ASSIGNMENT

ON

COURSE CODE: MAC426

COURSE TITLE: POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

BY

AZOR IJEOMA
MAT NO.: 2020/139977CM
HND II

DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGY
THE FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC BIDA
P.M.B. 55 BIDA NIGER STATE.

JULY , 2022

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a. WHAT IS POLLING?

In general, a poll or opinion poll is a collection of votes collected to gather people's opinions. For

example, a computer poll could be conducted to see if people prefer PC or Mac computers. After

voting or once the time on the poll is done, you can see what percentage of people prefer what

type of computer. Polling the act of voting in an election.

b. WHAT IS SURVEY?

A survey is a research method used for collecting data from a predefined group of respondents to

gain information and insights into various topics of interest. They can have multiple purposes,

and researchers can conduct it in many ways depending on the methodology chosen and the

study’s goal. In the year 2020, research is of extreme importance, and hence it’s essential for us

to understand the benefits of social research for a target population using the right survey tool.

The data is usually obtained through the use of standardized procedures to ensure that each

respondent can answer the questions at a level playing field to avoid biased opinions that could

influence the outcome of the research or study. The process involves asking people for

information through a questionnaire, which can be either online or offline. However, with the

arrival of new technologies, it is common to distribute them using digital media such as social

networks, email, QR codes, or URLs.

c. WHAT IS WORLD MEDIA SYSTEM ?

It is communication from varied media that shape our global context through various political,

economic, social, and cultural factors. International media can be dispersed and consumed via

traditional or digital media. Its broad range connects the world from the bleakest lands to the

busiest of cities.

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d. WHAT IS MASS MEDIA?

Mass media means technology that is intended to reach a mass audience. It is the primary means

of communication used to reach the vast majority of the general public. The most common

platforms for mass media are newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet.

Mass Media can also refer to modes (or, less commonly, a single mode) of mass communication

whereby information, opinion, advocacy, propaganda, advertising, artwork, entertainment, and

other forms of expression are conveyed to a very large audience. In this, the most general, sense

of the term, mass media have included print, radio, television, film, video, audio recording, and

the Internet—in particular, the World Wide Web and Internet-based social media.

e. WHAT IS DEMOCRACY?

The word democracy comes from the Greek words "demos", meaning people, and "kratos"

meaning power; so democracy can be thought of as "power of the people": a way of governing

which depends on the will of the people.

There are so many different models of democratic government around the world that it is

sometimes easier to understand the idea of democracy in terms of what it definitely is not.

Democracy, then, is not autocracy or dictatorship, where one person rules; and it is not oligarchy,

where a small segment of society rules. Properly understood, democracy should not even be

"rule of the majority", if that means that minorities' interests are ignored completely. A

democracy, at least in theory, is government on behalf of all the people, according to their "will".

f. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MASS MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY

In modern societies, it is impossible to talk intelligently about democracy without considering

the role played by the media in disseminating political messages to the public. Especially

following the creation of electronic media in the twentieth century, the connections between

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democracy, political campaigns, public opinion, and journalistic practices have become the focus

of great attention and anxiety among communication scholars.

Societies in the past were relatively small and citizens were able to engage face-to-face or via

handwritten messages in their deliberation and decision-making process. As populations grew

larger, participation in a democracy required mediation, i.e. communication is now mediated.

The earliest mass media was the newspaper, followed by the radio and television, and today, the

Internet.

The relationship between democracy and the media remains complex. Many citizens of

democratic societies do not want any government control of major media because they fear that

governmental regulation of media would be incompatible with democracy, yet these citizens

very much hope that media will restrain themselves voluntarily and act in a responsible fashion

that facilitates and promotes democracy.

The media have allowed politicians and political candidates to address large audiences, the

power to persuade has become increasingly spontaneous, with presidents and other politicians

acquiring more and more channels through which to reach their constituents, in addition to their

normal interactions with other appointed and elected policymakers.

Because of its emerging function as a watchdog that monitors the running of the nation by

exposing excesses and corruption, and holding those in power accountable, the media was

regarded as the fourth estate, supplementing the three branches of government by providing

checks and balances.

The media also plays a more basic role as a provider of information necessary for rational

debate. A healthy functioning democracy is predicated on the electorate making informed

choices and this, in turn, rests on the quality of information that they receive.

