The Mass Media And the Political Agenda

1
The Mass MediaAnd the Political Agenda

• Chapter 7

2
High-Tech Politics

• A politics in which the behavior of citizens and
  policy makers and the political agenda itself are
  increasingly shaped by technology

3
Mass Media

• Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the
  internet, and other means of popular
  communication
• Who are the people that control these media?
• Who decides what is news and how it is
  presented?
• What is bias?
• Is there anything inherently wrong with it?

4
Mass Media

• What are blogs and who are the bloggers?
• What kind of controls do we have to ensure that
  the information we are receiving is accurate?
• Should there be any such controls?
• How much information is too much?

5
Media Event

• Events purposely staged for the media that
  nonetheless look spontaneous. In keeping with
  policy as theater, media events can be staged by
  individuals, groups, and government officials,
  especially presidents

6
Image is Everything

• In todays media environment the object is to get
  maximum advantage from minimum exposure
• Keep the sound bite short but get in a good
  visual so as to shape the scene
• Negative campaigning lends itself to the current
  method of presentation
• Accusations take no time at all Proof does

7
Mass Media

• How has the mass media developed over time?
• What was the historical role of newspapers?
• When was the advent of radio?
• When was the advent of television?
• What is the role of investigative reporting?

8
Print Media

• Traditionally the most important form of print
  media was the newspaper
• Magazines, especially those with a news focus,
  were also important
• Life and Look provided photo journalism
• Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report have
  been augmented by such magazines as Vanity Fair,
  Esquire, The Atlantic Weekly

9
Print Media

• National Review
• The Weekly Standard
• The New Republic
• The American Prospect
• The American Spectator
• Washington Monthly
• Foreign Affairs
• Rolling Stone
• The Nation

10
Print Media

• There appears to be declining interest in and
  readership of all forms of print media
• Publishers have begun to experiment with new
  forms basing their products on existing models
  such as U.S.A. Today
• These new versions are far more compact and
  visually oriented with news stories generally
  running to half the length or less of traditional
  coverage

11
Broadcast Media

• The earliest form of broadcast medium was radio
  which became popular in the 1930s
• FDR became a master at using the Radio to rally
  support for his New Deal programs by calming the
  fears and concerns of his listeners the
  American public
• TV replaced radio beginning in the 1950s

12
Broadcast Media

• TV is now the most common source for news
  especially among young people
• The expansion of TV outlets has allowed for more
  information to be presented
• This expansion has also led to more competition
  among the dispensers of news which has resulted
  in efforts at differentiation
• A TV station will now seek to identify itself
  with a particular point of view in order to
  attract that target audience

13
Government Regulation

• What is the FCC?
• Federal Communications Commission (1934)
• Regulates radio, television, telephone, cable and
  satellite
• Independent regulatory agency
• In reality subjected to many political pressures
• Congress controls its budget

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FCC

• Three ways it regulates the airwaves
• To prevent monopolies of control over a broadcast
  market it has instituted rules to limit the
  number of stations that can be controlled by one
  company (maximum 35)
• Periodically examines the performance of the
  station to ensure that they are serving the
  public interest
• Issues fair treatment rules concerning access to
  the airwaves for political candidates and office
  holders

15
Cable TV Internet

• These outlets provide a much broader array of
  options for information
• These outlets also have tended to focus on one
  particular segment of the viewing or reading
  public
• Almost anyone can participate (democratic?)
• There are literally no controls on content

16
Private Control

• In America almost all of the sources of news are
  controlled by private corporations
• Publicly owned outlets are relatively unimportant
• Most other countries control their own media to a
  large degree with varying amounts of freedom
  given to the journalists for criticism

17
Reportage

• Journalists are quite often more likely to report
  stories that they think people will find
  interesting rather than important
• Stories must appeal to a broad audience which
  means that the average citizen must be able to
  understand it
• Reporters and sources have a symbiotic
  relationship

18
Reportage

• War reportage can be especially troublesome as
  limited access to the actual fighting may be seen
  as limiting access to what is actually occurring
  on the battlefield
• Should battlefield or war zone reporting be
  censored?
• If so, what should be censored and why?

19
Reportage

• In political reportage (and now elsewhere) sound
  bites are the preferred method of presenting
  information
• Unfortunately little true information can be
  gained from this method
• Why then is it being done this way on the major
  networks?
• Do networks have any civic responsibility at all?

20
Bias in the Media

• A common complaint of conservatives si that the
  media has a liberal bias
• Some studies have shown support for this claim
• Other studies fail to find any systematic bias
  toward a particular ideology
• Most journalists pride themselves on their
  objectivity and editors tend to reward balanced
  reporting

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Bias in the Media

• In the business of reporting boring is bad,
  exciting is good
• Bad news sells, good news does not
• Visual images are extremely important
• Talking Heads tend to turn off the audience

22
Bias in the Media

• The public is exposed to a world driven into
  chaos by seemingly arbitrary and mysterious
  forces.
• Is this an accurate description of the world?
• Are there any implications to having a chaotic
  view of the world?
• Is it incumbent upon the Media to make sense of
  the chaos?

23
News Public Opinion

• It is critical to understand the role of the
  media in, not just measuring public opinion, but
  in shaping it
• The publics opinion of the personalities,
  issues, and priorities of the political process
  are to a large degree controlled by the media
• What are the potential effects of the media
  setting the national agenda?

24
Policy Entrepreneurs

• People who invest their political capital in an
  issue.
• These are often the political activists who are
  extremely interested in how the national
  political agenda is being shaped
• They have learned how to use the tools of the
  media in all of its forms to present their
  particular point of view so as to best frame the
  issue

25
Media as Agenda Setters

• In many cases the media shapes the political
  agenda by its decisions as to what is to be seen
  and heard
• Media entrepreneurs and political activists have
  a substantial impact on those decisions
• Getting and maintaining a positive public image
  is important for anyone wanting to shape the
  publics view of their agenda

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Media as Agenda Setters

• The medias primary influence on public opinion
  is through identifying the issues of greatest
  concern
• Their role is indirect rather than direct
• They cant tell you how to think, but they can
  decide what it is you are thinking about
• Is this good or bad for America?

27
Media and the Scope of Government

• The media are a key linkage institution
  connecting the people and the policy makers
• The media are the Watch Dogs for the American
  public
• It is their job to ensure that public officials
  do not become arrogant, complacent, or corrupt

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The Fuel of Democracy

• Access to information ought to be a boon to the
  democratic process
• In reality it has failed to live up to its
  potential
• The rise of the information generation has not
  led to the rise of the informed generation
• If there is fault involved it lies with us