1. Mass Media

2. Mass Media Today  Examples? (This is pretty easy)  http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/ http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/  Collection of presidential campaign ads – we’ll look at a few.  30-60 seconds to get a memorable/meaningful message across  “Media Events” – staged events designed to be covered by media – virtually no real importance if media weren’t present

3. Media History  Newspapers come about in mid-19 th century  Radio/TV – First half of 20 th century  FDR  Press conferences twice a week  “Fireside Chats” – frequent radio addresses to Depression- ridden nation  Reporters largely deferential to government

4. Media History 2: Electric Boogaloo  Vietnam and Watergate – developing cynicism  Investigative Journalism – digging up scoops  “Gotcha” stories  Negative references vs. favorable  Kennedy/Nixon = 3 to 1  Clinton/Bush = 2 to 3

5. Print  First daily – Philadelphia 1783  First Amendment protection means papers can expose government’s “dirty linen”  Early 1900s – “Yellow Journalism” – Focus on sensationalism  New York Times – nation’s newspaper of record – comparatively high standards  Washington Post – perhaps best coverage from within DC  Associated Press – widest net of news gathering people (reporters, photographers, editors, etc.)

6. Decline of Print or: Television and Internet killed the Print Media Star  Newspaper readers more likely to vote  100,000 words/day published in a newspaper versus around 3,600 words/nightly news broadcast  Circulation has been dropping steadily for the past 50 years  Magazines also  “newsweeklies” Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report lag behind Reader’s Digest, TV Guide, and Natty Geo  Newsweek lags behind Playboy and People  More serious news/opinion magazines like New Republic, National Review, and Atlantic Monthly are even lower

7. Broadcast  Mid-’30s – radio ownership nearly universal  ‘50s-early ‘60s – TV  TV helped make Nixon’s career – “Checkers Speech” in 1952  TV nearly killed Nixon’s career – 1960 debate with Kennedy  Nixon had just spent a week in the hospital, looked like garbage; Kennedy had Tiger-Beat-Heart-Throb-like good looks  People who listened on radio thought Nixon won debate; those watching on TV thought Kennedy won

8. Government Regulation  FCC – Federal Communications Commission  Prevent monopolies of airwaves – no single entity can control more than 35% of broadcast market  Make sure stations are “serving the public interest” in order to keep their licenses  Enforce fair-treatment rules for political candidates and officeholders  Equal-time – if they sell time to one candidate, must be willing to sell to other candidates  Right-of-Reply – if a person is attacked on non-news program, that person has the right to reply on the same station  “Fairness Doctrine” – required broadcasters to give equal time to opposing views if they showed a program slanted to one side of a controversial issue  Fairness dropped in 1986 – proliferation of tv/cabnle stations make it unnecessary

9. Modern Times – “Narrowcasting”  “Broadcasting” – ABC, NBC, CBS  choose term as they are appealing to “broad” audience  Modern cable stations/internet sites can appeal to a narrow focus – “narrowcasting”  CSPAN, CSPAN 2 – coverage of House and Senate  MSNBC – Seen by some as a “liberal-slanted” news network  Fox News – Seen by some as a “conservative-slanted” network

10. Danger of Privately-controlled, narrow media  Jon Stewart on CNN’s “Crossfire”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE

11. List of “living room candidate” videos  1952 – Eisenhower – Never Had it So Good  1952 – Stevenson – Let’s Not Forget the Farmer  1964 – Johnson – Peace Little Girl  1972 – Nixon – McGovern Defense  1984 – Reagan – Bear; Prouder, Stronger, Better  1984 – Mondale – Rollercoaster  1988 – Bush – Tank, Revolving Door  1992 – Clinton – Rebuild America  1996 – Clinton – Surgeon  2000 – Bush – Really MD  2004 – Bush – Windsurfing  2008 – McCain – Celeb; Original Mavericks; Dangerous; Compare  2008 – Obama – Fundamentals; Better Off; What Kind; Rearview Mirror