Mass Media and Politics

1
Mass Media and Politics

• History Part II
• Political Science 317
• Mark Stephan

2
Last Class and Todays Class

• Overview of Cooks book
• Colonial and Revolutionary America
• Sponsorship in the 1800s
• Subsidies, PR Infrastructure, Regulations
• Dependency on government
• .and more

3
Rise of the Partisan Press

• Paralleling the rise of parties
• Hamiltonians versus Jeffersonians
• Forms of sponsorship? (Rewards)
• Punishment?
• High point 1820s, 1830s
• Jacksonian Period

4
Decline of the Partisan Press

• Federal government contracts
• Administration newspaper
• Control over access
• Why did this occur?
• Technological changes, changing audience
• Civil Wars influence

5
Subsidies early on

• Printer to printer
• Subsidizing deliveries (who paid for?)
• Newspapers but not others?
• Local newspapers
• Were subsidies of this sort bad?

6
Rise of the PR Infrastructure

• Paying government workers
• Growth of media?
• Progressive-reformer mentality
• Growth of government?
• Change in Presidency
• Government agencies

7
Regulations

• How have regulations helped the media over our
  political history?

8
Favoring broadcasters

• Public interest
• Broad audiences
• Lobbying
• Local stations and dependency

9
Key Point!

• Biases?
• On-going connections

10
News Flash!!

• Republic convention coverage (and lack of it)
• Protesters balanced coverage?
• Keep an eye on the coverage (TV, radio, print)
  over the next two days

11
Preview of Next Class

• More specifics about the media as a political
  institution in particular, what is an
  institution?
• Dont fall behind on the reading

12
If Time..

• Two or three media issues/topics that you are
  interested in..midterm elections, particular
  campaigns, foreign policy, other policy areas,
  Northwest political news, local news,..
• Write it up, turn it in