Media and Democracy
Week 5
Bennett:
News: The Politics of Illusion

Key Themes
 Gatekeeping
 News
as Democratic Information System
 Politicians, Press, and the People
 Defining News

War on Terror: Chilling Effect
 Soft
News/Infotainment
 News Bias

Beyond objectivity
Bennett:
The Political Economy of News

Corporate Profit Logic and Content
 Audience demographics
 Economics vs. Democracy



Ratings
Fragmentation
Media Monopoly
 Information Trends
 Distorted power in markets; less alternative news
 Less critical coverage of corporate activity; ads as
news/internal censorship
 Infotainment/soft news (news that sells)
 Generic News – wire services
 Branding the news – news as commodity/product
Bennett:
The Political Economy of News



Ownership Concentration & Conglomeration
Logics of Hypercommercialism & Commodification
Synergistic Strategies


Telecommunications Act of 1996, 2003
News on the Internet
Our Traditional Media Realm

US Media of Note
 Newspapers,

National, Local
 International

Television, Radio, Magazines
Newspapers
http://www.newspaperindex.com/
Newspapers
USA Today
 NY Times/Washington Post
 Wall Street Journal
 Centre Daily Times
 The Daily Collegian

 The

Paper
Voices
USA Today

America’s only national newspaper


Circulation – highest in country


2.25 million copies/weekdays/all 50 states (hotels)
Founded in 1982


Gannett Company
Easy to read; colorful graphics = “McPaper”
“Imagined Community” – Benedict Anderson
NY Times

“National newspaper of record”
 New

Circulation: 3rd in country
 Daily


York Times Company (15 other papers)
distribution
Founded in 1851
Liberal Bias (cultural cosmopolitanism)
Wall Street Journal

International business/finance news and issues
 Published

Circulation: 2nd in country
 Daily



by Dow Jones & Company
distribution (online subscriptions)
Founded in 1889
American conservatism/economic liberalism
Purchased by News Corps – 2007
Centre Daily Times
(CDT)

State College’s main daily newspaper
 The

McClatchey Company (31 other papers)
Circulation: 27,000
 Daily


distribution
Founded in 1898 (Weekly Times); 1934 (CDT)
Penn State Focus (“Blue Weekly” – tabloid)
The Daily Collegian

Penn State’s student-operated newspaper




Including commonwealth campuses (“weekly collegian”)
Gannett Company
Circulation – 40,000/weekdays
Founded in 1887 (Free Lance); 1940 (DC)
 The Paper – Aaron Matthews (2007)

http://www.thepaperdocumentary.com/
Voices of Central Pennsylvania

Central Pennsylvania’s monthly news magazine
of investigative journalism and regional and local
interest news




non-profit , volunteer
“Community platform” – progressive; identity; muckraking;
Circulation – 12,000
Founded in 1989

Find copies - http://www.voicesweb.org/node/10


Internships available
Suzen Erem
Television

“Network News”
 ABC,

NBC, CBS,
Cable
 MSNBC,

The Sunday Morning Punditocracy
 This

Week
Public Broadcasting
 PBS

Fox, CNN
– Jim Lehrer/BBC
Non-Profit/Public Service
 C-Span
“Network News”

Nightly News Broadcasts
(1st - Brian Williams)
 ABC (2nd - Diane Sawyer)
 CBS (3rd - Katie Couric)
 NBC

Audiences: 21 million; older demographic (60);
shrinking yearly
Cable
(24/7
 CNN

(Cable News Network)
Time Warner



 Fox

“coverage” )
Founded in 1980; first all-news television network in US
212 countries/territories (2nd in the US)
“CNN” Effect” = perceived impact of real-time 24-hour news coverage on the
decision-making processes of US government.
- #1 rated cable news network
News Corp.


