positives and
negatives. The greatest positive being the ability to talk to a variety of people and
see different world views from your own. I agree with most of the points made
against social media as presented in the Pew Research article, but it is
interesting to note that most of the people against social media, still use it. To
completely dismiss their points would be a hypocritical fallacy, but they must feel
that they get something good from it, or everyone would stop using it. It is nice to
be entertained, talk to people, and have reasonable discussions. These are hard
to do however but the best way to fix the social media problems is to train
algorithms against spreading negativity. An individual can choose to not engage
with extremist hateful posts and, in doing so, they can teach their algorithm to not
show them that content and show the company owners that their sites can still be
profitable with less rage-induced scrolling.
Part III:
1. Using the readings for Week 5, define/describe what is meant by confirmation
bias.
Confirmation bias is a kind of bias where a person will only look at sources
that back up their already existing beliefs. When doing this, a person may
also ignore or discredit sources that disagree with them and their view.
2. Among Americans, how realistic is the concern of media bias?
The concern for media bias is very realistic. There are large, known news
sources like Fox and CNN that are notorious for their biased presentation of
news. Even if they share the same stories, the language and methods of
presentation they use causes evident bias.
3. From a media consumer standpoint, what are ways that media can be
managed or avoided?
Media can be managed by an individual by them using screen time limits
or website blockers to not see different types of media. They could also do their
own research on stories of interest to see what the original sources have to say
about a reporting. Finally, there are websites that allow users to see what bias a
news source or individual story may have (whether it be left or right leaning) that
can be useful in rooting through bias and reading the same story from different
perspectives.
4. What impact does age appear to have on media bias?
It appears that younger people under the age of 30 find media less
trustworthy and generally favorable than those over 65. Neither group has a majority
supporting favorable views of the media but the support in the 65+ group is over double
that of the <30 group. The opposite is true when looking at social media according to
the Pew Research Center. This could indicate a shift in where generations get their
information from, putting influential press power into the hands of social media sites
over news sources.
