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Chapter 15: The Media

I Roots of the News Media in the United States

1.  Mass media—the entire array of organizations through which information is collected and disseminated to the general public.

2.  The mass media has become a colossal enterprise in the United States.

3.  The mass media include print sources, movies, television, radio, and web-based material.

4.  The mass media are a powerful tool for both entertaining and informing the public.

5.  They reflect American society, but they are also the primary lens through which citizens view American culture and American politics.

6.  News media—media providing the public with new information about the subjects of public interest

A Print Media

1.  The first example of news media in America came in the form of newspapers which were published in the colonies as early as 1690.

2.  Partisan press gave way to the penny press, 1833 Benjamin Day founded the New York Sun, which cost a penny at the newsstand.

3.  The sun was the forerunner of the modern newspaper.

4.  In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s prominent publishers such as William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer expanded the reach of newspapers in their control by practicing what became known as yellow journalism.

5.  Yellow journalism—a form of newspaper publishing in vogue in the late 19th Century that featured pictures, comics, color and sensationalized, oversimplified news coverage. Sensationalized reporting that lowered journalistic standards in order to increase readership.

6.  The Progressive movement in the early 1920s gave rise to muckraking—so named by Theodore Roosevelt after a special rake designed to collect manure.

7.  Muckraking—a form of journalism in vogue in the early 20th Century concerned with reforming government and business conduct.

8.  Pres. Roosevelt called it this as a term to describe reporters who focused on the carnal underbelly of politics rather than its more lofty pursuits.

9.  Muckrakers stimulated demands for anti-trust regulations, exposed deplorable working conditions in factories and the exploitation of workers by business owners.

10.  Unfortunate side effect was the publication of gossip and rumor without proof.

B Radio News

1.  The advent of radio in the early part of the 20th Century was a media revolution.

2.  The radio became the center of most homes in the evening when the national networks broadcast the news as well as entertainment shows.

3.  Calvin Coolidge was the first president to appear on the radio regularly.

4.  FDR made the radio appearance a must-listen by presenting his “fireside chats” to promote his new deal.

5.  Radio saw a rebirth in the 1980’s with the advent of Conservative radio talk shows. Rush Limbaugh began this trend.

C Television News

1.  Television was first demonstrated n the United States at the 1939 Worlds Fair in New York.

2.  Television did not become a serious new source until after World War II.

3.  By 2007, 65% of Americans claimed to get their news from television, whereas only 27 percent read newspapers.

4.  Network news has lost viewers since 1980 with the loss becoming even steeper with the advent of cable news.

D The New Media

1.  Cable news networks are the most commonly viewed, the Internet is gaining ground.

2.  The Internet which began as a Department of Defense project named Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) in the late 1960’s, has grown into an unprecedented source of public information for people throughout the world.

3.  Examine the news from the US, BBC, and Al-Jazeera.

4.  A crucial question for the future is whether citizens will devote the time necessary to find valid and balanced data amidst the almost unlimited information available through the Internet.

II Current Media Trends

1.  Print Media—the traditional form of mass media, comprising newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and journals.

2.  Broadcast media—television, radio, cable, and satellite services.

3.  New media—technologies, such as the internet, that blur the line between media sources and create new opportunities for the dissemination of news and other information.

A The Influence of Media Giants

1.  The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the Christian Science Monitor are distributed nationally.

2.  These newspapers have a pronounced effect on what the major national broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX) air on their evening news programs and what the major cable news networks (CNN, FOX NEWS, MSNBC, and CNBC) air around the clock.

3.  Network—an association of broadcast stations (radio or television) that share programming through a financial arrangement

4.  Affiliates—local television stations that carry the programming of a national network.

5.  Wire services, such as the Associated Press (AP), Reuters, and United Press International (UPI) distribute news around the globe.

6.  Wire service—an electronic delivery of news gathered by the news service’s correspondents and sent to all member news media organizations.

7.  National news magazines—Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Reports

8.  Other news magazines stress commentary from an ideological viewpoint, including Nation (progressive), New Republic (moderate liberal) and the Weekly Standard (conservative) These magazines have a disproportionate influence b/c of their readers consist of activists and opinion leaders.

9.  Web based magazines Salon.com and Slate.com that direct their content to a younger hipper audience by emphasizing cultural forces at work within day to day political events.

B Media Consolidation

1.  The News media in the United States is driven by the bottom line.

2.  The trend is to consolidate ownership.

3.  The consolidation of the media poses a great risk: mega corporations could limit the free dissemination of information.

4.  It is possible that market forces, aimed at expanding market shares and pleasing advertisers, lead to the focus on sensational issues, news as entertainment, and avoidance of issues that could bore or alienate their audiences.

5.  General Electric owns NBC, Viacom owns CBS, and Walt Disney owns ABC.

6.  Clear Channel owns nearly 18 percent of the total market in radio.

C Increasing Use of Experts

1.  Experts referred to as pundits or the more derogatory term “talking heads,” are hired to discuss the dominant issues of the day.

2.  One 1992 study about how experts affect the views of Americans toward foreign policy says that “news from experts or research studies is estimated to have almost as great an impact” as anchorpersons, reporters in the field, or special commentators. Discuss how these finding are both good and bad for Americans.

D Narrowcasting

1.  Narrowcasting—targeting media programming at specific populations within society.

2.  CNN and FOX have begun this type of journalism: Fox News is conservative and CNN is more liberal in perspective.

3.  Table 15.2 p. 545 main source of news by campaign affiliation.

4.  Narrowcasting comes with a social cost: it increases the chance that group members will rely on news that is appealing to their preexisting views. It could result in the further polarization of public opinion.

