DollarocracyHow the Money and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America by John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney

Money-and-Media Election ComplexThere is an emergence of a money-and-media

election complex The commercial and institutional relationship

between corporations, PACs, wealthy individuals, and politicians

No Longer a Democracy Nichols and McChesney (2013) argue that in recent

years the electoral process has become undemocratic

Citizens are not longer being represented by their elected officials, who are now being controlled by businesses and wealthy individuals (through monetary election contributions)

Politicians can’t win elections without the support of big-time money

No Longer a Democracy (cont.) Money buys elections that gives corporations and wealthy

individuals control over the government and policies that widen the wealth inequality gap in their favor

The amount of money being spent on election campaigns has increased significantly in the last few elections

Obama, Romney and their backers spent a reported $2.3 billion for the 2012 Election. Nichols and McChesney calculated $10 billion of total Election spending (Congress, state, etc)

Small donations only make up a small percentage, most of the money fundraised and being spent is from big donors like Sheldon Adelson who spent hundreds of millions of dollars

It wasn’t always like this..What changed?

Citizens United v. FEC – allowed unlimited corporate campaign spending

Lobbyists – 50% of retiring Congress members became lobbyists. They know how to influence members of Congress and how the system works You have current members voting in certain

ways because they know their future jobs and paychecks (as a lobbyist) are at stake

Media’s New Role TV advertising is extremely powerful because is it an

expert at playing on emotions and it is probably most sophisticated form of propaganda

Has a lot of impact on what and who the public see as important Policies Candidates running for office

Election coverage has changed a lot It used check and challenge politicians It used to care about being politically correct – no more

facts checking It used to be independent and non-partisan For elections, its less focused on individuals’ stance on

policies, more focused on fundraising

What does Media care about?Profit – They cash in by selling ad time

Less journalists around (laid off) Less accurate covered news More news being channeled through big national

corporations like FOX, who support certain parties and views

What about the Internet?Misperception that the Internet will make

people more informed

Personalized websites – they fit to your taste

Made the crisis of journalism worse – it doesn’t have the funds to collect and sift through information to ensure informed journalism

Dollaracracy It’s affecting all levels and branches of

government

Widening wealth inequality gap that benefits the rich

Authors argue that we need to: Guarantee the right of every citizen 18+ to vote Empower Congress to set national minimum

electoral standards for all states to follow Provide protection against attempts to

disenfranchise individual voters Eliminate those roles and practices that give some

voters more power than others Ensure that every vote casted is counted correctly

Miliband(1969) “Imperfect Competition”Argues that businesses have an advantage

over other interests because they have power over the government. Power = Private control of concentrated industrial,

commercial and financial resources

Iyengar and Kinder (1987) “News That Matters” Argues that the news shapes the public’s political stance on

issues/problems

Agenda Setting – our views on problems and society are shaped by what appears in the news Ex. Of misperceptions on crime

Priming – When evaluating complex political issues people do not take into account everything, only bits and pieces of information

Studies have shown: Lead stories are more influential If people have experienced something similar in their own lives they

were more inclined to see these are problems People who are deeply engaged in in public life or their beliefs are

less likely to be influenced by agenda-setting and priming, respectively

Kull, Ramsay, Lewis (2003) “Misperceptions, the Media and the Iraq War”

Bush Administration argued that the war was necessary on the basis of potential threat and led the public to believe that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction

Although many Americans initially thought that Iraq did have WMD and was supporting al Qaeda, not many supported America going to war

Later many Americans were supportive of the war because of misperceptions

(Misperceptions as a function of source of news) Fox News’ viewers had the most misperceptions NPR & PBS’ viewers and listeners consistently

held fewer misperceptions than viewers who watched other channels

Graber (2001) “Processing Politics: Learning from Television in the Internet Age”Generation Xers (born in the 1960s and 1970s

and offspring) Immersed in televised information since infancy Niche viewers.instant gratification – they want to

limit their news consumption

Why is this a threat to democracy? Narrowcasting seems to lead to more

fragmentation Shrinking scope of news – news production is

audience driven, so if people don’t watch something there will be sharp reductions in certain types of news

DiscussionAfter learning about the money-and-media

election complex, why should the average American be motivated to continue voting?

How does this connect to Inequality for All?