The democratic ideal of fully informed citizens is rarely realized. Ordinary people are preoccupied with their personal affairs and have little time for keeping abreast of public issues. Indeed, most citizens prefer to watch sitcoms (situation comedies) or sports. Naturally, the ability of the media to perform the function of keeping the public informed is compromised when citizens are uninterested. The news media cannot be expected to deliver a steady stream of in-depth public affairs programming that no one will watch.
Accordingly, over time, the unrealistic ideal of attentive citizens who scour the media for political information has given way to the notion that democracy can function through “efficient” citizens who either pay attention only to issues of personal importance or rely on a variety of psychological cues, such as a candidate’s party affiliation, to compensate for a lack of factual information. A related alternative to the classic ideal of informed citizenship is that citizens do pay attention, but only when the media sound an alarm alerting them to issues that threaten the well-being of society or the nation.
Media Politics
by Shanto Iyengar
Have the 2016 elections and Trump presidency ushered in a new era in political communication? Iyengar helps students see how dramatic developments like claims of “fake news,” allegations of Russian election meddling via social media, and Donald Trump’s attacks on mainstream news outlets fit into a larger understanding of the media’s role in democracy.
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Of course, the democratic ideal of fully informed citizens is rarely realized. Ordinary people are preoccupied with their personal affairs and have little time for keeping abreast of public issues. Indeed, most citizens prefer to watch sitcoms or sports. Naturally, the ability of the media to perform the function of keeping the public informed is compromised when citizens are uninterested. The news media cannot be expected to deliver a steady stream of in-depth public affairs programming that no one will watch.
Accordingly, over time, the unrealistic ideal of attentive citizens who scour the media for political information has given way to the notion that democracy can function through “efficient” citizens who either pay attention only to issues of personal importance or rely on a variety of psychological cues, such as a candidate’s party affiliation, to compensate for a lack of factual information. A related alternative to the classic ideal of informed citizenship is that citizens do pay attention, but only when the media sound an alarm alerting them to issues that threaten the well-being of society or the nation.
Manipulation of mass media for political purposes has transformed the practice of leadership and governance
Quizlet
https://quizlet.com/323560084/pols-447a-midterm-flash-cards/
american media tend to fall short of expectations; they generally deliver programming that is more entertaining than informative, and instead of acting as a restraint on the actions of government, they frequently toe the official line
TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1996:
Eased the rules by allowing ownership of multiple TV stations, as long as the combined audience amount less than 35% of population
FCC proposed to eliminate all restrictions on cross-ownership, as long as market had 9 or more tv stations
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Chapter 1： Image is Everything
Chapter 1 Summary THE PRESS AND DEMO PROCESS:
Mass media in democratic societies serve three important functions:
1. providing an electoral forum for candidates and political parties to debate their qualifications for office
2. contributing to informed citizenship by providing a variety of perspective on the important issues of the day
3. serving as a watchdog scrutinizing the actions of gov’t officials on behalf of citizens
-the centrality of media’s role in political process depends on universal access to media
-media became central to US politics in the 1960s — at a time when major changes in the candidate nomination process were wakening political parties
-the american media system differs from other democracies because it is almost entirely privately owned AND regulation is relatively weak
-print media, in the United States and elsewhere, have never been subject to the same level of government control as broadcast media
-united states has weaker regulatory standards governing the coverage of election — whereas politicians in the US must purchase access to the broadcast media
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CHAPTER 3 Summary – MEDIA MARKETPLACE
-News content reflects a complex set of interactions between the imperatives of the marketplace and the professional aspirations of journalists
-economic model: the news is simply what sells
-economic pressures leave their imprint on the news, more to news than the desire to protect bottom line
-journalists have an agenda, strive to cover campaigns in ways to maximize their autonomy and happily for them, increase their own professional visibility
-INTERPRETIVE coverage is defended on the grounds the journalists have a responsibility to protect the public from the machinations of campaign strategies
-PARTISAN INTENT: one factor conspicuously absent from the commercial organization process account of news
-LIBERAL critics (open to new behavior) see American journalists as captives of their numerous owners
-Overriding financial interests of corporate owners, act as disincentives for journalists to write stories exposing questionable business practices, even when it harms consumers — thus American media were reluctant to publicize the public health consequences
-HISTORICALLY, where Americans get their news has depended on the development of new technologies for transmitting information — 1920s – radio began to supplant newspapers as the main source of news — radio was itself supplanted by television in the 1950s
-spread of CABLE TELEVISION — more recently, the internet has transformed the news landscape, but the most serious threat to network news today is local news
-credibility of the media in the eyes of the American public has declined sharply (police officer killing some for example, body cam was installed therefore)
-market forces influence the form and content of news; market pressures are especially intense in the world of broadcast news; where soft news, sitcoms, and reality television shows attract much larger audiences than serious news does
-news procedures adapt to the competition
-organization processes and the professional principles of journalists also influence what is reported. modern political journalism rests on two dominant values: OBJECTIVITY and AUTONOMY. In attempting to protect their autonomy, reporters tend toward a more analytic form of news coverage centered on interpretation and analysis (ad watches, candidate strategy, horse race, scandal stories)
-ACCESSIBILITY and APPROPIATENESS also shape news coverage
-everyday news, Washington, DC is the center of the universe for most major news organizations
-car crash not found in NY times newspaper
