Chapter VII: The Mass Media and the Political Agenda

The American political system has entered a new period of high-tech

politicsa politics in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers and the political agenda itself are increasingly shaped by technology The mass media are a key part of this technologytelevision, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and other means of popular communication are called mass media because the reach and profoundly influence the masses I. The Mass Media Today A. Effectively communicating a message is critical to political success; the key is gaining control over the political agenda B. Politicians have learned that one way to guide the medias focus successfully is to limit what they can report on to carefully scripted eventsmedia eventevents purposely staged for the media that nonetheless look spontaneous. In keeping with politics, media events can be staged by individuals, groups and government officials and are staged for the purpose of being covered. 1. 2000, Al Gore 2. Getting the right image on TV news for just thirty seconds can easily payoff 3. GOTV C. Television commercials 1. 60 percent of presidential campaign spending is devoted to TV adds (about two-thirds of which were negative commercials) 2. Many people are worried that the tirade of accusationsetc. in political advertising is polluting the political process and probably even contributing to the decline in turnout. 3. Compare to other democracies and their campaign advertisements (page 209) D. Image making does not stop with the campaign; it is also a critical element in the to-day governing. Politicians images in the press are seen as good indicators of their clout 1. Ronald Reagans media appearances; presidents image is important a. Example: Reagans White House (seven principles) b. To Reagan, the presidency was often a performance II. The Development of Media Politics A. Two recent American presidents felt hounded out of office by the press 1. Johnson and Nixon 2. Most scholars agree that the mass media have changed the face of American politics B. The media has not always been so important 1. Major cities had daily newspapers when First Amendment written (product of the mid-nineteenth century) 2. Radios and televisions have been around since the first half of the first half of the twentieth century 3. Herbert Hooverreporters submit questions C. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945) 1. Invented media politics because they were a potential ally

2. Press conferencesmeetings of public officials with

reporters 3. First president to use the radiofireside chats; helped him win presidential elections D. Cozy relationship between politicians and the press lasted through the early 1960s. The events of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal soured the press on government. Todays news-people work in an environment of cynicism E. Many political scientists are critical of investigative journalismthe use of the detective-like reporting methods to unearth scandals (which put reporters in adversarial relationships with political leaders). 1. Investigative journalism has contributed to greater public cynicism and negativity about politics 2. Thomas Pattersons analysis uncovers several aspects of the trend toward negative media coverage a. Emphasis of campaign reporting has changed dramatically from what to why b. The type of interpretive story that has become more prominent is the hard-biting analysis of political maneuvering and the horse racetends toward unfavorable impressions of the candidates because of understated assumption behind much of todays coverage of the issues has shifted from policy statements to campaign controversies F. Press maintains that the public is now able to get complete look at the candidates; critics of the media charge that they overemphasize the controversial aspects of the campaign at the expense of an examination of major issues. G. Print Media (includes newspapers and magazines) 1. First American daily newspaper was printed in Philadelphia in 1784; the ratification of the First Amendment in 1791 gave the earliest American papers freedom to print whatever they see fit 2. Rapid printing and cheap paper made possible the penny press 3. By the 1840s, the telegraph permitted a primitive wire service; the Associated Press (AP) 4. Newspaper magnates Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst a. Yellow journalismsensational style of reporting focused on violence, corruption, wars and gossip b. Spanish-American conflict c. HearstYou furnish the pictures and Ill furnish the war 5. Newspapers consolidated into chains during the early part of the twentieth century. Todays massive media conglomerates control newspapers with 78 percent of the nations daily circulation. Often these chains control television and radio stations as well a. New York Timescut above most newspapers in its influence and impact; it is the nations newspaper of record

