1. The Mass Media and the Political Agenda
Chapter 7
The Mass Media and the Political Agenda

2. Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman

3. Chapter 7: The Mass Media and The Political Agenda
The Mass Media Today
The Development of Media Politics
Reporting the News
The News and Public Opinion
Policy Entrepreneurs and Agenda Setting
Understanding the Mass Media
Summary
Brief Contents of Chapter 7: The Mass Media and The Political Agenda

4. Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives
The Mass Media Today
LO 7.1: Describe how American politicians choreograph their messages through the mass media.
The Development of Media Politics
LO 7.2: Outline the key developments in the history of mass media and American politics.
Lecture Tips and Suggestions for In-Class Activities
We frequently complain about bias by the media in reporting the policies and activities of the president and Congress, but officeholders also manipulate the media. In fact, modern political success depends upon control of the mass media. Have your class try to determine how each manipulates the other.
Divide your class into five groups: network television, daily local newspapers, daily national newspapers, cable news, and radio. Ask that they watch, read, or listen to the news only from their arranged source for one or two weeks, and then quiz them in terms of their knowledge of current events. Do students relying on one source know more than those relying on other sources?

5. Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives
Reporting the News
LO 7.3: List the major criteria that determine which news stories receive the most media attention.
The News and Public Opinion
LO 7.4: Analyze the impact the media has on what policy issues Americans think about.
Lecture Tips and Suggestions for In-Class Activities
Ask your students to discuss the role that the profit motive plays in how journalists report the news. What would be their reactions to proposals to have a publicly funded information service?
For class discussion, ask students to evaluate whether American mass media has become too powerful. In particular, ask students to debate whether mass media’s impact on public opinion and political outcomes is consistent with the concepts of limited government and balanced power. Is there any democratic way to hold mass media organizations accountable for their behavior?

6. Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives
Policy Entrepreneurs and Agenda Setting
LO 7.5: Explain how policy entrepreneurs employ media strategies to influence the public agenda.
Understanding the Mass Media
LO 7.6: Assess the impact of the mass media on the scope of government and democracy in America.
Lecture Tips and Suggestions for In-Class Activities
For class discussion, ask students to discuss the ways in which policy entrepreneurs can use their arsenal of weapons to influence the public agenda. In particular, have students provide examples from the textbook of how policy entrepreneurs can use press releases, press conferences, and letter writing; how they can try to convince reporters and columnists to tell their side; how they can trade on personal contacts; and in cases of desperation, how they can resort to staging dramatic events.
For class discussion, ask students to discuss the ways in which mass media influences the political thought and behavior of citizens. In particular, have students evaluate the media’s role in creating an informed citizenry, which is vital to the successful functioning of democratic government.

7. The Media Role of the Media Provider of political information
Monitoring of politics and politicians
Reporting on government action and inaction
“Fourth branch of government”
Complaints of Media
- blamed for Americans lack of knowledge
- coverage of trivial or insignificant news

8. The Mass Media Today LO 7.1: Describe how American politicians choreograph their messages through the mass media.
Medium is a means of communication
Media is the word’s plural; Mass media reaches a wide audience
The American Public gets information about public issues through several forms of mass media
Lecture Outline
The Mass Media Today
The American political system has entered a new period of high-tech politics in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers, as well as the political agenda itself, is increasingly shaped by technology.
The mass media are a key part of that technology. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and other means of popular communication are called mass media because they reach out and profoundly influence not only the elites but the masses.
Modern political success depends upon control of the mass media.
Candidates have learned that one way to guide the media’s focus is to limit what they report on to carefully scripted events.
These events are known as media events, that is, events that are staged primarily for the purpose of being covered.
Image making does not stop with the campaign. It is also a critical element in day-to-day governing since politicians’ images in the press are seen as good indicators of their clout. For example, the Reagan administration was particularly effective in controlling the president’s image as presented by the media.
A large part of today’s so-called 30-second presidency (a reference to 30-second sound bites on TV) is the slickly produced TV commercial.
To Learning Objectives
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman

