We spoke earlier about the need to know where the voice is coming from (politically speaking). This article breaks down which companies give to which political party. I find the media graph very interesting.
(HT: Thanks Josh)
(BTW: Blogger has been giving me some problems with posts... when I resolve them there should be a steady flow of new material)
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I found the searching by sector query to be pretty interesting. Republicans seem to have it all locked down: Food and Bev., Restaurant and Drinking Est., Tobacco (cause after a good meal and a couple of drinks everybody needs a nice smoke), Supermarkets, Transportations, and Pharmaceuticals. Two exceptions to that list are that Starbucks and Wholefoods are Democrat, which doesn't surprise me in the least.
ReplyDeleteThe Democrats have media and entertainment, though. Again, somehow that doesn't surprise me.
I guess if Republicans favor a more hands-off government, it only makes sense that the majority of businesses support them.
This article was pretty interesting although I'm not sure why it is necessary to know that some of these companies lean one way or another. The bigger question is where do the people who provide information for this country lean/endorse. While I couldn't find a good chart that shows the political parties that media outlets endorse, I have used the chart below this post to look at the conglomeration of media outlets.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is from 2006 but I haven't seen anything as in-depth since then. A combination of this article and the chart would show people what biases the companies may have that they rely on for their news. That is definitely something that people should be concerned about because a lot of these companies don't always show the full story and what people should know about specific issues.
Media Chart: The National Entertainment State
http://www.thenation.com/special/2006_entertainment.pdf
Becca Keener 0858 Sect. 2 MWF 10-10:50
ReplyDeleteI thought this was very interesting to see where businesses fall when it comes to politics. I never really though of them donating money to specific campaigns and "choosing a side", but it does make sense that this happens. The money for campaigns has to come from somewhere. If businesses donate money to a campaign, it is for their own good reasons--that I'm sure of. I see it as making a deal: you help us, we'll help you. If a company supports a campaign and donates money, the campaign will keep the best interest of the company in mind, such as not passing legislature that could hurt the company and their profits. The campaign will keep in mind the company being prosperous because that is where its money comes from.
One question I had was, "wouldn't this hurt the companies business anyways because if people are strong in the political views they may steer away from companies that support views agains their own?" I thought about it, but not the entire population is very educated on what goes on behind the scenes with businesses and political campaigns. People such as myself, may not be aware of this. Also, people may not care. They need a product; a company sells the product; they buy the product--simple as that. I do commend companies that try to stay neutral and the ones towards the middle of the Democratic/Republican clash, but I understand why other businesses do not. Businesses main concern is business. That's what they do.
The article regarding the political affiliations of large companies that span a wide range of services to the US is very interesting. Looking at the different examples of what types of providers leaned toward which party was hardly of any surprise to me.
ReplyDeleteCompanies that leaned more toward the entertainment business are more affiliated with the Democratic party, while transportation and other large production companies were more in favor of the Republican system. Many industries geared towards "entertainment" tend to be more liberal. On the other hand certain companies are more likely to be in favor of the Republican belief of a "smaller" government, meaning they are less likely to interfere with their goals.
I found this very interesting. Again I did not even bother to think that companies would contribute to a campaign but alas, it does make perfect sense. What I found was intriguing was the breakdown of types of companies. Such that the major media industries are more democratic while the transportation and pharmaceuticals are more republicans. It is interesting to think how this plays out with politics in America. And in return how this affects consumers. Does having more media outlets more democrat spawn a more democratic viewing of media as opposed to a neutral look. For many as it was previously for me, I think it interesting to see how much this all influences us without most people realizing it.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very interesting and the graphics were a lot easier to recognize then reading a lot of text. I found it interesting that the different industries seemed to lean either one way or another completely. I wonder whether top executives are members of the parties their companies donate to, or whether they donate to certain parties depending on their customers' preferences.
ReplyDelete