Chapter 6: The Media

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Chapter 6 The Media
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Chapter Content Objectives

• Define the shift in media coverage of politics in
  the post-Watergate era
• Describe
• Content regulation - Government attempts to
  regulate electronic media
• Equal time - Requires broadcast stations to sell
  campaign air time equally to all candidates.
  They can exclude lesser candidates from debates.

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Chapter Content Objectives

• Fairness doctrine - Rules in effect from 1949 to
  1985 requiring broadcasters to cover events
  adequately and to present contrasting views on
  important public issues.
• Censorship - In U.S. only government officials
  can be prosecuted for divulging classified
  information no such law applies to journalists

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Media and Politics

• Who Uses Media?

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The Development of U.S. Media

• Early Newspapers
• By the 1770s there were about 25 weekly
  newspapers that often ran news that was several
  months old.
• Printers found it much more profitable to publish
  pamphlets. The Partisan Press
• The Public Press
• By the 1830s rising literacy rates created a more
  broad-based audience and steam presses increased
  printing capabilities.
• The "Penny Press
• Yellow Journalism

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The Development of U.S. Media

• The Rise of Radio and TV
• Radio
• KDKA in Pittsburgh began broadcasting in 1920The
  first use of radio by campaigns came in 1924 when
  both parties bought radio time for speeches
• The first radio spots appeared in 1928 when
  Republican sent out 6,000 minutemen to stations
  around the nation armed with scripts for talks on
  behalf of the GOP ticket.

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The Development of U.S. Media

• Television
• The 1952 Election
• Coverage of the Convention
• Rise of Spot Commercials
• The Checkers Speech
• The most important source of information in the
  U.S.

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The Development of U.S. Media

• The Internet
• About 1/3 of Americans use the Internet for news
  at least once a week.
• About 1/6 use it daily (about double the rate
  from 2 years ago)
• Cyberbalkanization-- The Internet allow citizens
  to confine our interactions to people who share
  precisely our interests or attitudes
• Browsing vs. Viewing
• Internet users can more selective choose news
  stories than television viewers who will be
  exposed to stories they have little interest in.
• Micro-marketing and Choice

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Phases of Modern Journalism

• Lapdog Journalism 1941-1966
• The press reports little that questions what the
  president says or does.
• Watch Dog Journalism 1966-1974
• The press feels free to question policy
  decisions, but does not inquire into personal
  matters
• Junkyard Dog Journalism 1974-
• Reporters believe that flaws in Nixons character
  read to his corruption of the office and should
  have been reported

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The Effects of Media on Politics

• Improved Communication
• Replacement of Social Institutions
• In the winter US children spend 31 hours a week
  watching TV
• By the time they finish high school they seen
  15,000 hours of television compare to 11,000 of
  classThey also pick up media influences second
  hand through friends, teachers and family
• Replacement of Social Institutions
• Entertainment programming provides competing role
  models for political, social and even family
  interaction

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The Effects of Media on Politics

• Replacement of Political Institutions
• Citizens no longer get political information
  through partisan channels.
• Entertainment provides competition for political
  messages
• Homogeneity of Experiences
• Citizens from across the country share the same
  experiences and influences
• Rise of Symbolic Politics
• Visual media allow politicians to make use of
  visual symbols.
• Focus on the Sensational

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The Effects of Media on Politics

• Focus on Style
• Agenda Setting
• The media has little ability to change what you
  think, but they can influence what you think
  about.
• Manipulation of the Media
• Politicians in and out of office focus a lot of
  time and energy on influencing how media reports
  stories.
• Pack Journalism
• Journalists tend to listen to each other and
  report similar stories with more consideration of
  their own needs than their audiences
• Horserace Coverage

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The Effects of Media on Politics

• Framing
• How the news story is presented shapes how we
  think about the problem
• Two types of coverage
• Thematic stories
• Places story in some general context
• Episodic stories
• Focuses on individuals or specific cases/events
• Most television news is episodic
• Partisan/Ideological Bias

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Media Ownership

• Centralized Ownership
• In 1984, 50 companies controlled half of the
  newspapers, magazines, television stations, books
  and movies.
• In 1996, 10 companies control half of the media
  outlets.

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Media Ownership

• An Example Disney
• ABC Television/Radio
• Walt Disney Pictures
• Touchstone Pictures
• Miramax
• The Disney Channel
• ESPN
• AE
• Lifetime
• Fairchild Publications
• Anaheim Angels
• Anaheim Mighty Ducks
• Buena Vista Home Video
• Hyperion Books
• 11 Newspapers

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Media Ownership

• Results of Concentration of Media Ownership
• Lack of Media Diversity
• Conflicts of Interest
• Focus on Profits
• How the media is sold
• The media must first sell its programming to the
  public.
• Then, the media sells their viewers to
  advertisers

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Controlling the Media

• Government Regulation
• Government has less legal control over the media
  in the United States than in most other countries
• The U.S. government does enforce various
  technical and substantive regulations on the
  electronic media.

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Controlling the Media

• Constitutional Protection
• Overt censorship since the Alien and Sedition
  Acts of 1798 has primarily been confined to
  wartime.
• The Constitution now is interpreted as forbidding
  government from preventing the publication of
  most kinds of political information.
• Exceptions involving national security
• Limitations on prior restraint

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Controlling the Media

• Constitutional Protection
• Protection of the media after material has been
  published Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
• The electronic media is subject to more direct
  government regulation, though such regulation is
  now very limited.
• Rate regulation
• Government regulation of the media is no longer
  significant.
• The trend has been toward a free market system
  with little government interference

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Controlling the Media

• Then Who Regulates Media?