-routines and procedures followed by news organizations have substantial impact on the content and form of the news == pace of the news cycle means that events are more likely to be covered if they occur at some times of the day than others
-assigning reporters to news beats ensures a steady flow
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CHAPTER 4 SUMMARY – REPORTERS/SOURCES
Coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq illustrates, the media tend to be less involving in dealing with national security and foreign policy than in dealing with domestic issues
-one explanation for the media’s less involving stance is INDEXING — reporters’ coverage of issues mirrors the level and intensity of elite debate — the higher the level of elite dissent, the easier it is for the reporter to pit competing sources against each other
— where domestic political events are concerned, the presence of vocal and authoritative critics grants journalists the necessary leverage to question official accounts
–on matters of foreign policy, however, critics of government policy tend to fall silent and the press is left with only official sources
-national security matters provide officials with even more control over the press
-when the United States resorts to military force, opposing elites generally close ranks behind the president, for fear of appearing unpatriotic — because potential opponents of the use of militarty force fall silent, the press becomes completely dependent on official spokespersons
-after vietnam war, pentagon and department of defense strove to restrict media acess to areas of US military action — there was considerable outrage over censorship of the press after it was discovered that REAGAN ADMINISTRATION had misled the media and the public about the invasion of Grenada — as a result, pentagon revised policy about media acess to war zones; press would be granted access but only in form of closely supervised media pools
-in contrast to its approach during the 1991 GulfWar, Pentagon decided that it was no longer politically feasible to deny American reporters firsthand access to the 2003 invasion of Iraq
-in a modernized version of pooled coverage, select group on American and international correspondents were to be embedded with invading forces
-the embedded reporters, however, were still subject to severe restrictions on the content of their reports
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CHAPTER 8: NEWS AND PUBLIC OPINION
-As a result of a LIMITED CONCEPTUALIZATION of media affects (defining them only in terms of persuasion) and a reliance on survey methodology (which tends to underestimate media effects), political-communication researchers have long held that media effects were minimal.
-Methodological advances (including wider use of experiments), along with a broadened definition of media effects, have since led scholars to acknowledge that media presentation can make a difference in politics
-SURVEYS AND EXPERIMENTS are TWO methods to study MEDIA EFFECTS
-Experiments give researchers control over the stimuli to which study participants are exposed, allowing them to isolate causality, but the results from experiments cannot be easily generalized
-Surveys are highly generalizable, but inaccuracy in participants self-reports weakens the ability of survey researches to detect media effects
-A variety of media effects on citizens:
1. LEARNING — by tuning in to the news, Americans can acquire factual information about events — however, many studies have shown Americans to be severely lacking in political information
2.AGENDA SETTING — describes the way in which the media set the agenda for public opinion by highlighting certain issues and ignoring others
3. PRIMING — an extension of agenda setting ,priming is the way in which the media ffect the criteria by which political leaders are judged. The more prominent an issue becomes in the public consciousness, the more that issue will influence people’s assessment of politicians, candidates, and other public figures
4. FRAMING — by highlighting some aspects of an event or issue and ignoring others, the media can influence how people think about that event or issue
5. PERSUASION — media has some persuasive influence — especially when the definition of persuasion is not limited to conversion from one cadidate or one side of an issue to the other
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role of policy maker through
media exposure
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HOW INFORMATION SHAPES POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS:
DEFINING INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION
knowledge about facts, subjects, or events is inextricably bound to virtually every aspect of democracy — may concern interests
the structure of information in America at the outset of the 21st century is very different from that of 20th century
situate modern technology and applied questions about the contemporary information revolution in the larger sweep of American political development
INFORMATION REGIMES AND REVOLUTIONS
Bimber argues that information regimes exist as periods of stable relationships among information,organizations, and democratic structure
Features of an information regime are:
1. A SET OF DOMINANT PROPERTIES OF POLITICAL INFORMATION SUCH AS HIGH COST
2. A SET OF OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF POLITICAL INFORMATION THAT THESE PROPERTIES CREATE
3. APPEARANCE OF CHARACTERISTIC POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS AND STRUCTURES ADAPTED TO THOSE OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS
Information regimes interupted by information revolutions
“My main thesis about contemporary political developments is that technological change in the contemporary period should contribute toward information abundance, which in turn contributes toward postbureaucratic forms of politics”
FIRST information revolution: 1820-1830
SECOnd: 1880-1910
THIRD: 1950-1970
FOURTH: 1990-present
the effects of changes in information are concentrated on political form through an increasing independence of political structure from traditional economic and social structures
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press freedom, 1st amendment
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BBC
United States major television network
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Media Politics (two conditions)
1. Universal access to the media
2. Diminished role of political parties in selecting candidates
When party organizations lose control over the selection of candidates,
free-agent candidates turn to the media as the most efficient form of communicating with voters
Media politics becomes a substitute for party politics
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Professional norms are but one element of a broader organizational process model of journalism
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The importance of authoritative sources makes journalists especially reliant on government officials
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The Pentagon, State Department, and White House together account for the great majority of news reports on a daily basis.
