Media Influence Over Gun Control
Throughout the course of history, the United States has faced many complexities surrounding the topic of guns and gun control. While Amendment II of The United States Constitution states “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” (Cornell University Law School, 2015a, para. 2) the phasing has been interpreted, and implemented, differently over tine. Until historically recently, Constitutional Amendment II was interpreted to apply only to the Federal government (Cornell University Law School, 2015a). However, Amendment XIV, specifically the phrase referring to the rights of citizens as entitled to "equal protection of the laws” (Cornell University Law School, 2015b, para. 1), has often been successfully utilized to extend Amendment II to the American public. Still, there are also social forces swaying the validity of gun regulation, including but not limited to, media influence.
Media Bias
Media have colossal influence in framing cultural guidelines and in shaping the nature of political discourse (Schultz, 1998). It is imperative the news media are challenged to be fair and accurate, as it is the duty of the Fourth Estate (Schultz, 1998). The first step in challenging biased news coverage is documenting …show more content…
One such commonalities between conservative and liberal media is a shared bias, the bias of omission. The most common taking point addressed by both media values in relation to gun control is overwhelmingly the second amendment to the United States Constitution. Initially, the constant discussion and debate over the second amendment seems logical. However, the fourteenth amendment is rarely ever mentioned, and often all together omitted entirely from news stories, despite it being the basis for public gun
Throughout the course of history, the United States has faced many complexities surrounding the topic of guns and gun control. While Amendment II of The United States Constitution states “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” (Cornell University Law School, 2015a, para. 2) the phasing has been interpreted, and implemented, differently over tine. Until historically recently, Constitutional Amendment II was interpreted to apply only to the Federal government (Cornell University Law School, 2015a). However, Amendment XIV, specifically the phrase referring to the rights of citizens as entitled to "equal protection of the laws” (Cornell University Law School, 2015b, para. 1), has often been successfully utilized to extend Amendment II to the American public. Still, there are also social forces swaying the validity of gun regulation, including but not limited to, media influence.
Media Bias
Media have colossal influence in framing cultural guidelines and in shaping the nature of political discourse (Schultz, 1998). It is imperative the news media are challenged to be fair and accurate, as it is the duty of the Fourth Estate (Schultz, 1998). The first step in challenging biased news coverage is documenting …show more content…
One such commonalities between conservative and liberal media is a shared bias, the bias of omission. The most common taking point addressed by both media values in relation to gun control is overwhelmingly the second amendment to the United States Constitution. Initially, the constant discussion and debate over the second amendment seems logical. However, the fourteenth amendment is rarely ever mentioned, and often all together omitted entirely from news stories, despite it being the basis for public gun