Title: The New Media’s Role in Politics | OpenMind
Headings: The New Media’s Role in Politics
The New Media’s Role in Politics
The diversity of content disseminated by new media has created opportunities such as the ability for more voices to be heard.
The Evolution of New Media
Members of the public also were responsible for recording and posting videos that could go viral and influence the course of events.
Providing Political Information
Post-Truth Media
The Ascendance of Fake News
Objective facts are subordinate to emotional appeals and personal beliefs in shaping public opinion.
Watchdog Press or Politicians’ Mouthpiece
Conclusion
References

Content: New media have the potential to satisfy these textbook functions. They provide unprecedented access to information, and can reach even disinterested audience members through personalized, peer-to-peer channels, like Facebook. As average people join forces with the established press to perform the watchdog role, public officials are subject to greater scrutiny. Issues and events that might be outside the purview of mainstream journalists can be brought into prominence by ordinary citizens. New media can foster community building that transcends physical boundaries through their extensive networking capabilities. Although legacy media coverage of political events correlates with increased political engagement among the mass public, mainstream journalists do not believe that encouraging participation is their responsibility (Hayes and Lawless, 2016). However, new media explicitly seek to directly engage the public in political activities, such as voting, contacting public officials, volunteering in their communities, and taking part in protest movements. At the same time, the new media era has acerbated trends that undercut the ideal aims of a democratic press. The media disseminate a tremendous amount of political content, but much of the material is trivial, unreliable, and polarizing. The watchdog role pre-new media had been performed largely by trained journalists who, under the best of circumstances, focused on uncovering the facts surrounding serious political transgressions.