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The pecking order within journalism creates a strong copycat mentality: what is reported in this morning’s New York Times and Washington Post is inevitably repeated in the evening network newscasts
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Watchdog press does not fit well with the facts, particularly reporters’ heavy reliance on government officials as news sources
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Free Media
refers to news coverage, even though it is hardly cost free
Paid Media
Typically in the form of televised political advertisements
Campaign managers take advantage of competition among news sources to identify outlets that are likely to provide the most sympathetic treatment for their candidates
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When the national press was hounding presidential candidate Bill Clinton over various allegations of marital infidelity and womanizing, his campaign turned to local news stations and other unconventional outlets, such as MTV, to get out is message
Sarah Palin – criticized – face-to-face interview with Sean hannity – Fox News
News media exercise considerable leverage over public opinion
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media can provide (means of communication):
1. a forum for candidates and political parties to debate their qualifications for office
2. news program can contribute to informed citizenship by providing a variety of perspectives on the important issues of the day
3. acting as agents of citizens, the media can monitor the acts of public officials, thus helping deter them from violating the public trust (WATCH DOG)
— blowing the whistle when those officials cross the bounds of political propriety
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Public v. Private sector
candidates’ practical ability to access this forum varies significantly
– in the United States entry costs are significant barriers
– in most European democracies, access is provided at no cost, and television states typically provide an equal amount of free airtime to major political parties shortly before the election
American parties and candidates must reach voters through news media that interpret and scrutinize the candidates’ rhetoric and actions
-in performing this function, the news media have become increasingly hostile and unwilling to permit candidates to speak for themselves
-in Europe however, party spokespersons have greater ability to reach voters without going through the filter of news organizations — messages delivered without accompanying analysis or commentary
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Civic responsibility of the media is to keep the citizenry abreast of public affairs
News is for the citizen
without the citizen, there is no self-government, no individual basis for responsibility, choice and values
and without the independent news function, the citizen is starved paralyzed, neutered, rendered insensate, ineffective, and robotic
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TRUST IN MEDIA:
the ability of the media to perform the function of keeping the public informed is COMPROMISED when citizens are uninterested
a related alternative to the classic ideal of informed citizenship is that citizens do PAY attention, but only when the media sound an alarm alerting them to issues that threaten the well-being of society or the nation
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maintaining an adversarial posture toward government is one of the basic principles of modern journalism
countries with a free press are characterized by lower levels of corruption
more generally, presence of a free press makes government officials more responsive to the needs of ordinary citizens
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two key factors affect media performance:
1.regulatory policy: comes from the applicable regulatory framework
2. market forces: has significant effect on levels of civic performance
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in the united states, agency charged with regulating the media (the Federal Communications Commission or FCC) has taken an increasingly laissez-faire approach, arguing the FREE-MARKET competition is SUFFICIENT to ensure the delivery of diverse perspectives on public goods
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competitive market pressures compel media owners to shirk their civic responsibilities
to be profitable, the media must deliver more entertainment than news; and when they do deliver news, they must use formats that are designed to be entertaining
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societies in which media ownership is mixed rather than entirely private are more likely to support informed citizenship
electoral outcomes depend especially on what the media offer by way of news programming
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in the 1896 presidential campaign, candidates relied on “retail” politics, crisscrossing the country to delivery hundreds of public speeches to a total audience estimated to exceed five million people
at the time, population smaller and media options were fewer
GRASSROOTS: even as late as 1960s when radio and television were widely available, teams of volunteers would canvas neighborhoods and knock on doors, distribute campaign flyers etc
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1950-1978: the end result of party reform and the rapid spread of television was a shift from party-based campaigns to candidate-based campaigns waged on television
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open primaries – any registered vote can vote in the primary for any party — voters don’t even have to be registered with the party to participate in candidate slection
modifiend open primaries – registered partisans can vote only in their own party’s primary, but independents can vote in any primary
PARTY PRIORITIES = election/control in government, not message
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Single Member District Plurality
in which whoever wins the most votes in a district wins the office
proportional representation
parties compete for multiple seats within a single district and the number of seats each party wins is allocated in proportion to their share of vote
the mediatization or americanization of political campaigns — the increasing emphasis on party leaders than party policies
party-centered campaigns are more likely to generate issue-focused news coverage by the media, because campaign events are themselves more issue oriented
Quizlet
https://quizlet.com/ja
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