Mass Media and American Politics Midterm Review Sheet
The exam will include 25 – 30 multiple-choice questions, a choice of identifications (important terms and/or people), and a brief essay. It will
cover all material covered since the beginning of the semester through class readings and material covered in class. An outline is listed below
including the assigned readings, which have been underlined. All information related to, and not limited to, the following topics may be
included in the exam:
1. The Media: What is was, what it is, and where it’s going
a. Political communication goals (2 general types)
b. Political communication strategies
c. Source – Message – Audience Relationship: Why does it matter, what role does each play?
d. Periods of change (revolutions) and stability (orders/regimes) in political communication history
i. Media Power in Politics: Ch. 1 by Bruce Bimber, pgs. 7 – 17
ii. Media Power in Politics: Ch. 4 by Michael Gurevitch, Stephen Coleman, and Jay G. Blumer, pgs. 45 – 53
iii. “On the Connection Between Associations and Newspapers,” from Democracy in America (1834), by
Alexis de Tocqueville.
iv. What causes changes? Role of technology? Political actors? Organizations? What is the pattern that
revolutions follow?
v. Political Communication Orders: Elite, Mass, Broadcast, Information
e. Media today: what is clear about our media environment and what is still changing?
f.
Objectivity in the media: Is it good? Realistic? Reasonable?
i. Course Website: “Introduction: The Ideal of Objectivity,” in Discovering the News: A Social History of
American Newspapers by Michael Schudson, pgs. 3 – 11
g. Identifications: Broad goals, targeted goals, source, message, audience, orders, revolutions, Elite political communication
order (PCO), Mass PCO, Broadcast PCO, Information PCO, Objectivity, Michael Schudson, Bruce Bimber,
information regime, Alexis de Tocqueville, newspapers (roll in democracy)
2. Media as a Political Institution
a. Political reach of media: extent of media available today, media audience
b. Political opportunity presented by media
i. Two routes by which political elites and organized interests try to shape content and flow of communication
c. How does government control the media in the U.S. v. other nations?
i. Guiding principles in U.S. about how the media can best serve the public
d. Powers of the media: Agenda setting, Framing, Priming, Watchdog/oversight
1. Media Power in Politics: Ch. 33 by W. Lance Bennett and William Serrin, pgs. 395 – 404
e. Other Assigned Readings:
i. Mass Media and American Politics: Ch. 1, pgs. 1 – 23
f.
Identifications: agenda setting, priming, framing, watchdog role, objectivity,
3. Media and Journalism Today, and Hopefully Tomorrow
a. Why is the unlovable press necessary?
i. Media Power in Politics: Ch. 3 by Michael Schudson, pgs. 33 – 43
b. Why is the value of journalism in American democracy fading?
c. Media as an economic institution
i. Main business model of media?
ii. Where does media get most of its revenue?
iii. How does this shape goals?
d. Forms of media: benefits, drawbacks, and uses of each
i. Print – why is it threatened, why is it important?
ii. Broadcast
1. Radio – history and current use
2. Television – history importance today, and shortcomings
iii. Internet – speed, interactivity, volume of info, where is it today and where might it go
e. Content of news: role of reporters, editors, industry, consumers, government, regulation. What biases exist?
i. Entertainment v. information/news
ii. How does political elites try to influence the media and why do journalists let them?
iii. Role of conflict in news: if it bleeds it…, horserace of campaigns
f.
Organization and ownership of the media
i. Variety of media outlets
ii. Number of sources of news is quite small: major broadcast networks, public radio/TV, elite newspapers and
news magazines, independent correspondents
iii. Homogenization of media ownerships (Role of deregulation)
g. Future of journalism and newspapers
i. Are newspapers dying?
ii. How is the business model flawed/in need of change?
iii. Alex Jones and the Iron Core
iv. Media Power in Politics: Ch. 5 by Alex S. Jones, pgs. 57 – 65
h. Other Assigned Readings:
i. Mass Media and American Politics: Ch. 2, pgs. 27 – 46
ii. “No Such Things as Objective News,” from Making Sense of Media and Politics by Gadi Wolfsfeld, p. 47-71
i.
