1. Warm Up
Are you merely the product of your own environment or are you your own person with your own opinions? Why?
2. If you want to buy an expensive item, what sort of research do you do before the purchase?
3. Keep in mind your answer to #2. When forming your opinions on recent events or the issues of today, what research do you do before coming to a conclusion?

2. Mass Media and Public Opinion

3. Media: Means of communication Mass media: Media that reaches large # of people
Short History of Mass Media (Don’t write)
Gutenberg (1439 Bible, Prot. Ref.)
Newspaper (1620s “The Weekly News; Peaked in )
Radio (1920s; FDR fireside chats)
TV (comes into its own in the 1950s)
Internet (Became common in 1990s)

4. Roles of the Media Gatekeeper: what stories are shown?
Signaler: breaking news
Scorekeeper: who’s ahead in the polls? (AKA Horse Race Journalism)
Watchdog: expose scandals
Common Carrier: common stories

5. Media in a Democracy
Linkage Institution: Like parties and interest groups, this links us to the government.
AKA 4th Branch of gov: It shapes public opinion of voters.

6. What our founding fathers had to say on the news….
“A popular government (democracy) without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both” James Madison
Numbered Heads Together:
What is Madison trying to say about the function of the news?

7. News and Public Opinion
# According to these cartoons, what is the relationship between the mainstream media and public opinion?

8. Media influences public opinion by: (write these)
Emphasizing specific issues
Ignoring other issues
Directly telling their audience what is best for the country
Discuss with your shoulder partner:
If this is true, how can you protect yourselves from the dangers of bias or propaganda?

9. Take a Stand
Mass media chooses which news stories to cover and takes stances on the issues of the day as a result of popular opinion.
Take a Stand: Go to either side of the room.

10. Media=Public opinion or Public Opinion=Media, or ??

11. Public Opinion Poll Problems
Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas Dewey in the 1948 election and demonstrated the problem with the polls
They cannot measure the intensity, stability, relevance of the opinions reported

12. Who wants this to be news? Who doesn’t?

13. Newsworthy or Not? Numbered Heads Together
A presidential candidate’s child has a drug problem.
A presidential candidate had poor grades in college.
A presidential candidate cheated on his or her taxes.
A presidential candidate experimented with marijuana in college.
A presidential candidate bribed a public official in order to get his or her first internship in politics.

14. “THE NEWS TODAY” (Don’t write)
What makes the news?
News is limited by time, space & money
Privately owned institutions: must make a profit
News = whatever the people are willing to pay for / watch / listen to

15. Ponder, don’t write….
The news required for a functional democracy - the news that empowers citizens to act in their own interest and for the good of society – is discarded [by the corporate media] to make way for the trivial, sensational, and salacious.” From It’s the Media, Stupid

16. Summary
Write out questions and answer or write answers in complete sentences that included the question.
1. List 2 roles of the media and what each role does.
2. How can you minimize bias?
How does the media influence public opinion?