9. Types of Media Television Newspapers Internet Radio Magazines Movies
Books
Social Media
Figure 8.1

10. Mass Media
Medium TV

11. Two Kinds of Media Print media Broadcast media
Each has reshaped political communication at different point in American history
Newspapers – Rev War/Spanish Amer War
Penny Press ’s - were revolutionary by making the news accessible to working and middle class citizens for a reasonable price.
Creation of the wire service-1840’s
Partisan press- 1850’s
Yellow journalism – 1890’s -1900’s
Investigative reformers “muckrakers”

12. Media Sources Newspapers
National – Wall street Journal, NY Times, Washington Post – worldwide staff
Regional/Local – local news and wire (AP)
Significant declines in readership
Corporate changes
“dead”?
Still widely used source (2007 – 51 million people a day buy a NP)

13. Media Sources Magazines and Books Time and Newsweek Books
Political events as front page news
Other magazines have political articles
Books
Many NY Times best sellers focus on politics

14. Media Sources Wire Services Across the world
Associated Press and Reuters
Cost effective
Same story printed in hundreds of newspapers throughout the nation

15. Media Sources Television
Four National Networks – ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox
Prime time news programs
Coverage varies “talking head”, investigative journalism, and talk shows

16. Media Sources Radio Major radio networks – ABC, CBS, Clear Channel
Brief news programs during the day
Most political content is in talk show and call in shows (Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Hannity, Smirconish) – generally conservative
NPR
Only a fraction of radio focuses on politics

17. Media Sources The Internet Sources vary widely
Electronic versions of other media
Blogs
Websites (government agencies, politicians, critics)

18. The Impact of the Internet
Optimistic predictions about the impact of the internet
Does the amount of info at one’s fingertips equal amore intelligent more political electorate?
The impact on politics has been more subtle than revolutionary
New lines of communication
Less constraints on information
New way to challenge media stories via blogs
Communication leading to activism

19. The Impact of the Internet
Increased amount of information available
Lowered barriers of publication
Ordinary citizens can post reports and videos of political events
The growth of the internet has not lead to a better informed public
Lack of access
Difficulty of finding information
Inconsistent reliability
Lack of incentive to seek out information

20. Media Sources Are All Media the Same? Timeliness Breadth Medium
Resources

21. News Coverage
Journalists
Sources of the News
The Power of Consumers

22. Journalists
Journalists can shape the news by changing the angle of the story, the selection of interviewees/witnesses, the visual images, or the words used to tell the story.

23. Journalists/Reporters
Legal limitations affect journalists/reporters
Clear and Present danger test
Prior restraint
Information is leaked by people inside gov’t
Some states have shield laws that protect reporters from revealing their sources, there is no such law at the federal level

24. Sources of the News
The individuals or groups who are subjects of a news story can manipulate the coverage by determining how or when the story is told.

25. Sources of the News
Politicians try to influence coverage by providing select information to reporters through press conferences.
Sometimes they speak to reporters “off the record”

26. Presenting the News Superficial - Sound bite mentality of news
New technology has enabled the media to pass along information with greater speed but coverage has become less thorough
Bias
Some argue that presentation of news in biased
Liberal media?
ratings?

27. The Power of Consumers
The media must market their product to those individuals who are the targets of their advertisers
Accordingly, consumers can dictate the type of coverage they want to read, hear, or see.

28. How Do American Use Media to Learn about Politics?
Americans have more ways to learn about politics then they did a generation ago
This does not imply that the average person American uses most of them
“byproduct theory of information transmission” – information is acquired unintentionally (Glance at Headlines, Daily Show, something catches their eye)
People who are interested in politics tend to seek out things they all ready believe
Media coverage is most likely to affect the beliefs of those who take a moderate interest in politics

29. Media Coverage
There are clear generational differences in media usage patterns
Younger-internet
Older – newspaper
The amount of political knowledge that people have is related to the particular media source they use
Studies have shown that those who get their info from late-night comedy and talk radio program are well informed about politics

30. Media Power in American Politics
Shaping Events
The Sources of Media Power
The Rise of Adversarial Journalism

31. Shaping Events
The visual images produced by the media can move public opinion.
The Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and Watergate were all shaped in some way by media coverage.

