Political news is information about public affairs that are of interest to citizens, societal groups, political leaders, and nation-states. It is well established that the picture of reality presented by the media influences the behavior of people, societal groups, and nation-states. In most democratic societies, mass media are the main source of political news for the vast majority of people.
The development of cheap, mass circulation newspapers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, radio and television a century later, and 24-hour news networks have made a continuous stream of political news readily available to most people. In addition, the Internet carries an enormous variety of politically relevant news content, much of it sourced from offline media and other sources. Search engines and aggregators help guide users through this information bazaar by providing links – sometimes categorized and annotated – to a large amount of online news.
In modern democracies, most people follow political news from the mass media to some extent, though the intensity of their consumption of such news and the degree to which it affects their lives varies greatly across populations. It is important that journalists present accurate and impartial political news. In the run up to elections, they must be especially careful not to favour one candidate over another and ensure that the opportunity is given to all parties to put their case to the electorate.
The best way to achieve balance is to focus on issues rather than personalities, and to avoid over-emphasizing the significance of events or a particular position. Similarly, journalist should aim for a wide range of sources, rather than relying on just one source, and use plain language instead of jargon and technical terms.