Marketplace of Ideas

            What we have in United States media, because it’s a democratic society, is a melting pot of ideas – the marketplace of ideas. Typically, when people think of media, many only consider two sides: left (being liberal) and right (being conservative). Even boiled down to these general two, the marketplace of ideas has checks and balances from opposing viewpoints. By comparison, left and right are closer to the middle than others; it’s where the majority stands. Yet, no one has all the power. This is true in politics and in media. 

People label television news stations, for example, as leaning more one way than the other, but there are many more viewpoints. Because opposing viewpoints exist, different variations of them turn out on both sides. The Tea Party movement, for instance, has a lot of similarities to Republican views just like Socialism has similarities to Democratic views, but still, they are not the same, not completely anyway. For every political standpoint, there is media supporting it.

The impact of media fragmentation and audience segmentation has on how we approach issues is the media outlets we can do so through. However, no matter how many views are presented in media, only a few will dominate in politics. Actions are truly limited in that respect. Plus, the people reading, watching, and listening to media presenting less prominent viewpoints are mostly the few supporters of that specific viewpoint. Everyone else is busy in the middle. The nice thing about democracy, though, is that we have the freedom to express different views, which is possible because of different media. Someone can try pushing something onto another person, but he or she has the opportunity for rebuttal.