Does the media play a significant role in shaping the beliefs and attitudes of the American people toward political choices and/or opinions about...

The unfortunate answer is: "Yes". This is not personal opinion; this is actually a conclusion drawn from the following sources

• Well-known political strategies


• Social learning theories


• Theories of motivation 

The majority of voters are people who are staunch supporters of their political parties. For this reason, the media works hard to appeal to the senses of those who still do not know for whom to vote. The second goal is to convert those who are already committed to a political party and entice them to vote for the rival party.

To achieve any of those goals, the amount of work required to influence people is colossal. Needless to say, that is perfectly OK for those who work the campaigns of specific candidates. With millions of dollars funding these campaigns, there is no limit as to what these promoters can afford to do. 

Well-Known Strategies

Reuters posted strategies used by public relations agents to run and maintain the influence of their political candidates in the media. Since millions of Americans use all forms of media, such as TV, radio, Internet, magazines and newspapers, these public relations experts make sure to use every venue to expose their candidates and present them as the ideal ones.

Here are some of the strategies.

1. Strategically-placed posters- Notice how, during political rallies, the public always gets to read some really creative, home-made poster supporting a candidate. Half of those posters are not hand-made by the person holding it.  Seven out of 10 times, they are pre-made by the campaign headquarters and given to people to strategically show them on camera.


2. Press conferences- Whether the candidate is giving any new information or not, a press conference makes  it looks like a very serious move that implies that such candidate has “something” to say…on TV, of course.


3. Twitter, Facebook, Periscope, and Instagram accounts- Knowing that the bulk of the voting population uses social media, political campaigns create pages and accounts that are consistently keeping the public alerted, informed, or motivated to participate in conversations, share pictures, and even ask questions to the candidate.  Whether it is the candidate actually responding or not, it is instant access to the candidate, nevertheless.


4. Candid appearances on TV talk shows- from the President of the United States, to the candidates of the upcoming election, everyone loves to visit “hip” late night talks shows,  as well as early-bird, homely morning shows.


5. Constant presence on the news. Candidates will send out all sorts of information, whether new, old, good, bad, relevant, or irrelevant, to the newspapers. The important thing is to remain relevant and in view of the public.

Having recognized the most commonly employed strategies to influence people, let’s discuss the bases that argue the manner in which these methodologies may actually work and do their job.

Social learning theory

According to Albert Bandura, our primary tendency, as Homo sapiens, is to observe and analyze the behaviors of our peers. Then, we choose the behaviors that best suit our social needs. This automated tendency is driven entirely by motivation. 

The implication of this is that, with the proper motivation, people would be more willing to change their views and change political parties, or political allegiances. We will always want to imitate those who appear to be "in the know". 

This being said, social media uses this tendency of imitating others to create trends, catchy tunes, mottoes and logos that will attract the most vulnerable first, and convert the less vulnerable later.

Theories of motivation

Theories of motivation, as those proposed by Howard Gardner (1989) of "Multiple Intelligences" fame, state that whatever brings us pleasure or satisfaction will move us to do things first. This includes adopting new behaviors, such as changing physical appearance, lifestyles...and political preferences.  

Again, it takes a lot of creativity, money, time, and effort to develop a campaign that is catchy enough, powerful enough, and memorable enough to inspire voters to change political views. Yet, it happens a lot. Evidence of this can be seen in how we no longer have a majority of voters consistently electing the same political party for terms on end. In the last 20 years we have seen both parties coming in and out of the White House. Something is moving people to change their votes every four years rather than keeping it consistent. 

  Conclusion

It is clear that public relations agents work extremely hard to influence their candidate in the media. People use the media.  People also tend to follow one another when they feel motivated enough to do so. One of these motivators may be switching political preferences and adhering to new ones.  The shift in our presidential elections from one term to another, over the last decades, shows that the media factor is definitely influential. Moreover, it is a formula that aims to keep a candidate always relevant and ever-present. These are the reasons why the media definitely can help shape and mold society and their view of a political candidate.