The fourth Arm of Government
Seonyoung Park
California States University, Northridge
POL 355
The Fourth Arm of Government
Like many countries in the world, The United States has three arms of government. There are the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The purpose of these arms is to ensure the smooth running of affairs in the country by making, changing and implementing policies when the necessity arises. However, the mass media has been described by many as the fourth arm of the government. The reason why it has been seen as another arm is because, like the other three arms of government, the mass media has been able to influence policy change, due to its power over the general public, (Fields, 2008). And also, …show more content…
With social media, the general public was able to keep up with the proceedings of government and utilize their freedom of expression to give their opinions on different issues, (Cole, 2015). In the hands of the public, this became a powerful tool, as can be witnessed from the impeachment trial of Philippine President Joseph Estrada in 2001. During the trial, those members of congress that were loyal to Estrada voted that a significant proportion of evidence against him be excluded from the trial. However, thousands of Filipinos who were angry with this decision converged at Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) in protest a few hours later. The protest was organized via text message, where the short message: ‘Go 2 ESDA. Wear blk.’ was forwarded around Philippine. Within a few days, there were over a million people demonstrating, which led to Estrada’s impeachment, (Shirky, …show more content…
The political power of the social media; driving change and growth in 2015 Retrieved from: HYPERLINK "https://medium.com/human-development-project/the-political-power-of-social-media-driving-change-and-growth-in-2015-3d9120f7827a" https://medium.com/human-development-project/the-political-power-of-social-media-driving-change-and-growth-in-2015-3d9120f7827a on November 15, 2015
Fields, U., (2008). Media: the fourth branch of the government Retrieved from: HYPERLINK "http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=34&id=38337" http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=34&id=38337 on November 15, 2015
Gangadharan, S., (2014). Public participation and agency discretion in rule making at the federal communications commission. Journal of Communication Inquiry, Sage Publications
McCombs, M., (2005). A look at agenda setting: past, present and future University of Texas publications, Austin, U.S.A
Rabinowitz, A., (2012). The Fourth Branch of Government: The Role of Interest Groups, the Media, and Political Advertisements in Contemporary Health Policy Debates. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard
Seonyoung Park
California States University, Northridge
POL 355
The Fourth Arm of Government
Like many countries in the world, The United States has three arms of government. There are the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The purpose of these arms is to ensure the smooth running of affairs in the country by making, changing and implementing policies when the necessity arises. However, the mass media has been described by many as the fourth arm of the government. The reason why it has been seen as another arm is because, like the other three arms of government, the mass media has been able to influence policy change, due to its power over the general public, (Fields, 2008). And also, …show more content…
With social media, the general public was able to keep up with the proceedings of government and utilize their freedom of expression to give their opinions on different issues, (Cole, 2015). In the hands of the public, this became a powerful tool, as can be witnessed from the impeachment trial of Philippine President Joseph Estrada in 2001. During the trial, those members of congress that were loyal to Estrada voted that a significant proportion of evidence against him be excluded from the trial. However, thousands of Filipinos who were angry with this decision converged at Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) in protest a few hours later. The protest was organized via text message, where the short message: ‘Go 2 ESDA. Wear blk.’ was forwarded around Philippine. Within a few days, there were over a million people demonstrating, which led to Estrada’s impeachment, (Shirky, …show more content…
The political power of the social media; driving change and growth in 2015 Retrieved from: HYPERLINK "https://medium.com/human-development-project/the-political-power-of-social-media-driving-change-and-growth-in-2015-3d9120f7827a" https://medium.com/human-development-project/the-political-power-of-social-media-driving-change-and-growth-in-2015-3d9120f7827a on November 15, 2015
Fields, U., (2008). Media: the fourth branch of the government Retrieved from: HYPERLINK "http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=34&id=38337" http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=34&id=38337 on November 15, 2015
Gangadharan, S., (2014). Public participation and agency discretion in rule making at the federal communications commission. Journal of Communication Inquiry, Sage Publications
McCombs, M., (2005). A look at agenda setting: past, present and future University of Texas publications, Austin, U.S.A
Rabinowitz, A., (2012). The Fourth Branch of Government: The Role of Interest Groups, the Media, and Political Advertisements in Contemporary Health Policy Debates. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard