ABSTRACT
Political power in such places is even more likely to translate into power over the media. In addition, the fact that the politically powerful are inherently newsworthy also carries over to the digital world. First, people love to argue about political leaders and the chance that their “friends” are going to comment and share what users post goes up exponentially when writing about the President or someone else important. Public relations people make journalists' lives much easier because they provide easy access to information and events, deal with technical details such as lighting and camera angles, and even prepare news releases that need little editing before being turned into news. In general, however, the media are major agents for maintaining and even intensifying the power gaps in society and in the world. The rules of access insure that the powerful are constantly seen as more important and in many cases more respectable than the weak.
