Mass media and the public agenda Chapter 7: Mass media and the public agenda

Mass Media Mass Media: Means of popular communication Reach and profoundly influence not only the elites but also the masses Candidate’s Use of Media: Media Event Publicity Negative Commercials Image Communication

The Development of Media Politics Turn of the 19th Century Newspapers Editorial Cartoons 1930s FDR Press conferences: Meetings of public officials with reporters Fireside chats: FDR’s use of the radio to communicate with the American people

The Development of Media Politics Until the 1960s Respect politicians’ privacy 1960s Relationship changed Became adversarial Vietnam War Watergate Scandal

The Development of Media Politics Relationship Today Symbiotic Relationship Reporters and their sources depend on each other—one for stories, the other to get them out. Investigative Journalism Allows reporters access to war zones A focus on government corruption and inefficiency

Print Media Newspapers and magazines “Yellow journalism” Well-respected Newspapers: New York Times, Washington Post, Economist, Christian Science Monitor Newspaper and newsweekly circulation has declined.

Broadcast Media Television, radio, Internet Politicians’ appearances and mannerisms more important. First Presidential Debates: Brought government and politics into peoples’ homes. Vietnam War: Horrors of the war were broadcast on TV FCC

Reporting the News Finding the News Beats: specific locations from which news frequently emanates Trial Balloons: an intentional news leak for the purpose of assessing the political reaction Presenting the News Superficial Sound Bites: short video clips of approximately 10 seconds Major TV networks devote less time to covering political candidates

Bias in the News Bias in the News? Many believe that the news is biased in favor of one point of view However, most news is presented in a point/counterpoint format Creates political neutrality Journalistic objectivity Media outlets want to appeal to everyone Talking heads News reporting is biased towards what will draw the largest audience—good pictures and negative reporting

The News and Public Opinion Television news can affect what people think is important. Agenda-setting effect The media influence the criteria by which the public evaluates political leaders. Some stories or events can be made more important, others less important, depending on their coverage.

The Media’s Agenda-Setting Function Policy Agenda The issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people actively involved in politics at the time Policy Entrepreneurs People who invest their political “capital” in an issue to get it placed high on governmental agenda Examples: Interest groups, political parties, individual politicians… Compete for attention How: Rely on the media Press releases, press conferences, letter writing Working with reporters

Understanding Mass Media Media act as key linkage institutions between the people and the policymakers and have a profound impact on the political policy agenda. Media act as watchdogs and restrict politicians Media promotes individualism by allowing candidates to run on their own by appealing to people on television Media provides access to information, which could act as a boom to democracy

Which of the following is a significant political consequence of the trend toward investigative journalism? The job requirements for becoming a journalist are now more stringent. Public attention is focused more on scandal than on political issues Americans are better informed than they were decades before television The public now gets most of its information from television news sources Americans are now more likely to think critically about political

Who is the most likely to receive attention in the media? The secretary of defense The speaker of the house The senate majority leader The president The chief justice of the Supreme Court

All of the following have resulted from the growing profusion of sound bytes in news reporting EXCEPT The news media have had to narrow their scope of coverage because they have only a limited amount of material broadcast The news media have increased their influence over the public agenda by selected what material to feature in sound bytes The complexity of most issues is not fully understood by the electorate, who might as a result be misled about government action The public tends to judge candidates by their appearance as much as, if not more than, the candidates’ stand on foreign and domestic issues Politicians do not have to explain their views in much detail because most of their speeches go unreported to the public

The first televised debates were held in 1952 between Kennedy and Eisenhower had a significant impact on the outcome of the election were not as important as the first debates on the radio only took place in the last twenty years indicated the importance of campaigning on the radio b

Which president was arguably the most influential when it comes to the conception of “media politics?” Herbert Hoover Franklin D Roosevelt Richard Nixon Ronald Reagan Bill Clinton

The media generally became more cynical in its coverage of politicians after The Great Depression World War II The Korean War Vietnam and Watergate The Lewinksy Scandal