32. The Sources of Media Power
Agenda setting: the power of the media to bring public attention to particular issues
Framing: the power of the media to influence how events and issues are interpreted
Shaping perceptions of leaders

33. The Sources of Media Power
Filtering
The influence on public opinion that results from journalist and editors decision about which stories to report (Brett Favre)
Priming
Positive or negative coverage

34. So How Much Power Does the Media Have?

35. “The Media doesn't tell you how to think, but surely, It tells you what you should be thinking about” Philosopher, Michael Santangelo

36. The Rise of Adversarial Journalism
The relationship between the media and government has become increasingly adversarial over the last forty years.
Vietnam and Watergate clearly demonstrate a change in the way the media covers government.

37. Media Power and Democracy
The Free media are absolutely necessary for democracy.
We depend on the media to serve as our watchdog.

38. The Mass Media Today
Effective communication through media is key to political success.
Media Events: events purposely staged for the media that nonetheless look spontaneous
Media events can be staged by almost anybody.
60% presidential campaign spending is TV ads
Two-thirds is negative.
Image making and news management is important, especially for presidents.

39. The Development of Media Politics
Introduction
The news media wasn’t always so important.
Press Conferences: meetings of public officials with reporters
Franklin Roosevelt held over 1,000
Investigative Journalism: the use of in-depth reporting to unearth scandals, scams & schemes putting reporters & politicians opposite each other
Coverage of presidential candidates has become less favorable.

40. The Development of Media Politics
The Print Media
Newspapers and magazines
“Yellow journalism”: a sensational style of reporting characterized newspapers at the turn of the century
Pecking order among newspapers
New York Times has largest impact
Newspaper and newsweekly circulation has declined

41. The Development of Media Politics
The Broadcast Media
Television and radio
Brought government and politics into peoples’ homes
Vietnam War
Politicians’ appearance and mannerisms more important
Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate

42. The Development of Media Politics
Government Regulation of the Broadcast Media
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates the use of airwaves in three ways:
Prevent near monopoly control of market
Reviews performance of stations
Issues fair treatment rules for politicians

43. The Development of Media Politics
From Broadcasting to Narrowcasting: The Rise of Cable News Channels
Narrowcasting: media programming on cable TV or Internet that is focused on one topic and aimed at a particular audience, e.g., C-SPAN
Potential of cable to report on news as it happens and offer myriad choices
Yet, resources are limited and stories are not substantive

44. The Development of Media Politics
The Impact of the Internet
Potential to inform Americans about politics
Internet is purposive—people choose what to learn about
Since Americans are generally disinterested in politics, they will not necessarily use the Internet for political information.
Blogs provide additional information about news stories.

45. The Development of Media Politics
Private Control of the Media
Only a small number of TV stations are publicly owned in America.
Independent in what they can report, media are totally dependent on advertising revenues.
Chains: massive media conglomerates that account for over four-fifths of the nation’s daily newspaper circulation
Also control broadcast media

46. Reporting the News Finding the News
Beats: specific locations from which news frequently emanates, such as Congress or the White House
Trial Balloons: an intentional news leak for the purpose of assessing the political reaction. Leak
Reporters and their sources depend on each other; one for stories, the other to get them out.

47. Reporting the News Presenting the News
Superficial describes most news coverage today.
Sound Bites: short video clips of approximately 10 seconds
Major TV networks devote less time to covering political candidates.

48. Reporting the News Bias in the News
Many people believe the news is biased in favor of one point of view.
Generally are not very biased toward a particular ideology
News reporting is biased towards what will draw the largest audience; good pictures and negative reporting

50. 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.

51. “Watching TV” Activity
In small groups answer the following questions for each show you watched…
What show did you watch?
When did you watch it?
What were your overall opinions of the show?
Did you think this show had an ideological bias? Explain.
Did you think this show helps or hurts politics? Why?

52. 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
Use media to raise awareness of issue

53. Understanding the Mass Media
The Media and the Scope of Government
Media as watchdog restricts politicians
New proposals are met with skepticism which restricts scope of government, what it can do
If media identify a problem, force government to address it, which expands the scope of government

54. Understanding the Mass Media
Individualism and the Media
Candidates run on their own by appealing to people on television
Easier to focus on one person like the president, than groups, e.g., Congress or the courts
Democracy and the Media
“Information is the fuel of democracy.”
But news provides more entertainment than information; it is superficial.
News is a business, giving people what they want.

55. Summary
Media shape public opinion on political issues and influence policy agenda.
Broadcast media have replaced print media over time.
Narrowcasting and the Internet are further shifting media.
Seeking profits, media are biased in favor of stories with high drama.