Generally, these polls indicate that a majority of Americans who take polls are uneducated. After all, 8% of Fox News viewers polled think Elvis is alive. You also have to keep in mind: American media teaches us that torture works and is usually justified. The idea that storytellers fib in order to make things interesting rarely enters into the mind of the average television viewer. Unfortunately, they also vote.
I've always thought mass media was a powerful political force that has a significant impact on the way democracies work; I think you're right, the media has a big effect on how people perceive the world around them. It's difficult to consider the US media, despite mergers and acquisitions, as any completely unified force, but when wielded as an ideological tool, I've always wondered how far can mass media control public opinions like that? I know there's no way to test it on a large scale in any purely scientific sense, but I'd think it's fairly significant. I also wonder how the internet and social media is affecting traditional mass media. Regardless, I think it comes as a natural response to peek/look/investigate at these revelations and reaffirm one's preexisting opinions about the issue, although I'd imagine that comes easier for some people than others.
Thanks for the book recommendation, that looks just down my alley; I'll definitely check it out! I was curious, what do you think of Udo Ulfkotte's new book Gekaufte Journalisten? I've got to wait for the English translation, so all that I know about it is just bits and pieces from around the internet.
I'm not sure whether to be flattered or terrified that you think I've even heard of it. I have an inch-deep level of knowledge about a lot of things; if it's mostly been covered in the foreign press, I'm woefully ignorant of it. But now I've got my eye on it, dammit.
Certainly it's easy to overestimate how much information have actually picked up about what's going on. I had a couple of conversations with friends this week where I mentioned America's torturing, and no-one seemed to have heard anything about it, despite its prominence everywhere I have been looking. Most people have their heads down attending to what's close to them and huge news stories can pass them by. With some other friends I mentioned that I was having trouble managing my anger when I think of Dick Cheney, and it became clear to me that they have only the fuzziest idea who Dick Cheney is. The question of what to attend to in life is an important and tricky one. A lot of people settle on ignoring the news unless they are forced to pay attention, which I don't think is ideal, but I can understand the urge. We're told to attend to so many things that we can end up letting our lives slip by while we worry about Dick Cheney or whatever. At one extreme you can end up ignoring your own life, while at the other you can end up being ignorant of things that make a difference to everyone's life. And that's just considering world events and politics - when you consider how many other calls for attention there are in life it really does become difficult to know how to balance. My anger about US torture is doing me no good. But I don't think the best answer to that, for me, is to ignore it. It's a challenge I need to learn to live with.
"Politics is dominated by the extremes because the people in the middle have shit to do." - Jon Stewart I think a lot of the "ignorance" or "apathy" is an outcome of powerlessness. I worked like gangbusters to get Kerry elected in 2004. Then he folded like Superman on laundry day. I pretty much stopped caring (or giving) to political causes for about six years. Obama? Yay. But it really felt like major interests were calling the shots, making the moves and paying the bills; whatever individual citizens felt like adding to the mix wasn't rejected, to be sure, but it had about as much impact on the race as the color paint has on the way a car handles.