Political news is the media coverage of a society’s government, laws and public affairs. It can be a difficult topic to cover as politicians are often seen by the press as mouthpieces for their own personal views. This is why writers of political news articles must make sure to present both positive and negative viewpoints in a balanced way.
It is a well-established fact that the picture of reality presented by the mass media, whether it is true or false, accurate or distorted, neutral or biased, influences political behavior of individual citizens, societal groups and even nation-states. This effect is referred to as media bias. It is also known that the media can play a role in shaping the actual events that it seems to represent (see media manipulation).
Nowadays people in modern democracies follow political events through the news media day in, day out. Their intensity of news usage and the amount of information they extract from it vary depending on various factors – for example age, education and previous political knowledge.
The role of the mass media in a democracy has been a subject for research for decades and several theories have emerged. The most prominent ones posit that the mass media perform specific functions for the adaptation of a given democratic society. These functions can be characterized as propaganda, repression, disseminating information, influencing the public opinion and political competition between social groups. These functions depend on the organization of the news-making process, as well as on the political culture and the system of values that govern a given democratic society.