THE MEDIA:

New Technologies, Enduring

Lessons
Chapter 8

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The Historical Development of News Media
- In the era of the partisan press, parties paid newspapers to promote their
points of view.
- Primary source for political information and debate
- New printing technology made newspapers much cheaper in the 1830s, freeing
the press from financial dependence on parties.
- Sensationalistic reporting, called “yellow journalism,” gained enormous
popularity in the late 1800s.
- Newspapers abandoned yellow journalism and emphasized objective
journalism in the early twentieth century.
- Investigative journalism and muckrakers
- In the early 1900s, aggressive investigative journalism, called “muckraking,” helped
to expose corruption and social injustice.

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 Radio and TV News
- Broadcast media
- Outlets for news and other content that rely on mass communications
technology to bring stories directly into people’s homes
- The 19th and 20th centuries saw the rise of other
technologies like the telegraph, (which brought us wire
services), radio, and television (which brought us broadcast
news).
- Radio provided the first alternative mass media in the 1920s;
television added another in the 1950s.
- FDR and “fireside chats”
 Radio and TV News

- TV Media
- Kennedy vs Nixon Debate
- Walter Cronkite and the Vietnam War
- Rise of the neverending news cycle
- 24/7 TV coverage and cable television news
- Cable news offered round-the-clock news coverage,
often with a partisan slant.
 New Media
- The Internet and broadband and wireless technology
- Merging of entertainment and social media
- Citizen journalists
- Nonprofessionals who cover or document news and
events or offer their own analyses of them
- Niche journalism
- Media that caters to fragmented and specialized
audiences
 Evolution of Media Usage
- Voters are more likely to turn to television for political information than any
other single source.
- Newspaper circulation has declined dramatically since its peak in 1985.
- Newer technologies such as the Internet, broadband, and social media have
increased not only the pace and volume of news content, but have also blurred
the lines between information, entertainment, citizens and journalists
- Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 are much less attentive to news
than are members of any other generation.
- Young people are more likely to report using the Internet to gather
information and are more skeptical of traditional news sources.
- The young have also turned to social networks to engage in political
activity.

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 Political News Sources
in the 21st Century
○ Most of the time, people learn about politics
indirectly, via the news media, including
newspapers, magazines, radio, television, online
sources and social media.
○ New technologies have profoundly affected how
Americans get, and spread, news and information.
■ Internet, blogging, social media and cable/satellite
news sources (24-hour news cycle)

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Figure 8.1 Patterns of Adoption of Communications Technologies

Source: Pete Keevill, “From the Top – 2Q 2012 Edition,” Insights, Texas Instruments,
http://www.ti.com/general/docs/bcg/bcgviewnewsletter.tsp?templateId=6116&navigationId=12070&printformat=true&contentId=149648Accessed June
18, 2015.
8
Regulation of Media Ownership and Content
- Because the number of broadcasting frequencies is
limited, the government regulates use of the airwaves.
- Radio Act of 1927
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
- Telecommunications Act of 1996
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sets
limits on private ownership of broadcast stations.
- The FCC also makes rules affecting the content of radio
and TV broadcasts.
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 THE MEDIA ENVIRONMENT
IN AMERICA
● Private individuals have always owned the nation’s media outlets.

● Ownership of U.S. media outlets is becoming more highly concentrated.

○ Deregulation and massive consolidation of media ownership

● Scholars consider media the Fourth Estate/Fourth Branch for its capacity to
serve as a watchdog over government (against corruption, deception, or
unconstitutional practices)

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More See Press Serving as Political Watchdog

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Democracy and the News

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Media Content

- Aggregating
- A process through which Internet and other news
providers relay the news as reported by journalists and
other sources
- Net neutrality
- The idea that Internet service providers should not be
allowed to discriminate based upon content or bandwidth
demands
Regulation of Media Ownership and Content

- Equal time rule

- Regulation requiring American radio and television broadcast networks to provide equal time
for political candidates to present their views on issues
- Fairness doctrine
- Federal rule that expanded regulations for American political news coverage to the content
of the coverage
- The equal-time rule and fairness doctrine sought to ensure a level playing
field for political candidates; however, recent regulatory and technological
changes have reduced their impact and raised questions about their
relevance.
 Media Effects