b. Washington Post, Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles

Times 6. Ever since the rise of TV news, however, newspaper circulation rates have been declining. Most political scientists who have studied the role of media in politics believe this is an unfortunate trend. 7. Magazines are also struggling in the Internet age, especially when it comes to the few that are heavily concerned with political events. Serious magazines of political news and opinion tend to be read by the educated elite. H. Broadcast Media 1. Gradually, the broadcast media have displaced the print media as Americans princi0al source of news and information. By the middle of the 1930s, radio ownership had become almost universal in America1960s came the time of the rise of television 2. Richard Nixon a. Checkers Speech b. 1960: First televised presidential debate; Nixon v Kennedy 1) The poll results from this debate illustrate the visual power of television in American politics 2) Radio listeners gave the edge to Nixon; television watchers thought Kennedy won c. TV exposed governmental navet about the progress of the war 1) Lyndon B. Johnson had two wars on his hands 2) Media covered Vietnam war and the war at home with the antiwar protests d. With the growth of cable TV, particularly CNN (Cable News Network), television has recently entered a new era of bringing the news to peopleand to political leaders 3. Since 1963, people rely more on TV for the news than any other news medium. I. Narrowcasting: Cable TV and the Internet 1. The future of political communication seems destined to bring more and more choices regarding what we can see about our government. 2. Based on the developments with cable TV to date, information about politics will be presented in a way that appeals to a narrow and specific audience rather than to the public at large 3. The first major networks adopted the term broadcast in the names as their signal was being sent out to a broad audience. With the development of cable TV, however, market segmentation has taken hold (sports, music, historyetc.) 4. Rather than appealing to a general audience, channels focus on a narrow particular interest (narrowcastingmedia programming on cable TV or the Internet that is focused on one topic an aimed at a particular audience) 5. As the number of channels and websites proliferates, it is clear that political junkies will find ore political information

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readily available than ever before. But with so many readily available sources of information for so many specific interests, it will also be extremely easy for those who are not interested in politics to completely avoid news and public affairs. Reporting the News A. In its search for the unusual, the news media can give the audience a peculiar view of events and policymakers. In their pursuit for high ratings, news shows are tailored to a fairly low level of audience sophistication. Because some types of news stories attract more viewers or readers than others, certain biases are inherent in what the American public sees or reads B. Finding the News 1. Americans popular image of correspondents or reporters somehow uncovering the news is accurate in some cases, yet most news stories com from well-established sources 2. Beatsspecific locations from which news frequently emanates. Most top reporters work a particular beat, thereby becoming specialists in what goes on at that location 3. Numerous studies of both the electronic and the print media show that show that journalists rely most exclusively on such established sources to get their information 4. Those who make the news depend on the media to spread certain information and ideas to the general public. Sometimes they feed stories to reporters in the form of a trivial balloonsan intentional news lead for the purpose of assessing the political reaction a. Example: President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky 5. Reporters and their official sources have a symbiotic relationshipnewsmakers rely on journalists who rely on reporters to keep them in the know 6. Censorship complaints 7. Despite this dependence on familiar sources, an enterprising reporter occasionally has an opportunity to live up to the image of the crusading truth seeker. 8. Pulitzer prices typically go to reporters whose stories make a difference in politics and government C. Presenting the News 1. Once the news has been found, it has to be neatly compressed into a 30-second news segment or fit in among the advertisements in a newspaper. Editors do not want to bore or confuse their audience 2. Except for a few highly regarded news programs, analysis of news events rarely lasts more than a minute; a study of campaign coverage found that only skimpy attention was given to the issues during a presidential campaign. 3. Strangely enough, as technology has enabled the media to pass along information with greater speed, news coverage has become less thorough. a. Newspapers only print certain portions of speeches instead of the entire outline

b. In place of speeches, Americans can now hear sound

bitesor short video clips of approximately 15 seconds which are typically shown from a politicians speech or activities on the nightly television news c. The average length of time that a presidential candidate has been given to talk uninterrupted on the TV news has declined precipitously since the late 1960s d. Rather than presenting their audience with the whole chicken, the media typically gives just a McNugget. D. Bias in the News 1. Many people believe the news is biased in favor of one point of view (Example: presidential candidate Bob Dole) 2. The charge that the media have a liberal bias has become a familiar one in American politicsreporters are twice as likely to call themselves liberal as the general public 3. However, there is little reason to believe that journalists personal attitudes sway their reporting of the news. The vast majority of social science studies have found that reporting is not systematically biased toward a particular ideology or party. Most stories are presented in a point/counterpoint format in which two opposing points of views are presented and the audience is left to draw its own conclusions. 4. To conclude that the news contains little explicit partisan or ideological bias is not to argue that it does not distort reality in its coverage. Ideally, the news should mirror reality; in practice there are far too may possible stories for this to be the case 5. Television is particularly biased toward stories that generate good pictures. Seeing a talking headshot of a persons face talking directly to the camerais boring. Because this is visually unappealing, the major commercial networks rarely show a politician talking one-on-one for very long The News and Public Opinion A. How does the threatening, hostile and corrupt world often depicted by the news media shape what people believe about the American political system? It is difficult to study the effects of the news media on peoples opinions and behaviors. One reason is that it is hard to separate the media from other influences. Moreover, the effect of one news story on public opinion may be trivial; the cumulative effect of dozens of news stories may be important. B. The minimal effects hypothesis stemmed from the fact that early scholars were looking for direct impacts. When the focus turned to how the media affect what Americans think about, more positive results were uncovered. C. They found that they could significantly affect the importance people attached to a given problem by splicing a few stories about it into the news over the sources of a week. D. This effect has far-reaching consequencesby increasing public attention to specific problems, the media influence the criteria by which the public evaluates political leaders. Opinion depends in large on which story the media emphasized