E Technological Innovation

1.  Blog—Web-based journal entries that provide an editorial and news outlet for citizens.

2.  Blogs are still not highly rated among all Americans as a source of news.

3.  Citizen journalism—the collecting, reporting, and analyzing of news content by ordinary individuals.

4.  Traditional news source are beginning to rely more and more on citizens especially when they are on scene as the events are unfolding.

5.  War blogs

6.  As technologies merge so will the distinction between different types of media.

III Rules Governing the Media

1.  A wide array of internal and external checks governs the behavior of the modern media

A Journalistic Standards

1.  The heaviest restrictions come from the industry’s own professional norms and each journalist’s level of integrity as well as from oversight provided by editors who are ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the news they produce.

2.  Whether the issue is how to make use of a confidential source, how to deal with “off the record” comments, or simply determining what information is newsworthy, journalists are in the business of balancing competing pressures.

3.  Get the story right vs. get the story first or by the competing deadline

B Government Regulation of Electronic Media

1.  The U.S. government regulates the electronic component of the media.

2.  The government leases the airwaves to private broadcasters who wanted regulation to prevent signal jamming.

C Content Regulation

1.  Content regulation—government attempts to regulate the substance of the mass media.

2.  Equal time rule—the rule that requires broadcast stations to sell airtime equally to all candidates in a political campaign if they choose to sell it to any.

D Efforts to Control the News Media

1.  Journalist cannot be prosecuted for divulging classified material

2.  The government cannot censor the press. New York Times Co. v. U.S. (1971).

3.  Discuss the military’s efforts to control reporters during the Gulf War.

4.  Great Britain and limited freedom of governmental information.

III How the Media Cover Politices

A How the Press and Public Figures Interact

1.  Press release—a document offering an official comment or position.

2.  Press briefing—a relatively restricted session between a press secretary or aide and the press.

3.  Press conference—an unrestricted session between an elected official and the press.

4.  Press conferences provide a field on which reporters struggle to get their answers they need and public figures attempt to retain control of their message and spin the news and issues in ways favorable to them.

5.  On background—information provided to a journalist that will not be attributed to a named source

6.  Deep background—information provided to a journalist that will not be attributed to any source.

7.  Off the record—information provided to a journalist that will not be released to the public.

8.  On the record—information provided to a journalist that can be released and attributed by name to the source.

9.  New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964)—The Supreme Court concluded that “actual malice” must be proved to support a finding of libel against a public figure.

B Covering the Presidency

1.  In the world of media coverage the president is first among equals.

2.  The post of press secretary has only existed since the time of Herbert Hoover.

3.  Media coverage of the president is disproportionately negative

C Covering Congress

1.  Due to its size, Congress is difficult to cover for the media.

2.  Most news organizations solve the size and decentralization problems inherent in covering news developments in the legislative branch by concentrating coverage on three groups of individuals.

a.  The leaders of both parties in both houses receive the lions share of attention because only they can speak for a majority of their party’s members.

b.  Key committee chairs command center stage when subjects in their domain are newsworthy.

c.  Local newspapers and broadcast stations normally devote some resources to covering their local senators and representatives, even when these legislators are junior and relatively lacking in influence.

3.  Media coverage of Congress is disproportionately negative.

D Covering the Supreme Court

1.  The Supreme Court remains a virtual media vacuum.

2.  Since 2000 reporters have been granted on a case-by-case basis the ability to make use of same-day audio recordings.

3.  The first instance of this occurred during Bush v. Gore (2000) which decided the presidential vote in Florida.

4.  Since this case reporters have been given limited audio access too the Court.

IV Toward Reform: Media Influence, Media Bias, and Public Confidence

A Media Influence

1.  The press has surprisingly little effect on what people believe. People tend to see what they want to see.

2.  During the last several years with the decline of political identification has opened the door to greater media influence.

3.  Media effects—the influence of news sources on public opinion.

4.  Agenda setting—the constant process of forming the list of issued to be addressed by government.

5.  Framing—the process by which a news organization defines a political issue and consequently affects opinion about the issue.

6.  The media exert subtle influence over the way people respond to the same information.

7.  The media can indirectly influence the way the public views politicians and government.

a.  Ex. Strong economy = incumbent president / weak economy = challenger thus the medias take on the economy can cause presidential turnover.

B Media Bias

1.  “biased reporting”—a claim that the press has told an untruth, had told only part of the truth, or has reported facts out of the complete context of the event.

2.  Is the press biased/ all people are biased.

3.  The deepest biased among political journalists is the desire to get to the bottom of a good campaign story—which is usually negative news about a candidate.

4.  Whether the press likes or dislikes a candidate is often vital.

5.  Another source of bias is the increasingly celebrity status of many people who report the news.

C The Public’s Perception of the Media

1.  Americans’ general assessment of the news media is considerably unfavorable and has been in a downward trend since the 1980’s.

2.  Steady decline in the perceived believability of the major news organizations.

3.  There is an increasingly partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans in their assessment of the media’s performance.

4.  Democrats and Republicans get their news from different sources.

a.  Democrats = CNN / Republicans = Fox News

5.  Most important of all is that Americans continue to value the media’s watchdog role, with 59 percent believing that the press scrutiny keeps political leaders from doing things they should not do.

Key Terms:

Affiliates, agenda setting, blog, broadcast media, citizen journalism, content regulation, deep background, equal time rule, framing, mass media, media effects, muckraking, narrowcasting, network, new media, news media, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), off the record, on background, on the record, press briefing, press conference, press release, print media, wire service, yellow journalism.