THE MEDIA
The 4th Estate
TYPES OF NEWS MEDIA
Newspapers/Magazines
Early 1800’s party press
Late 1800’s yellow journalism
Early 1900’s muckraking journalism
Current trends
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electronic media diminish impact
local news niches
USA Today format sets trend
investigative reporting
NYT/WPost/WSJournal remain influential
 Radio
 FDR “fireside chats”
 Conservative talk shows
 Television
 Early pivotal events
• 1954 Army-McCarthy Hearings
• 1960 Nixon-Kennedy debates
• 1964-73 Vietnam > “living room war”
• 1960’s CBS news w/Walter Cronkite
 1980’s CNN > 24-hour news cycle
 World becomes global village
 Internet
The Good News:
• rich source of information
• communicate w/lawmakers
• Internet “communities”
Facebook, etc.
MoveOn.org vs Freedom’s Watch
• More free speech opportunities
blogs
twitters
• fundraising
The Bad News:
• distinguishing good from bad info.
• sifting through political bias
• quality sacrificed for speed
• expensive equipment/infrastructure
In one 2005 study
Wikipedia had 162 errors
while Britannica had 123,
or 2.92 mistakes per
article for Britannica and
3.86 for Wikipedia.
COVERING THE NEWS
 The Mission
The Ideal: 1st Amendment Rights
• watchdog for the people
• check govt. abuse
The Real: corporate profits rule
• report what sells
• Infotainment
establish story narrative
simplicity over complexity
image over substance
• media conglomerates
journalistic resources depleted
journalistic independence suffers
 Media in Politics
 Gatekeeper
 Influencing elections
• “expectations” game: winning by not losing
• creating an image
for the media / by the media
sound bites / photo-ops / pseudo-events
• issue positions
promote your own
attack your opponent
• scorekeeping – horse race journalism
 Influencing policy
• agenda-setting
• issue-framing (media “spin”)
 Watchdog: adversarial press
FactCheck
 Media’s influence on the Public
• The good:
plentiful information
easily accessed
some quality programming
• The bad:
oversimplification of issues
easy manipulation of people
passive nature of TV viewing
• The ugly:
corrupting influence (sex/violence/morals, etc.)
undermines community activism
• limits of influence - variations in:
political socialization
selective exposure/perception
needs
recall/comprehension
 Governing with the Media
• President – the winner
promote policies
- formal speeches
- pseudo-events
- PR consultants/firms
strategic leaks / trial balloons
high-profile international travel
the press conference: self-serving or essential link
• Congress – the loser
fragmented structure
no single voice
easy to blame
re-active not pro-active
Media Bias
Too liberal:
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post-Watergate prejudice?
61% of reporters Democratic
advocates for social causes
explores nuance
Too conservative:
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60% editors moderate to conservative
corporate execs. favor status quo
profits guide news not idealism
radio / cable / internet change focus
conservative think-tanks feed media
 Too insulated:
 reporters “cozy” with politicians
 roles blend/overlap
 “inside the Beltway” bias
 The reality:
 conflicting evidence
 COMMERCIAL BIAS - controversy sells
 FRONT RUNNERS / INCUMBENTS “BIAS”
• post-Watergate adversarial journalism
• more Republican presidents
 Confronting bias: read / listen / think critically
Who are the sources?
• attribution vs. unnamed
• trial balloons
• credibility of news org.
Is loaded language used?
Does an eye-catching image distort the reality?
Are opposing sides presented?
Are misleading numbers used?
Regulating TV & Radio
 1934: Fed. Communication Commission (FCC): limited
and open airwaves can be regulated (Frequency Allocation Chart)
 renewable TV / Radio licenses
 meet “community needs”
 equal time rule / political editorializing rule (candidates)
 right-of-reply rule
 reasonable access rule (issues)
 fairness doctrine
• mandated equal coverage (issues)
• repealed 1987 – voluntarily followed now
 1996 Telecommunications Act
 limits on station ownership lifted
 cross-media ownership restrictions lifted
 TV / radio / newspaper / telephone / cable companies overlap
You furnish
the pictures
and I'll
furnish the
war."
November.
Sen. Joseph McCarthy hunts for
communists in the government.
A noble profession
inspired by the
ideals of Thomas
Jefferson
“Were it left to me to decide
whether we should have a
government without
newspapers or newspapers
without government, I should
not hesitate a moment to
prefer the latter.”
“Our liberty cannot be guarded but by
the freedom of the press, nor that be
limited without danger of losing it."
“The only security of all is in a free press.
The force of public opinion cannot be
resisted when permitted freely to be
expressed. The agitation it produces
must be submitted to. It is necessary, to
keep the waters pure."
Enough already!!
MEDIA CONGLOMERATES
Michael Dukakis shows he’s TOUGH on defense. …or not…
Clinton “wins” with a second place finish in New Hampshire
Vice President Bush
attacks Governor Dukakis.
Another Massachusetts
bleeding heart liberal!
Negative ads work, so
both parties use them
…nuff said…
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
You lie!
Woodward and Bernstein
bring down a president.
Since 1969, Republicans have been in power for 28 years.
Democrats have held office for 12 years
The watchdog roll can
give the impression of
political bias
GAO: Bush promotion of Medicare shift illegal
Videos made to look like news reports violated anti-propaganda law
National Media, Inc, a media consulting firm
working for Bush’s re-election, gets multimillion dollar contract to promote new
Medicare law.
Columnist George Will acts as
consultant for President
Reagan