Identifications: partisan press, sound bites, blogging, citizen journalism, Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Katie
Couric, Brian Williams, echo chamber, deregulation, the “big six”, selection bias, ideological bias, infotainment,
horserace, Alex Jones, Iron Core
4. News Making and News Reporting
a. What is the job of a journalist?
b. Various types of journalists
c. What is news and how is it selected?
5.
6.
7.
8.
i. Constraints
ii. What is not covered (or not covered nearly enough) and Why?
d. Newsworthy news: Six criteria: timely? unusual? Is it interesting? Is it significant? Is it about people? Is it personally
relevant?
e. Dan Rather discussion:
i. Two major trends in broadcast news over last 20 years?
f.
Assigned Readings:
i. Mass Media and American Politics: Ch. 4, pgs. 75 – 106
ii. “The State of the News Media 2013: Overview and Major Trends” from the Pew Research Center’s Project
for Excellence in Journalism
iii. “Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right: The Actual Ideology of the American Press,” by Jay Rosen.
g. Identifications: proximity, educational value, usefulness of news, soft news, hard news, news hole, reporters, editors,
feature writer, bias, gatekeeping
Media as a Policy Maker
a. Muckraking journalism
i. Goals of investigative journalism
ii. Three muckraking models: simple, leaping, truncated
b. Civic/Public Journalism
i. How is this similar or different from traditional journalism?
c. Ethical Dilemmas in journalism
i. Is it moral/right for journalists to try to create political change?
ii. Facts v. Opinions
iii. Undercover journalism
d. Assigned Readings:
i. Mass Media and American Politics: Ch. 6, pgs. 129 – 154
ii. Media Power in Politics: Ch. 29 by May G. Kennedy, Ann O’Leary, Vicki Beck, Katrina Pollard, and Penny
Simpson, pgs. 343 – 352
e. Identifications: muckraking, investigative journalism, simple muckraking model, leaping impact model, truncated
muckraking model, proven facts, probable facts, probably lies, verifiable opinion, expert opinion, personal opinion
Regulation of the Media
a. Media regulation
i. What is the overall regulation game? Who are the main players?
ii. Challenges in creating beneficial regulations?
1. Media Power in Politics: Ch. 31 by Irene Wu, pgs. 369 – 380
iii. Who are the regulators? What power do they have and what do they lack?
iv. Service providers v. content providers
b. Print regulation
i. Roll of 1st amendment
ii. Level of protection v. broadcast and internet
iii. Prior restraint
c. Broadcast regulation
i. Radio act of 1912
ii. Radio Act of 1927 – Federal Radio Commission (FRC)
iii. Communications Act of 1934 – Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
d. Rationales for regulation: scarcity theory, and pervasive presence theory
e. Internet regulation
i. Net neutrality debate
ii. Open internet principles and the Open Internet order of 2010
f.
Assigned Readings:
i. Media Power in Politics: Ch. 32 by Patricia Aufderheide, pgs. 383 – 393
g. Identifications: freedom of the press, prior restraint, NY Times v. United States (1971), John Peter Zenger, Federal
Communications Commission, content providers, service providers, equal time rule, fairness doctrine, deregulation, net
neutrality, Scarcity theory, pervasive presence theory, open internet principles
Media vs. Political Institutions
a. The adversarial relationship
i. Why does it exist?
ii. Effect on the presidency? Congress?
iii. Forms of contact between the institutions and the media
1. Ch. 1: “Political Power and Power over the Media,” from Making Sense of Media and Politics by
Gadi Wolfsfeld, pgs. 9 - 21.
b. Presidential Communication Strategies
c. Congressional challenges and powers
i. Media Power in Politics: Ch. 21 by Patrick J. Sellers, pgs. 267 – 273
d. Going Public
i. Various strategies – use of new media, use of traditional media
ii. How do the debates fit in?
iii. Media Power in Politics: Ch. 20 by David Domke, Erica Sgrahm, Kevin Coe, Sue Lockett John and Ted
Coopman, pgs. 251 – 263
e. Assigned Readings:
i. Mass Media and American Politics: Ch. 9, pgs. 225 – 255
f.
Identifications: going public, leaks, press releases, news conferences, news briefings, media bias
Major Themes from News Presentations covered so far