Date Soft News Goes to War
Question
GOV 2305
Review paper – Media
Instructions:
For this assignment,
please, read an excerpt “Soft News Goes to War: Public Opinion and American
Foreign Policy in the New Media Age” by M. Baum. You can find a PDF of this
short reading in the same folder below the prompt.
In your essay, please, explain:
1) What does M. Baum mean by “soft news”? 2) What are some examples of soft
news coverage given in the reading? 3) What roles does soft news play in
shaping public awareness and political interest, according to M. Baum? Finally,
please, reflect on this last question: 4) How would you describe the role that
“soft news” plays in a democracy? Do you think “soft news” is helpful for
keeping the public informed and engaged, or not?
Format: 12 Font, Times New Roman, double space, 1 inch
margins, page numbers, 2 full pages of text.


Solution
Soft
News Goes to War
According to Baum,
soft news is simply mass media programming that primarily intends to entertain
people rather providing news. Apart from being an entertainment news channel,
it also gives political information and international events. It is clear that
soft news, as opposed to traditional news programming plays a vital role in
today's media because it makes people who are not interested in political news
get exposed to information of major issues of the day. Lack of political
interest among people has made individuals remain selective regarding
information that warrants their attention (Kollman, 529). For example, in the
reading, it is clear that soft news covers things such as celebrity sex
scandals, fashion shows and murder trials. But the minimal effort by soft news
makes its viewers remain uninformed about current political issues facing the
nation, such as foreign policy. From the information in the reading, soft news's
primary mission is to ensure its audience is provided with information about
movies and celebrities. Therefore, in the current era where people are not
interested in politics and are impatient in reading, many viewers have embraced
soft news.
From the reading,
soft news has fundamentally repackaged traditional news into entertainment-oriented
news programs and talk shows. By transforming political issues into
entertainment, soft news media has captured more viewers who follow news about
foreign crises because of its entertainment value. Also, soft news has played a
vital role in shaping public awareness by successfully employing cheap framing
strategies to capture the highest number of television audiences (Kollman, 531).
It has ensured that political issues have been transformed to keep the public
informed about foreign affairs in particular. The argument in the reading has
indicated that once someone is exposed to an that they most prefer its
programming format, their cost-benefit for paying attention is high, making
them informed.
Based on the
argument in the reading, I can say that soft news has played a significant role
in democracy. From Baum's view in the reading, exposure to soft news clearly
affects consumer attitudes. The transformation of political issues into
entertainment has had a greater appeal to people who are generally not
politically involved. In addition, soft news has helped provide important
political information to the people by playing a watchdog role, such as
exposing political stupidity and scandals (Kollman, 532). The growing interest
of people in the soft news has made them follow more political issues, indicating
that it increased democracy among the media. For instance, to have a good
functioning democracy, people need to have a clear grasp of the daily working
of their government. Due to this important factor, soft news made sure that
people were well informed, even those not interested in political issues, by
transforming it into entertainment.
Yes, it is true
soft news is keeping the public informed and engaged. Through the use of soft
news, people have been able to follow news and stay informed about their
government policies. More importantly, it has made many Americans who ignored
politics now attend political events, thus becoming politically engaged about
things that affect government and the country. Given today's extraordinary
complexity of politics and public opinions, the soft news ensures that it makes
people informed on what is on political seen by transforming it into
entertainment. Therefore, it is true that soft news plays a vital factor in the
current environment because it informs people about political issues in their
country.
Work
Cited
Kollman, Ken. "American Politics." Analysis
perspective 3 (2022): 529-532. Print.



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