Founded in 1996; emphasis on graphics
“Nationalistic”/conservative viewpoints
 “Fair and Balanced”; “Fox News Alert” (“Breaking news”)
 MSNBC

Microsoft/General Electric


Started in 1996;
Liberal/progressive viewpoints
The Sunday Morning Punditocracy
Meet the Press: David Gregory NBC 1947
Face the Nation: Bob Schieffer CBS 1954
This Week: Christiane Amanpour ABC 1981
Fox News Sunday: Chris Wallace FOX 1996
State of the Union: John King CNN 2009
Pundit

A pundit is someone who offers to massmedia their opinion or commentary on a
particular subject area on which they are
knowledgeable
Wikipedia

An authority, or one who announces
judgments, opinions or conclusions in an
authoritative manner
Webster’s Third Dictionary
Public Broadcasting
(WPSU locally – channel 3)
 Straight Journalism
 PBS


The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (Wash. DC/7pm
locally)


Reporting: context, depth, unembellished
 (1975/"Robert MacNeil Report“)
 2.4 million viewers nightly
Corporate/Foundational/Viewer Funded
 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/aboutus/funders.html
BBC World News (UK/6 pm locally)

World Focus (NYC /11pm )
Non-Profit/Public Service
C-Span
Founded in 1979
 Cable-industry financed non-profit network for
televising live sessions of US Government and
related events (No government funding)
 No Sponsorships or Advertising


C-Span2 (1986); C-Span3 (2001)
Talk

Conservative
Radio/TV/Web

Rush Limbaugh(None/1988)(13 million)
 (31.25/400 million)
 Bill O’Reilly (Harvard/1996) (4 million)
 Glenn Beck (None/3.4 million)(3.5 million)

Liberal

Air America Radio (2004/1.5 million)


WPSU (PBS member station in State College)

Owned by Penn State

NPR - privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization –




Difficulties: funding/management
serves as a national syndicator to 797 public radio stations in the United States
News and public affairs/ cultural programs –
Most Unbiased news source (?) – attacked by everyone
WKPS (The Lion - 90.7FM) –radio/web (1994)

Owned by PSU/FCC licensed


Radio Free Penn State - Weekdays 5-6:30 (ANDY NAGYPAL)
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2004/09/09-16-04tdc/09-16-04dnews-11.asp
Periodicals
The Nation
 The American Prospect
 The Weekly Standard
 National Review
 Reason
 Utne

The Nation
Weekly US Periodical: Politics/Culture
 Liberal/Progressive (Left)
 Editor: Katrina Vanden Heuvel
 Circulation: 200,000
 Sustained by donors

The American Prospect
Monthly US Periodical: Politics
 Liberal/Progressive (Left)
 Editors: Mark Schmitt, Paul Starr, Robert Kuttner, Robert Reich
 Circulation: 40,000
 Sustained by subscription

 “generate
debate, further ideas, and set agendas”
The Weekly Standard

Weekly US Periodical: Politics

Leading neoconservative magazine (Right)
Editor: Fred Barnes William Kristol
 Circulation: 83,000
 Sustained by News Corps

 Advocacy
journalism (partisan)
National Review

Bi-weekly US Periodical: Politics

Conservative (Right)
Editor: William F. Buckley (first); today Rich Lowry
 Circulation: 155,000
 Sustained by donations and subscriptions


Young Americans for Freedom

http://www.clubs.psu.edu/up/psyaf/
Reason

Monthly US Periodical: Politics, Culture

Libertarian (Left-Center-Right – debated/issue
driven)
Editor: Matt Welch
 Circulation: 60,000


Sustained by Reason Foundation, a national, non-profit
research and educational organization.

“Free Minds and Free Markets”
Utne

Bi-monthly US Periodical: Culture

Liberal/ Progressive
Editor: Jay Walljasper
 Circulation: 205,000
 Sustained by Ogden Publications


Reprinted Articles from a wide range of
alternative sources
Think Tanks

A think tank (also called a policy
institute) is an organization, institute,
corporation, or group that conducts
research and engages in advocacy in
areas such as social policy, political
strategy, economy, science or technology
issues, industrial or business policies, or
military advice.
Primary Think Tanks



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_think_tanks_in_the_United_States
Critics have suggested that, because of the private nature of the funding of
some think tanks, their results are biased to a varying degree. Some argue
that members will be inclined to promote or publish only those results
which ensure the continued flow of funds from private donors.
In some cases, corporate interests have found it useful to create "think
tanks." For example, The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition was
formed in the mid 1990s by Philip Morris to dispute research finding a link
between second-hand smoke and cancer.
Political Knowledge and the Public Sphere?

Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think


Discourse


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourse
Political Discourse



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Politics
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-clothier/language-political-disco_b_81164.html
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/a-thought-about-political-discourse/
Filtering the Flak

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220276&title=White-House-PressCorps