Political Sociology

How the Media Interest Groups Influence Social Policy

Social policy in the United States is one of the most emotional and contentious elements of political discourse . The feelings involved in formulating social policy instill a particular desire for intervention in governmental policy-making . As with all of government policy , the people express their viewpoints through the instruments of media and interest groups . While the media appears to influence social policy in the United States , formal policy making is more potently influenced by interest groups . Social policy includes government policy on issues that

relate to how society functions , and more specifically , what moral values serve as the basis for that function . Under the umbrella of social policy , specific policy issues such as abortion rights , civil rights , gay rights , social welfare programs , gambling , prostitution and many others are covered

Historically , there have been social policy movements that would appear at first glance to have been propelled by a combination of media attention and public opinion . One such set of policies is the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s (Childers , 1997 ) It would be difficult to dispute that the media portrayals of such events as the Rosa Parks arrest , and subsequent Montgomery Bus boycott and the March on Washington organized by Dr . Martin Luther King went a long way toward influencing social policy changes in the United States . It is important to point out , however , that the media attention such events attracted was as much a result of the work of interest...