Can Journalism bring change?

This morning in the Washington Post, there was an article that caught my eye.  Yesterday in the House of Representatives, the Democrats proposed a bill that would increase taxes for the richest 2 million people.  The purpose of this bill is to support Medicaid's growing coverage of lower class citizens.  Medicaid is used to pay for lower income families medical care and similar programs help provide insurance to those who could not normally afford it.  This bill plans to take care of this issue in the United States.  Future plans for Medicaid involve having 97 percent of citizens covered by insurance by 2015.  Having the American people insured could possibly help lower the expanding costs of medical procedures, and therefore benefitting the entire country. There is one bad thing about this bill, besides the 1.2 trillion dollar cost.  To cover half of the cost, the government plans on reducing federal the budget that is allotted for Medicare ( this is medical coverage for the elderly and disabled).  By doing so, those who they are trying to help are getting hurt, if the elderly struggle now what will happen when their budget is cut further?  

When I first read this article I thought it would be a great idea. Yes, taxes increases are not necessarily the best but if you can afford to give it than it worth having others receive basic care.  But upon reading further I realized that it isn't as great a bill as expected; it takes away coverage from others meanwhile providing more care for those who need it.  It becomes the question of who needs the care more.  I think that this is a question that is impossible to answer when both rely heavily on it. After considering this, I realized how important journalism is.  If it had not been for a journalist sitting on the floor in the House, no one would have known about the possibility of this, or been able to voice their concerns. This somewhat relates to our conversation with Mary Hartney, in that old media and new media have come together to get out important information.  But my question is, how can we use new media to voice concerns or ideas about government policies? Not only voice them, but actually have people listen, and follow through with a solution?