Chapter 12: The Media 85
CHAPTER 12
The Media
¨ LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. What role do the media play in American politics?
2. Why are there so few restrictions on media coverage of politics and politicians in the United States?
3. How much power do the media have?
4. How has technology changed interactions between public officials and the media?
5. Can we trust the media to be fair?
¨ SUMMARY OVERVIEW
The Old Media—newspapers and magazines—are getting weaker while the New Media—television and Internet—are getting stronger.
Although newspapers are rapidly losing their audience they remain vitally important: much of what is on the Internet comes from newspaper reporters, and politicians devote at least as much time to getting good newspaper coverage as they devote to expanding their Internet coverage. Libel laws make it almost impossible to prevent press criticisms of public figures. Leaking information occurs all the time, and our Freedom of Information Act makes it relatively easy for the press to extract documents from the government.
It is the nature of politics, essentially a form of communication, to respond to changes in how communications are carried on.
Five important periods of journalistic history:
1. The Party Press
2. The Popular Press
3. Magazines of Opinion
4. Electronic Journalism
5. The Internet
The relationship between journalism and politics is a two-way street: though politicians take advantage as best they can of the communications media available to them, these media in turn attempt to use politics and politicians as a way of both entertaining and informing their audiences.
The national media have three key roles:
1. gatekeeper,
2. scorekeeper, and
3. watchdog.
The ways newspapers and television stations perform these roles differs significantly based on a few different factors. A newspaper can cover more stories in greater depth than a TV station and faces less competition from other broadcasters. This allows newspaper reporters to have more freedom to develop stories. A TV station faces brutal competition, must select its programs in part for their visual impact, and must keep its stories short and punchy. TV stations have little freedom; the fear of losing their audience is keen.
The least competitive media outlets are almost entirely free from government regulation whereas the most competitive ones must have a government license to operate and must adhere to a variety of government regulations.
The Supreme Court has upheld the right of the government to compel reporters to divulge information as part of a properly conducted criminal investigation, if it bears on the commission of a crime.
Deregulation has lessened the extent to which the federal government shapes the content of broadcasting. During campaigns, a broadcaster must provide equal access to candidates for office. One aspect of campaigning that worries scholars is the media’s reliance on horse-race journalism.
The journalistic philosophy in many media documents is that the press, when it reports the news, should be neutral and objective. The truth of the matter is that bias tends to reflect the political views of its readers.
There are different opportunities for bias based on the type of story:
1. Routine stories
2. Feature stories
3. Insider stories
The media often falls prey to selective attention—people remember or believe only what they want to. What the press covers also affects the policy issues that people think are important.
American government is the leakiest in the world; White House staff regularly leak stories favorable to their interests. We have an adversarial press, one that is suspicious of officialdom and eager to break an embarrassing story. Journalists today are far less willing to accept at face value the statements of elected officials and are far more likely to try to find somebody who will leak “the real story.” We also live in an era of attack journalism, seizing upon any bit of information or rumor that might call into question the qualifications or character of a public official.
There are four ways that reporters and public officials, or their press officers communicate:
1. on the record,
2. off the record,
3. on background, and
4. on deep background.
The ultimate weapon in the government’s effort to shape the press to its liking is the president’s rewarding of reporters and editors who treat him well and his punishing of those who treat him badly.
¨ Chapter Outline
I. The Media and Politics
II. Journalism in American Political History
A. The Party Press
B. The Popular Press
C. Magazines of Opinion
D. Electronic Journalism
E. The Internet
III. The Structure of the Media
A. Degree of Competition
B. The National Media
1. Gatekeeper
2. Scorekeeper
3. Watchdog
IV. Rules Governing the Media
A. Confidentiality of Sources
B. Regulating Broadcasting
C. Campaigning
V. Are the National Media Biased?
A. A Liberal Majority
B. Neutral and Objective?
C. Media’s Influence
VI. Government and the News
A. Prominence of the President
B. Coverage of Congress
C. Why Do We Have So Many News Leaks?
D. Sensationalism in the Media
E. Government Constraints on Journalists
¨ TEACHING TOOLS
Learning Objective 1: What role do the media play in American politics?
Critical Thinking Question
Discuss how the media influences American politics.
In-Class Activity
Discuss how the media has expanded its influence in politics since the foundation of our government.
Lecture Launcher
Have students discuss their perspective on the media’s influence in politics. Ask the class to think about media bias, favoring of a party or candidate, etc.
