Media Impact on 2024 U.S. Election Trump Votes

<p>A lack of trust in the election processes and public policy systems challenges an integral</p><p>part of America's representative democracy: free and fair elections. When citizens feel</p><p>disenfranchised the damage to democracy can be significant. If left unchanged or if it</p><p>gets worse the consequences for democracy can be severe as citizens increasingly</p><p>become disenfranchised. The impact of the media on then-Trump supporters for the 2020</p><p>election and whether the mischaracterization of Trump supporters by the media</p><p>negatively affected those voters' sense of connection to government and public policy</p><p>processes was analyzed. The goal was to determine if Trump voters felt the media</p><p>mischaracterized them and what that impact was on their trust in government institutions</p><p>public policy and other areas of their lives. The theoretical foundation the narrative</p><p>policy framework (NPF) was used to analyze the narratives from interviews of 20 White</p><p>male Trump voters aged 30-65 in response to a series of questions asking how they felt</p><p>the media characterized them. The study's key results were that 82% of the participants</p><p>felt disenfranchised by how the media framed them as voters. The NPF plot categories</p><p>that were dominant were Story of Helplessness and a Lack of Control (35%) and</p><p>Story of Decline (34%). The positive social change implications include exploring</p><p>potential issues with how the media affects essential political and policy discourse and</p><p>providing the insights to build towards progress with media characterizations' negative</p><p>impact on citizen connectedness to policymaking legislative processes elections and</p><p>democracy.</p>