- Media effects
- Power of the news media in shaping individuals’
political knowledge, preferences, and political
behavior
- Usage of framing, priming, and agenda setting
 Media Effects
● Agenda setting: media tell us what to think about by
what they choose to cover (issue salience)
● Priming: media make us think more about certain
issues and thereby changes how often and how we
think about those issues
● Framing: media influence how we think about
something (the frame that we see it through)
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvgURfZMGoQ
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 Bias and Power in the Media:
Shaping Political Understandings and
Behaviors
○ Americans increasingly perceive the media as politically
biased and less trustworthy.
○ Coverage of political campaigns and elections is often
sensationalized.
○ The current scholarly view focuses on the agenda setting
power of media coverage.
○ A growing digital divide separates Americans along
partisan lines as well as by race, class and ethnicity.
○ Making Americans more partisan
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 How We Consume Media

● Confirmation bias: people are more likely to seek out

sources of news that confirm their already held beliefs; they
also discount info that rubs against their beliefs
● Narrowcasting: programming directed to a specific
population segment—has changed the way citizens receive
messages from political leaders.

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Likelihood of Following News Media
Sources That Share Common Views

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News Outlets Compete For Audiences
○ With the proliferation of sources for news, media outlets are under
pressure to cast their reporters as celebrities in order to draw audiences
– critical for increasing ratings and raising revenue for the network and
its owners.
○ Having to act as a celebrity, however, can put the core duties of accurate
reporting into conflict with the temptation to sensationalize the news.

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 News as Entertainment
- Effects of commercial demands and competition upon mainstream
news providers

- Today’s TV news emphasizes celebrity, lifestyle, and

human-interest stories.
- Infotainment
- A merging of information and entertainment in a way designed to
attract viewers and gain market share
- Soft news
- Stories that focus on celebrity and personality rather than political or
economic issues
 MEDIA AND POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
● The media cover politics a lot like they cover sports, as if
campaigns were a game.
○ Media stress winning and losing; strategy and tactics get more attention than
policy positions.
○ The favorite game reference in political coverage is the horse race (horse race
journalism)
○ Coverage of political campaigns that focuses more on the drama of the campaign
than on policy issues
○ The game approach fits with the media’s cynical approach to politics in general.

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 MEDIA AND POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
● The private lives and personal failures of candidates are now
considered fair game for reporters.
● Public opinion polls created a new dynamic for election night
reporting.
○ The media are tempted to predict the winners on the basis of the polls,
rather than wait for the vote count.
○ Exit polls allow pollsters to determine voting trends before the polls
close, but have been inaccurate.

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MEDIA AND POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
● The broadcast of a candidate’s activities or messages as news items is
known as “free media” or “earned media.”

● Campaign handlers stage free-media events to show candidates at

maximum advantage.

● Candidates attempt to “spin” the news and convince the media to apply a
particular interpretation to a story.

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MEDIA AND POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
● Presidential debates offer an opportunity to compare candidates side by
side.

● Candidates must look as well as sound presidential in a presidential debate.

● Challengers have more to gain from debating than incumbents.

● A candidate must come across as someone the audience would like to

invite into their homes.

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 GOVERNMENT COVERAGE
IN THE MEDIA
● The relationship between the media and the president has always contained
some acrimony.

● As the press became more independent and professional, presidents

became more sophisticated in their dealings with reporters.

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 GOVERNMENT COVERAGE
IN THE MEDIA
● Presidents have increasingly sought to manage
media coverage in various ways.
○ The president’s press secretary exercises some control
over the topics discussed at press conferences.
○ The president is briefed about the questions likely to
arise and has set responses to them.
○ Lower-level officials receive talking points—prepared
arguments supporting their policies and positions.
○ The administration also controls its message through
press releases.
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 GOVERNMENT COVERAGE
IN THE MEDIA
● With so many members, it is more difficult for the media to cover Congress.

○ Congress lacks a single leader to act as spokesperson.

○ The media focus on congressional party leaders, committee chairs and—for local
media—local legislators.

● The national media treat Congress with great cynicism.

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 GOVERNMENT COVERAGE
IN THE MEDIA
● The activities of the Supreme Court are cloaked in secrecy; this
makes coverage difficult.

○ Media reports deal with ideological splits on the Court, and winners and
losers in particular cases.

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