Mass Media and the Political Agenda

The Mass Media today Media event- tightly scripted appearance by the candidate Getting on new can benefit campaigns 60% of campaign spending is on tv ads Image Making Negative ads poison political process

News management for presidents 1. plan ahead 2. stay on the offensive 3. control the flow of information 4. limit reporter access to the president 5. talk about issues you want to talk about 6. speak in one voice 7. repeat the same message many times

The Development of Media Politics FDR fist major politician to use media effectively Press conferences- twice a week (FDR) Good relations between reporters and government til 1960s Personal lives off table Vietnam war and Watergate led way to skepticism and cynicism

The Development of Media Politics Come to realize politicians rarely tell the truth Investigative journalism- use of detective like reporting methods to check up on statements of government officials Adversarial role Campaign coverage change from “what”(policy) to “why”(race) Coverage has become more negative

Print Media 1783 Philadelphia first newspaper First amendment gave them freedom to print what they saw fit Those who read newspaper more engaged Online editions People not willing to pay for news Newspapers and magazines struggling

Emergence of radio and television 1930s radio ownership universal 1960 first televised debate between Kennedy and Nixon Kennedy’s looks helped TV the medium in Vietnam where people could see the horrors Pushed anti-war protests

Government Regulation of Electronic media 1934 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Regulates airways Prevent monopolies No single owner control 35% of market Grants broadcast licenses Fair treatment rules candidate access to airwaves Fairness doctrines gotten rid of in 1980s

From broadcasting to narrowcasting: the rise of cable and cable news Broadcasting-sent out to broad audience (ABC, NBC, CBS) Narrowcasting is broadcasting to a narrow focus like espn of mtv Political satire shows primary source of news for young people Cable news (FOX, CNN, MSNBC) systematically fail to cover political events 11% of time taken up with edited stories Role of reporter to talk extemporaneously Stories were repeated frequently usually without prior information Coverage of news spotty ignoring important topics “talk radio of television”

From broadcasting to narrowcasting: the rise of cable and cable news Cable news become ideologically charged Selective exposure- people tend to choose the information sources that have similar views to their own Fox for republicans MSNBC for democrats Made compromise harder Sensationalize stories

Impact of the Internet Quickly find answer to policy and be informed on candidates Internet is purposive- what people see is the product of their own intentional choices Limited motivation Blogs means to make concerns heard

Private Control of the Media Journalism has been big business All media outlets in private hands Press not restricted from speaking the truth Dependent on advertising Owned by giant conglomerates Fight for viewership

Reporting the news Millions of events happen every day Journalists must decide what to report on Ultimately a business so report most entertaining things

Finding the News Beats- specific locations from which news often emanates, such as congress Trial balloons- information leaked to see what the political reaction will be Politicians rely on media to get their message out Embedded reporters War reporting was seen more positively Reporting can cause politicians to pay attention

Presenting the news “found” new has to commonly be compounded into 30 second news segment Hard to fit all facts into segments Commonly causes interest over content Sound bites- 10 sec or less of speeches Sound bite journalism gives candidates ability to avoid issues Nothing significant can be said in that time

Bias in the News Little to back up charge of liberal media bias More a different world view Bias more towards stories that draw more audience People more likely to follow involving conflict, violence, disaster, or scandal Talking head- shot of persons head speaking directly to camera

Policy entrepreneurs and agenda setting Policy agenda- list of subjects or problems to which government officials associate with officials Policy entrepreneurs- political activists, invest political capital in an issue Also coverage of protests that attempt to set agenda

Rise of political satire 1960s done in a sitcom format 1975 Saturday night live- depicted imitations of candidates The Daily Show and Colbert Report- satire politics and news media Jon Stewart starting video playback of other news programs Held media to slightly higher standard More prevalent today than ever before

Rise of Fake News News that has no standing in fact Partisan sources Purposely seek to create story that creates and emotional response Most are conspiracy theories Use some facts mixed with out of context quotes and information