Media and Politics essays

Media and Politics essays American politics have been quite a spectacle because of the influence of mass media and the way that American politics are run. Ideally, mass media is supposed to make it easier for people to participate in political decisions, understand how the government works, and hold government officials accountable. But in this day and age, the media is often used to manipulate and obscure the true form of political issues. Transparency in politics means to be seen through. People want to be able to see through what is going on in the head of the politician, so they turn to the media to give it to them. But instead, the people are like sheep. They see someone on the television and automatically assume that whatever they say is the truth because they said it on television. One strategy that politicians use is the diversion of attention. The attention of a group of people can be diverted by meaningless facts and words. With their minds somewhere else, it is harder for the public to recognize the real issues and separate the truth from fiction, thereby consuming time and attention. Another strategy used is the supplementation of reality. The politician seeks not to address the real issues, but instead to shift the ground of battle to issues of information management and technical questions of procedure. This insures that he/she will know what they are getting into before it actually happens. Th ese new issues can easily divert the attention of a large amount of people and the new issues often replace the old ones, now making the speaker a hero. Transparency can be a tricky tactic, but it is highly effective for the politician and can be beneficial to the election results. Transparency can easily change the thought process of a lot of a mass audience and is one way that the media has changed American politics. The television is an amazing medium for transferring and receiving information. Many differen ...

Each vs. Both

Each vs. Both Each vs. Both Each vs. Both By Maeve Maddox A reader asks, What is the correct usage for each and both? Example: You and I both know what its like. or You and I each know what its like. Each is singular. In relation to a group, it means â€Å"all of any number, considered individually.† Examples of usage: Each child in the school has been vaccinated against smallpox. When groups of individuals join together in business partnerships,  each  member of the partnership becomes bound by basic legal  duties.   Both is plural. It refers to two of something. Examples of usage: Both men are Nobel Prize winners. Walthers lectures were  both informative and entertaining. When speaking of two people, both is usually the more appropriate choice. The only reason to use each when speaking of two people/things would be to emphasize the individuality of separate acts or to avoid ambiguity. Consider the following sentences: 1. Jack and Bill share a room. Both are responsible for cleaning half. 2. Mr. Jones gave both his daughters a dog. 3. Both of us received a letter this morning. Most listeners would understand the first sentence to mean that each boy is responsible for one half of the room. Sentence three might be understood to mean that each of the two received separate letters. Sentence two is definitely ambiguous: Did each daughter receive a dog of her own, or did both daughters receive one dog to share? The following revisions would prevent misunderstanding: 1. Jack and Bill share a room. Each is responsible for cleaning half. 2. Mr. Jones gave each of his daughters a dog. 3. Each of us received a letter this morning. In the reader’s question, the first example is correct: â€Å"You and I both know what its like.† The second example presents an impossibility of agreement: â€Å"You and I each know what its like.† The subject â€Å"You and I† is plural and requires the plural verb know. The word each, however, is singular and would require the singular verb knows. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Possessive of Proper Names Ending in S30 Baseball Idioms10 Varieties of Syntax to Improve Your Writing