Role of the Media
1. Gatekeeper - influence what subjects become national political issues, and for how long.
EXAMPLE:
2. Scorekeeper - the national media help make political reputations, note who is being “mentioned” as presidential candidates and decide who the winners and losers are in Washington. This often leads to the coverage of presidential elections as if they were horse races (what happens during the primaries).
EXAMPLE:
3. Watchdog - Following closely the front-runner candidates, searching for any past or current history that will make news. Media maintains close eye on all important happenings of major candidates.
EXAMPLE:
4. Agenda setter - TV news influence the standards by which government, presidents, policies and candidates are judged.
EXAMPLE:
5. Effect on Political Preferences? Research is lacking as to the true influence that media plays on public opinion. While TV may influence the political agenda to a certain degree, people are very unlikely to take cues from the media on issues that affect them personally. Media usually does more to reinforce beliefs than to change opinion.
Source: Wilson, James Q. & John J. Dilulio, Jr. American Government: Institutions and Policies. 9th edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.
Student handout
Trends in News Coverage
1. TV News:
a. coverage of the news has been reduced to 15-45 second sound bites
b. 24 hour, around the clock news coverage
c. “real time” news reporting
d. rise of reporting the news with an ideological agenda
EXAMPLES:
e. many Americans, particularly young people, getting the news from late night television EXAMPLES:
CONSEQUENCES (positive and negative)?:
2. Rise of Talk Radio:
a. 9 of 10 Americans listen to radio especially in their cars
b. radio personalities
EXAMPLES:
c. Emergence of National Public Radio as legitimate news radio
CONSEQUENCES (positive and negative)?:
3. Newspapers: even with competition from cable and the internet, currently (2010) 42 million, or, according to the Pew Center for the People and the Press, 33% of Americans read the paper regularly.
a. rise of national papers
EXAMPLES:
b. intense advertising competition
CONSEQUENCES (positive and negative)?:
4. Internet: a major source of news and information
a. According to the Pew Center for the People and the Press, currently, 37% of Americans go online for news at least once a week
b. The online news audience has been younger, male, better-educated and affluent, and this remains the case. Americans aged 18-50 are twice as likely as those 50 and over to go online for news at least three days a week (87%-27%).
Source: Key News Audiences Now Blend Online and Traditional Sources, Pew Center for the People and the Press (2008).
5. Intense Competition: Both print and electronic media under tremendous pressure to be the first to report a story.
CONSEQUENCES (positive and negative)?:
6. Media Comglomerates: mega news empires
EXAMPLES:
CONSEQUENCES (positive and negative)?:
Examining News Sources
Directions – Each member of the team is assigned a particular newspaper to research online. This assignment requires that you analyze a newspaper article and evaluate it in terms of bias, accuracy, etc. The articles chosen for this activity all deal with the same topic, but come from several different newspapers:
1) Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/
2) New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/
3) Washington Times - http://www.washtimes.com/
4) USA Today - http://www.usatoday.com/
5) Los Angeles Times - http://www.latimes.com/
Part A: Briefly address the following questions when reading your article.
1. Is the article written by a staff writer or wire service (ex: AP, Reuters)
2. Detecting bias
a. In what way does the article portray a liberal/Democratic point of view? Provide examples.
b. In what way does the article portray a conservative/Republican point of view? Provide examples.
c. In total, how balanced or objective is this article? Defend your answer.
3. Analyzing credibility
a. What sources does the article quote?
b. What specific evidence (ex: statistics) does the writer offer in the article to support her/his facts?
4. Role of the media in this article: is this an example of the media acting as Gatekeeper, Scorekeeper and/or Watchdog? Define and explain.
5. What conclusions (if any) are reached at the end of the article?
Part B: Discuss the following questions in your group.
1. Briefly discuss the main points of each article.
2. What differences do you see regarding how each of the papers reported on the topic?
3. What similarities do you see? Is this an example of the “homogenization of the news?”
4. Should papers make it clear if they are partisan or should it be left to the readers’ discretion? Should citizens be responsible for evaluating information from various sources and making a reasonable choice?
5. What role do newspapers have in our increasingly technological society? How has the Internet effected the traditional “newspaper business” of reporting the news?
6. What conclusions can you draw about newspaper journalism today?