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The media, as an institution, has for a long time enjoyed the position as a trusted primary source

of news and information. Due to the enlarging population, it has become no longer possible for

every citizen to participate directly in the democratic process. This led to the representational

form of democracy where representatives speak and act on behalf of individuals. The media, in

this environment, took on the role of being a voice of the people to those in government.

g. WHAT IS PROPAGANDA?

Propaganda has come to mean a deliberate and systematic effort to disseminate or promote

particular ideas in order to influence the beliefs, thoughts, or actions of others. Propaganda

utilizes symbols, images, and slogans to create messages designed to persuade others to a

specific way of thinking. In order to achieve this, propaganda often distorts pertinent facts or

omits truths to gain maximum effect.

h. WHAT IS MIND MANAGEMENT?

Mind management – The act or skill of controlling, organising and coordinating the activities of

the mind in order to (make decisions to) achieve defined objectives.

Relation

i. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROPAGANDA AND MIND MANAGEMENT

Some experts believe propaganda works because people want it to. Think about it – when you

see a story that already aligns with your beliefs, you're less likely to question it. You might even

feel comforted, because now you have even more evidence to support your existing beliefs.

Chances are, it'd never occur to you to check if it's true, because it already feels "right."

But there's a deeper psychological process going on, too. See, your brain has an "executive

control network" – regions of your brain responsible for higher-level functioning, like thinking

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analytically. Research shows that fear – including fear of immigrants, fear of foreign countries or

fear of people unlike you – can suppress that executive control network.

j. EXPLAIN FRAMING IDEOLOGICAL CLOSURE, CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY

i. Framing Ideological Closure

In cultural and media studies, this denotes the use in the production of texts (including films

and television programmes) of strategies which lead the reader or viewer inexorably to one

interpretation rather than another.

ii. Construction of Reality

The term Social Construction of Reality refers to the theory that the way we present ourselves

to other people is shaped partly by our interactions with others, as well as by our life

experiences. How we were raised and what we were raised to believe affect how we present

ourselves, how we perceive others, and how others perceive us. In short, our perceptions of

reality are colored by our beliefs and backgrounds.

k. EXPLAIN THE CONCEPT OF FOURTH ESTATE OF THE REALM

The term Fourth Estate of the Realm, a descriptive term for the Press, is almost unanimously

agreed to have been coined by Edmund Burke, a 19th Century British statesman and orator,

who championed many human rights causes and brought attention to them through his

eloquent speeches. By this description the Press is regarded to be the fourth of the traditional

three estates of the Parliament namely: The Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal and the

Commons. In medieval Europe, the three estates depicted the clergy, the nobility, and the

commoners – each of whom sat in designated dais of the Parliament. Representing the Fourth

Estate then were the press men/women who sat at the Gallery of the Parliament to cover

proceedings. Each estate had a very distinct social role and a certain level of power.

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 Although, society is far more egalitarian today, the idea of the estates of the realm became so

entrenched in European society.

l. EXPLAIN CONSPIRACY THEORY, COPYCAT EFFECT OR IMITATION EFFECT.

i. Conspiracy Theory

Conspiracy theories are explanations that describe the secret and wicked plans and actions of

a powerful group of conspirators as the most important cause of an event or state of affairs.

Although such theories are by no means limited to extreme political groups, they are often

central to extreme ideologies and may radicalize followers. On the far right, we find

conspiracy theories that place ethnic or religious minorities in the role of conspirator, often

in collaboration with traitors “on the inside” of the system.

ii. Copycat or Imitation Effect

The copycat effect, also referred to as contagion effect or imitation effect - the supposed

power of the media to create an 'epidemic' of behaviour based on that witnesses in the

media. The idea is by no means new; the eighteenth century novel Die Leiden des jungen

Werther by the great German writer Goethe, was accused of having led to a wave of suicides

amongst the young. More recently, the media have been blamed for the 1981 riots which hit

British cities; later in the eighties, for a spate of prison rioting; in the early nineties, police in

Wales asked the media not to report details of suicides involving carbon monoxide

poisoning from exhaust fumes because they believed that suicides were imitating the

suicides in press reports; in 1999, doctors researching the effect of medical soaps reported

that after a 1996 episode of Casualty portraying with a paracetamol overdose actual cases

rose by 20% and doubled amongst people who had seen the episode (source British Medical

Journal, reported in The Guardian, April 9 1999.