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E. In another study, examining public opinions on the same issues at two points in time, researchers carefully coded the news coverage of these issues on the news and in print during the interim. Peoples opinions did indeed shift with the tone of the news coverage. F. Of all the influence on opinion change that these researchers examined, news commentators had the strongest impact. G. Much remains unknown about the effects of the media and the news on American political behavior. Enough is known to conclude that the media are the key political institution. The Medias Agenda-Setting Function A. John Kingdon defines policy agenda as the list of subjects or problems to which government officials, and people outside of government closely associated with those officials, are paying some serious attention at a given time. 1. Interest groups, political parties, etc. are all pushing for their priorities to take precedence over others. B. Political activists depend heavily on the media to get their ideas placed high on the governmental agenda. Political activists are often called political entrepreneurspeople who invest their political capital in an issue. According to John Kingdon, a policy entrepreneur could be in or out of government, in elected or appointed positions, in interest groups or research organizations. 1. Arsenal of weapons include press releases, press conferences and letter writing 2. Try to convince reporters and columnists to tell their side, to trade on personal contacts and resort to the dramatic C. The staging of political events to attract media is a political art form. 1. Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon 2. dictators, revolutionaries, prime ministers, and presidents all play to the cameras D. The media are not always monopolized by political elites; the poor and downtrodden have access to them too. 1. 1960s Civil rights groups relied on telling the media their stories 2. Protest groups stage interesting events to get the attention of the media E. Conveying a long-term, positive image via the media is more important than a few dramatic events. Policy entrepreneurs individuals or groups, in or out of governmentdepend on good will and good images F. Sometimes it helps to hire a public relations firm that specializes in getting a specific message across Understanding Mass Media A. The media act as key linkage institutions between the people and the policymakers and have a profound impact on the political policy agenda. B. The Media and the Scope of Government 1. The watchdog function of the media helps to restrict politicians. Many observers say that the press is biased against whoever holds office at the moment and that reporters want to expose officeholders. Reporters hold disparaging views of most public officials, believing that they

are self-serving, hypocritical, lacking in integrity, and preoccupied with reelection. a. As every new proposal is met with much skepticism, regular constraints are placed on the scope of what government can do. b. The watchdog function of the press can be characterized as neither liberal or conservative, but reformist c. The reporters focus on injustice in society inevitably encourages enlarging the scope of government. d. In this way, the media portray government as responsible for handling every major problem. e. The media report on Americas social problems in a manner that often also encourages government to take on more and more tasks C. Individualism and the Media 1. The rise of television has reinforced and furthered individualism in the American political process. 2. Television finds it easier to focus on individuals than on groups. As a result, parties have declined and candidate personality is more important than ever. a. The presidency has increasingly received more exposure than Congress b. The Supreme Court, which does not allow TV cameras to cover its proceedings, is almost invisible on TV and receives 3 percent of the coverage. D. Democracy and the Media 1. As Ronald Berkman and Laura Kitch remark, Information is the fuel of democracy. Widespread access to information could be the greatest boon to democracy since the secret ballot, yet most observers think it has fallen far short of this potential. 2. The rise of the information society has not brought about the rise of the informed society 3. Whenever the media are criticized for being superficial, their defense is to say that this is what people want. 4. If the American people wanted serious coverage of the issues, networks would be happy to give it to them. Network executives claim that they are in business to make profit and to do so, they must appeal to the maximum number of people. 5. It is not their fault if the resulting news coverage is superficial; blame capitalism or blame the people, most of whom like news to be more entertaining than educational. 6. Thus, if people are not better informed in the high-tech age, it is largely because they do not care to hear about complicated political issues. In this sense, one can say that the people really do rule through the media.