Briones
Media (ch. 7) SG
APG
MEDIA (“if it bleeds, it leads”….):
I Read chapter 7, answer the following Focus Questions and make sure you can define terms in the chapter.
1. What is the relationship between the media and a politician’s desire to convey a certain image?
2. Why do most scholars agree with LBJ’s theory on how the media changes the face of politics?
3. Why are political scientists skeptical of investigative journalists?
4. Why is the consolidation of media outlets into a series of chains a potentially dangerous trend?
5. In what ways does broadcast media influence presidential elections.
6. What is “bias,” and why are some new stories inherently “biased?”
7. What evidence supports Dan Rather’s claim that you cannot be a well-informed citizen simply by watching
television?
8. What did the Los Angeles Times study and what did they discover?
9. How has television increased the trend of party de-alignment?
10. What is the agenda-setting function of the media?
11 – 20. WRITE YOUR OWN Questions & Answers from chapter 7. VARIETY MATTERS!!
III. Develop an answer to the following question by using any FIVE UNDERLINED keywords from the bank
below.
In a dream, Barack Obama chats with former president FDR about leading a nation through challenging economic times. Obama
listens, but interrupts briefly to explain how the mass media has transformed modern politics- in positive and negative ways. What
does he say?
High-tech politics
Mass media
Media event
Press conferences
Investigative journalism
Narrowcasting
The dumb masses
Checks and balances
Trial balloons
Internet
Policy agenda
Sound bites
Selective perception
Public opinion polls