Political Science

It is true that policy matters are not covered as much as they ought to. Most media, be they newspapers, television, radio or the internet, mainly focus on the issues of the day rather than policy issues. However, there are a few times when policy issues are covered in all types of communication media. Unfortunately, such incidences are few and so far apart that they make little or no impact at all. To make matters worse, important policies are only covered by the media when politics is involved. Take for instance the amount of coverage that was offered to the Healthcare Policy during the 2008 election year (ABC News).

During the last few weeks leading to the elections, there was a lot that was being passed on from the mainstream media to the people. Such issues as unemployment, the economic downturn, American involvement in the Middle East wars took center stage most of the time (Time Magazine). However, the issue of health was very outstanding during that time and has remained one of the few policies that are still making headlines in the media today.

During the week running from 11 January 2010 to 18th of the same month, the major policy issue on both ABC and the Time Magazine was Healthcare. Perhaps the reason why the issue is receiving so much coverage is because President Obama had better healthcare as part of his pre-election pledges back in 2008, not to mention that the issue of healthcare or the lack of it has dogged the country for a long time now. People are hungry for a better healthcare program and any mention of the policy will definitely get their attention. The media knows this and that is why they have to mention it almost every day.

Although the evening news on ABC News normally mentions how the government is handling the healthcare issue, Time magazine deals with it in an in depth manner. You can get more healthcare information from the 11th -18th of January 2010 issue of Time magazine than you can get from watching ABC evening news during the same time period.

Economy and the war in Iraq are other policies that the two media talked about during this period. While ABC had more news to offer, it was not as deep as it was in the Time Magazine. In BC News, the war in Iraq was given more coverage than the economy. Times magazine focused on both issues equally. Time also seems to have more time to cover other policies which are normally ignored in radio and television, such as family issues.

The role of the media as information suppliers is vital and the stakeholders should realize this when deciding whether or not to offer coverage to a certain policy issue. People do not need to know only about what disaster is happening in a certain part of the world they are also interested to know about what is happening to things that concern then directly, such as health and the economy. The media should not only disseminate information to do with policy matters, they should also do it in depth.

While it can be said that News Magazines offer more in depth information on policies than electronic media, there is a lot that needs to be done in order to achieve the level of policy coverage that will be said to be satisfactory. It is not everyone in America who understands exactly what is going on in the healthcare department. All they really know is what healthcare legislation was passed and by whom, and which one was rejected. When legislation is passed requiring more troops in Afghanistan, the media should help people understand why it was passed and what it means for their security and the security of their nation (Moussa, 1991).

If the policies being talked about in the media are supposed to help the ordinary people, then there should be mechanisms in place which should ensure that everyone understands each and every one of the policies that are making news in the mainstream media.