Mass Media

1
Mass Media

• Mediafor the masses?

2
Mass Media Today

• Examples? (This is pretty easy)
• http//www.livingroomcandidate.org/
• Collection of presidential campaign ads well
  look at a few.
• 30-60 seconds to get a memorable/meaningful
  message across
• Media Events staged events designed to be
  covered by media virtually no real importance
  if media werent present

3
Media History

• Newspapers come about in mid-19th century
• Radio/TV First half of 20th century
• FDR
• Press conferences twice a week
• Fireside Chats frequent radio addresses to
  Depression-ridden nation
• Reporters largely deferential to government

4
Media History 2 Electric Boogaloo

• Vietnam and Watergate developing cynicism
• Investigative Journalism digging up scoops
• Gotcha stories
• Negative references vs. favorable
• Kennedy/Nixon 3 to 1
• Clinton/Bush 2 to 3

5
Print

• First daily Philadelphia 1783
• First Amendment protection means papers can
  expose governments dirty linen
• Early 1900s Yellow Journalism Focus on
  sensationalism
• New York Times nations newspaper of record
  comparatively high standards
• Washington Post perhaps best coverage from
  within DC
• Associated Press widest net of news gathering
  people (reporters, photographers, editors, etc.)

6
Decline of Print or Television and Internet
killed the Print Media Star

• Newspaper readers more likely to vote
• 100,000 words/day published in a newspaper versus
  around 3,600 words/nightly news broadcast
• Circulation has been dropping steadily for the
  past 50 years
• Magazines also
• newsweeklies Time, Newsweek, US News and World
  Report lag behind Readers Digest, TV Guide, and
  Natty Geo
• Newsweek lags behind Playboy and People
• More serious news/opinion magazines like New
  Republic, National Review, and Atlantic Monthly
  are even lower

7
Broadcast

• Mid-30s radio ownership nearly universal
• 50s-early 60s TV
• TV helped make Nixons career Checkers Speech
  in 1952
• TV nearly killed Nixons career 1960 debate
  with Kennedy
• Nixon had just spent a week in the hospital,
  looked like garbage Kennedy had
  Tiger-Beat-Heart-Throb-like good looks
• People who listened on radio thought Nixon won
  debate those watching on TV thought Kennedy won

8
Government Regulation

• FCC Federal Communications Commission
• Prevent monopolies of airwaves no single entity
  can control more than 35 of broadcast market
• Make sure stations are serving the public
  interest in order to keep their licenses
• Enforce fair-treatment rules for political
  candidates and officeholders
• Equal-time if they sell time to one candidate,
  must be willing to sell to other candidates
• Right-of-Reply if a person is attacked on
  non-news program, that person has the right to
  reply on the same station
• Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to
  give equal time to opposing views if they showed
  a program slanted to one side of a controversial
  issue
• Fairness dropped in 1986 proliferation of
  tv/cabnle stations make it unnecessary

9
Modern Times Narrowcasting

• Broadcasting ABC, NBC, CBS ? choose term as
  they are appealing to broad audience
• Modern cable stations/internet sites can appeal
  to a narrow focus narrowcasting
• CSPAN, CSPAN 2 coverage of House and Senate
• MSNBC Seen by some as a liberal-slanted news
  network
• Fox News Seen by some as a conservative-slanted
  network

10
Danger of Privately-controlled, narrow media

• Jon Stewart on CNNs Crossfire
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vaFQFB5YpDZE

11
List of living room candidate videos

• 1952 Eisenhower Never Had it So Good
• 1952 Stevenson Lets Not Forget the Farmer
• 1964 Johnson Peace Little Girl
• 1972 Nixon McGovern Defense
• 1984 Reagan Bear Prouder, Stronger, Better
• 1984 Mondale Rollercoaster
• 1988 Bush Tank, Revolving Door
• 1992 Clinton Rebuild America
• 1996 Clinton Surgeon
• 2000 Bush Really MD
• 2004 Bush Windsurfing
• 2008 McCain Celeb Original Mavericks
  Dangerous Compare
• 2008 Obama Fundamentals Better Off What
  Kind Rearview Mirror