Govt' 330: Mass Media Politics

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Govt. 330 Mass Media Politics
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Chapter 1 The American Political Information
System.

• Gatekeeping Who and What Makes the News?
• News as A Democratic Information System
• Politicians, Press, and the People.
• A Definition of News.
• The New Gatekeeping
• How Mediated Government Works.
• Case Study Governing with the News Terror
  Comes to America.

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Chapter 1 (continued)

• The Fragile Link Between News and Democracy.
• Why Free Speech Cannot Guarantee Good Information
• Soft News and the Turn Away from Politics.
• Myths About News Bias.
• What Kind of News Would Better Serve Democracy?

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Chapter 2 Four Information Biases that Matter.

• Personalization.
• Dramatization.
• Fragmentation.
• The Authority-Disorder Bias.
• How Do Competing Journalists Write Such Similar
  Stories?
• Case Study How George W. Bush Got His Swagger.
• The Need for Reform

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Chapter 3. The Political Economy of News.

• Corporate Profit Logic and News Content.
• Case Study All the News that Fits (the Audience
  Demographics).
• The Political Economy of News.
• Economics vs Democracy The Business of News.
• The Media Monopoly Arguments for and Against
• The Media Monopoly Five Information Trends.
• The Telecommunications Act of 1996.

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Chapter 3 (continued)

• How Does Corporate Influence Operate?
• News on the Internet Perfecting the
  Commercialization of Information?
• Commercialized Information and Citizen
  Confidence.
• Megatrends Technology, Economics, and Social
  Change.
• Personalized Information and the Future of
  Democracy.
• Whither the Public Sphere?

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Chapter 4. How Politicians Make the News.

• The Politics of Illusion.
• The Sources of Political News.
• Case Study Selling the Iraqi War.
• News Images as Symbolic Political Reality.
• News Bias and Press-Government Relations.
• The Goals of Strategic Political Communication.

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Chapter 4 (Continued)

• Symbolic Politics and the Techniques of Image
  Making.
• News Management From Staged Events to Damage
  Control.
• News Management Styles and the Presidency.
• Different Presidents, Different Management Styles
• Press Relations Feeding the Beast.
• Government and the Politics of News Making.

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Chapter 5. How Journalists Report the News.

• Work Routines and Professional Norms.
• When Routines Produce Quality Reporting.
• How Reporting Practices Contribute to News Bias.
• Reporters and Officials Cooperation and Control.
• The Insider Syndrome.
• Reporters as Members of News Organizations
  Pressures to Standardize.

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Chapter 5 (continued)

• Reporters as a Pack Pressures to Agree.
• Feeding Frenzy When Packs Attack.
• The Paradox of Organizational Routines.
• When Journalism Works.
• Democracy With or Without Citizens?

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Chapter 6. Inside the Profession Objectivity and
Other Double Standards

• Journalists and their Professions.
• The Paradox of Objective Reporting.
• Defining Objectivity Fairness, Balance, and
  Truth.
• The Origins of Professional Journalism Standards.
• Case Study The Curious Origins of Objective
  Journalism.
• Professional Practices and News Distortion.
• The Adversarial Role of the Press.

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Chapter 6 (continued)

• Standards of Decency and Good Taste.
• Documentary Reporting Practices.
• The Use of Stories as Standardized News Formats.
• Reporters as Generalists.
• The Practice of Editorial Review.
• Objectivity Reconsidered.

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Chapter 7. The News Public Information
Processing and Public Opinion.

• News, Citizen Information, and Public Opinion.
• The Citizen's Dilemma Who and What to Believe.
• Internet vs. Mass Media Why Mass News Still
  Matters .
• Processing the News.
• Why People Prefer TV Audio and Visual
  Information.

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Chapter 7 (continued)

• News Frames and Political Learning.
• Case Study National Attention Deficit Disorder?
• News and Personal Experience What Gets Through.
• Uses and Gratifications Other Reasons People
  Follow the News.
• The Future Citizens, Information, and Politics.

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Chapter 8. All the News that Fits Democracy
Solutions for Citizens, Politicians, and
Journalists.

• The News About the Private Media System.
• The News About Public Broadcasting.
• The News About Objective Journalism.
• News and Power in America Ideal versus Reality.
• Why the Myth of a Free Press Persists.

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Chapter 8 (continued)

• Proposals for Citizens, Journalists, and
  Politicians.
• Case Study Citizen Input from Interactive News
  to Desktop Democracy.
• The Perils of Virtual Democracy.
• Corporate Social Responsibility A Place to
  Start.
• General Conclusion