1. Dollarocracy How the Money and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America by John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney

2. Money-and-Media Election Complex  There is an emergence of a money-and-media election complex  The commercial and institutional relationship between corporations, PACs, wealthy individuals, and politicians

3. No Longer a Democracy  Nichols and McChesney (2013) argue that in recent years the electoral process has become undemocratic  Citizens are not longer being represented by their elected officials, who are now being controlled by businesses and wealthy individuals (through monetary election contributions)  Politicians can’t win elections without the support of big-time money

4. No Longer a Democracy (cont.)  Money buys elections that gives corporations and wealthy individuals control over the government and policies that widen the wealth inequality gap in their favor  The amount of money being spent on election campaigns has increased significantly in the last few elections  Obama, Romney and their backers spent a reported $2.3 billion for the 2012 Election. Nichols and McChesney calculated $10 billion of total Election spending (Congress, state, etc)  Small donations only make up a small percentage, most of the money fundraised and being spent is from big donors like Sheldon Adelson who spent hundreds of millions of dollars

5. It wasn’t always like this..  What changed?  Citizens United v. FEC – allowed unlimited corporate campaign spending  Lobbyists – 50% of retiring Congress members became lobbyists. They know how to influence members of Congress and how the system works  You have current members voting in certain ways because they know their future jobs and paychecks (as a lobbyist) are at stake

6. Media’s New Role  TV advertising is extremely powerful because is it an expert at playing on emotions and it is probably most sophisticated form of propaganda  Has a lot of impact on what and who the public see as important  Policies  Candidates running for office  Election coverage has changed a lot  It used check and challenge politicians  It used to care about being politically correct – no more facts checking  It used to be independent and non-partisan  For elections, its less focused on individuals’ stance on policies, more focused on fundraising

7. What does Media care about?  Profit – They cash in by selling ad time  Less journalists around (laid off)  Less accurate covered news  More news being channeled through big national corporations like FOX, who support certain parties and views

8. What about the Internet?  Misperception that the Internet will make people more informed  Personalized websites – they fit to your taste  Made the crisis of journalism worse – it doesn’t have the funds to collect and sift through information to ensure informed journalism

9. Dollaracracy  It’s affecting all levels and branches of government  Widening wealth inequality gap that benefits the rich  Authors argue that we need to:  Guarantee the right of every citizen 18+ to vote  Empower Congress to set national minimum electoral standards for all states to follow  Provide protection against attempts to disenfranchise individual voters  Eliminate those roles and practices that give some voters more power than others  Ensure that every vote casted is counted correctly

10. Miliband(1969) “Imperfect Competition”  Argues that businesses have an advantage over other interests because they have power over the government.  Power = Private control of concentrated industrial, commercial and financial resources

11. Iyengar and Kinder (1987) “News That Matters”  Argues that the news shapes the public’s political stance on issues/problems  Agenda Setting – our views on problems and society are shaped by what appears in the news  Ex. Of misperceptions on crime  Priming – When evaluating complex political issues people do not take into account everything, only bits and pieces of information  Studies have shown:  Lead stories are more influential  If people have experienced something similar in their own lives they were more inclined to see these are problems  People who are deeply engaged in in public life or their beliefs are less likely to be influenced by agenda-setting and priming, respectively

12. Kull, Ramsay, Lewis (2003) “Misperceptions, the Media and the Iraq War”  Bush Administration argued that the war was necessary on the basis of potential threat and led the public to believe that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction  Although many Americans initially thought that Iraq did have WMD and was supporting al Qaeda, not many supported America going to war  Later many Americans were supportive of the war because of misperceptions  (Misperceptions as a function of source of news)  Fox News’ viewers had the most misperceptions  NPR & PBS’ viewers and listeners consistently held fewer misperceptions than viewers who watched other channels

13. Graber (2001) “Processing Politics: Learning from Television in the Internet Age”  Generation Xers (born in the 1960s and 1970s and offspring)  Immersed in televised information since infancy  Niche viewers.instant gratification – they want to limit their news consumption  Why is this a threat to democracy?  Narrowcasting seems to lead to more fragmentation  Shrinking scope of news – news production is audience driven, so if people don’t watch something there will be sharp reductions in certain types of news

14. Discussion  After learning about the money-and-media election complex, why should the average American be motivated to continue voting?  How does this connect to Inequality for All?