We like to think of ourselves as perfectly rational creatures. When it comes to our political viewpoints, we like to think that we are choosing the best candidate based on his/her policies or credentials or some other factor, and that we are not influenced by any factors besides the candidate/party, and ourselves. This in unfortunately not true. As voters, we tend to be very influenced by the world around us. Where we live, what our job is, and especially what the views of our parents are, all influence our decision on election day. The media also plays a part in this role, and a larger one than many may think.

A report by the Pew Research Center last year took the preferred news outlets and sorted them based on the spectrum of their viewers. MSNBC and Buzzfeed lean more left (liberal), while FOX News and The Blaze lean to the right (conservative). Even CNN, who got 44 percent of the viewership in the report, leans slightly to the left.

The fact that news outlets can have audiences that lean a center way politically reflects the fact that their news, especially political coverage tends to pander to that audience. When a large media outlet like CNN, MSNBC, or NBC does this, it can influence our perception of ongoing political events and consequently, how we view certain issues or governmental bodies.

This bias in media can be seen right on the media outlets’ websites. MSNBC now describes itself as “progressive” and fielded positive stories on Hillary Clinton during her recent hearing in Congress. Fox News had far more moderate stories on the hearing, reflecting its right-wing leaning but tempered with near-widespread condemnation of the committee by all Americans.

If we receive our news from these outlets, we can be turned to view them with the same perception that they have, leading us to adopt similar political positions on whatever is being covered.

Mass media networks don’t just influence our political viewpoints; ads aired by the networks can also have a big impact on how we view our government and political candidates. According to noted psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker, Jude Treder-Wolff, repeated viewing of a certain candidate or message can imprint it onto our minds and consequently our political views.

This entangling of mass media bias and politically charged advertising can cause swings in public opinion that often are not aware of and the power of large mass media corporations today, and the high television-viewership of Americans can lead to us being very susceptible to what message those media outlets are trying to get across. Watching Fox News can lead to conservative views and watching MSNBC can lead to liberal views.

This is not to say we are all mindless drones feeding off of whatever information in broadcast to us through our television sets. However, even a small shift in opinion on issue can be the difference between two candidates at the polls.

Our savior from this phenomenon may come through the internet. The large amount of information available to us, as well as the utilization of tools like social media to discuss political issues allows us to receive news from multiple media outlets at the same time, and compare what each is saying about a given issue.

With political races consuming the media as of late, it is always important to remember to consider the viewpoints of the media outlets whose coverage you are watching, and how those viewpoints may be affecting the story, and affecting you.