9.28.2021

In today's class, we continued watching "Constructing the Public Opinion", and from this, I was astonished by the power of media and how good it can control public perceptions of political figures and their work. An example of manipulation was the political view of Bill Clinton. I thought that Bill Clinton had a democratic standpoint because he was presented as a liberal in the News. However, the video explained that in the long run, Bill Clinton was very much on the conservative side, and had opposed healthcare reform. From this, I became certain that political perception is strongly controlled by TV presence. As such, I envisioned a method of passing problematic laws to adorn the law-maker with his/her past succeeding projects. Though, from watching the movie, V for Vendetta, I also acknowledge that absurdity isn't convincing. Therefore, a tactic I thought was using the carrot and the stick, where the carrot is a promised law and the stick being the problematic law. Enlarging the carrot wouldn't be efficient, but using an inflated carrot balloon would be easily recognized by the public as a fake. By holding a large magnifying glass over it would prevent the audience from discovering the truth, and disguising the stick as the stick of the magnifying glass would allow the law to go unnoticed. 

Through the video, I learned that there are many methods of media manipulation on public opinion. One that I found interesting was the horserace elections and how they only consider the candidate's image rather than the policies themselves. In this way, the public becomes obscure with their representatives' realities and is an advantage for politicians to make way with problematic laws. Moreover, media coverage on money-revolving problems was twisted so that the policies proposed by the politicians are seen as the optimal option. In this sense, another strategy that we can use to pass unpopular rules could be to convince and persuade the public to view this option as the last one standing, by burying other options that may interfere. However, seeing as documentaries like this one could figure out the scheme, I think coinciding it with the carrot and stick tactic may seem more promising.  Lastly, knowing that media coverage correlates with the public interest, I could see it being effective by increasing the number of shows that report on a problem that could only look to need one solution, that being an ethical rule. Overall, by having the media on the government's side, I found it quite flexible to try out different methods to achieve successful manipulation and enactment of unpopular laws.