Technology is not Helping

In the reading Red Media, Blue Media: Evidence of Ideological Selectivity in Media Use by Shanto Iyengar, states that media and Internet Technology will only "narrow rather than widen users' political horizons". This has become relatively obvious especially in our generation where we directly go to our favorite news site or channel and watch the news there. We become oblivious to the danger that we are causing to ourselves by limiting where we get our daily news.

In the experiment conducted by Iyengar, the results overwhelming state that "source labels are an important cue for readers...news organization label increases the appeal of news stories across all subject matter dimensions. Consumers tend to ignore "anonymous" news reports". As indicated Fox News is very conservative and has therefore attracted a very large audience. Republicans tend to avoid CNN and NPR and prefer to watch Fox News as their media outlet. This is also the case for Democrats where they are easily attracted to CNN and NPR. It is safe to say that people tend to therefore limit themselves and rather "encounter information that they find supportive or consistent with their existing beliefs". People feel that media outlets that support their beliefs is more ideal than watching news that bash on their beliefs.

The media and Internet Technology in general only result in people becoming "less informed and more polarized electorate". This is not the aim of technology, but it was more in a sense to broaden the views of people in different issues but it has resulted in only limiting their views. People have become more selective in picking their news site, channel, or newspaper. We still have hope but it seems that we rather watch news that support our views and beliefs rather than choose a media outlet that goes against our views and beliefs.