Learning Objective 2: Why are there so few restrictions on media coverage of politics and politicians in the United States?
Critical Thinking Question
Explain the rights of the media in its coverage of politics; include the connection of these rights to the first amendment.
In-Class Activity
Divide the class into five groups, each group will be assigned one media outlet (newspaper, magazine, radio, television, and the Internet); the groups will discuss/research their medium and inform the class of its regulations over their coverage.
Lecture Launcher
Discuss whether the restrictions on the media are too lenient or too restrictive. Expand the discussion to include how the media has expanded, and so have their rights and restrictions.
Learning Objective 3: How much power do the media have?
Critical Thinking Question
Explain the three roles of the national press; tell why each role is significant to our politics.
In-Class Activity
Discuss how the government attempts to use the media. Include in this discussion how this has expanded the role of the media in politics.
Lecture Launcher
Discuss the influence the media has over our understanding, interpretation, and selection of politicians and policies.
Learning Objective 4: How has technology changed interactions between public officials and the media?
Critical Thinking Question
Explain how the government has increased its usage of media to reach citizens and constituents.
In-Class Activity
Discuss the expansion of technology usage by government officials to spread the word on candidacy and policy.
Lecture Launcher
Ask the class to discuss the pros and cons of the usage of the media by public officials.
Learning Objective 5: Can we trust the media to be fair?
Critical Thinking Question
Choose one of the five types of media (newspaper, magazines, radio, television, and Internet) and discuss their objectivity when reporting on politics. How fair or biased is this medium in its reports?
In-Class Activity
Ask the class whether or not it is possible for the media to be fair—unbiased—in its reporting.
Lecture Launcher
Ask the class if they feel the regulations currently in place ensure media fairness? Should there be stricter regulations?
¨ Key Terms
adversarial press The tendency of the national media to be suspicious of officials and eager to reveal unflattering stories about them.
background A public official’s statement to a reporter given on condition that the official not be named.
blog A series, or log, of discussion items on a page of the World Wide Web.
equal time rule An FCC rule that if a broadcaster sells time to one candidate, it must sell equal time to other candidates.
feature stories Media stories about events that, though public, are not regularly covered by reporters.
horse-race journalism News coverage that focuses on who is ahead rather than on the issues.
insider stories Media stories about events that are not usually made public.
loaded language Words that imply a value judgment, used to persuade a reader without having made a serious argument.
routine stories Media stories about events regularly covered by reporters.
selective attention Paying attention only to those news stories with which one already agrees.
sound bite A radio or video clip of someone speaking.
trial balloon Information leaked to the media to test public reaction to a possible policy.
¨ Web Links
To search many news sources: www.ipl.org
To get analyses of the press
Nonpartisan view: www.cmpa.com
Liberal view: www.fair.org
Conservative view: www.mrc.org
Public opinion about the press
Pew Research Center: www.people-press.org
National media:
The New York Times: www.nytimes.com
The Wall Street Journal: www.wsj.com
The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com
Compilation of major daily news sources: www.realclearpolitics.com
¨ INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
Crouse, Timothy. The Boys on the Bus. New York: Random House, 1973. A lively, irreverent account by a participant of how reporters cover a presidential campaign.
Epstein, Edward J. Between Fact and Fiction: The Problem of Journalism. New York: Random House, 1975. Essays by a perceptive student of the press on media coverage of Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, the deaths of Black Panthers, and other major stories.
Epstein, Edward J. News from Nowhere. New York: Random House, 1973. Analysis of how television network news programs are produced and shaped.
Garment, Suzanne. Scandal. New York: Random House, 1991. A careful look at the role of the media (and others) in fostering the “culture of mistrust.”
Graber, Doris A. Mass Media and American Politics, 8th ed. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2009. A good summary of what we know about the press and politics.
Groseclose, Tim. Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2011. Excellent study, written for the general reader, of new findings about media bias.
Iyengar, Shanto, and Donald R. Kinder. News That Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. The report of experiments testing the effect of television news on public perceptions of politics.
Lichter, S. Robert, Stanley Rothman, and Linda S. Lichter. The Media Elite. Bethesda, MD: Adler and Adler, 1986. A study of the political beliefs of “elite” journalists and how those beliefs influence what we read and hear.
McGowan, William. Coloring the News. San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2001. An argument about the harmful effects of affirmative action and “identity politics” on news coverage.
Stroud, Natalie Jomini. Niche News: The Politics of News Choice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Extensive empirical analysis of how political partisanship shapes the news sources that people use.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.