Persuasion and Resistance: The American Public and the Mass Media

This study tests the hypothesis that people who have stronger media literacy skills and who better understand social media, framing, agenda setting, and entertainment/soft news – will be better able to make informed political decisions. The author researched social media, framing, agenda setting, and entertainment/soft news in an effort to better understand how the media influences the American people and American government and what the effects of those influences might be. As technology continues to advance, the way American people interact with politics and the government changes. Because of these continual changes, it retains significance to research media literacy and its effects on Americans’ interactions with politics and government. The authors’ research concluded that media literacy does indeed affect the ability of an audience to not accept media content as absolute truth, but rather to make their own informed political decisions.B.A. (Bachelor of Arts