Transcript 1992 Survey - Skidmore College
McCain v. Obama Town Hall Debate
Importance of Media in the New American Democracy
Representative democracy Citizens need to know Events Media News Tree falling in the forest News shapes public opinion Need to “make news” shapes government’s activities Inevitable concern about Bias and Accountability
Bias in Historical Context Party Newspapers Federalists, Gazette of the United State Jeffersonians, National Gazette Funded by government contracts, print information party elites want citizens to hear
Penny Press Emergence of independent press “News is information about public life that sells.” Muckraking, sensationalism Increase in corporate ownership
TV, Radio & Internet 99% of houses have TV 65% cable 75% use internet
Primary Source of News Newspapers only 10% TV and newspapers 22% TV only 55% Evening News audience declined 30% since 1980s But 50 million in audience each night
Most Credible Source of News Radio 5% Magazines 5% Newspapers 19% Television 58%
3 Potential Sources of Bias Ideological bias of reporters/editors Professional/selection bias of reporters Profit bias of corporate owners
Liberal Media Bias
Liberal Media Bias Journalists' views are to the left of the public, Journalists frame news content in a way that accentuates these left perspectives.
AIDS Victim- white housewife w/bad blood transfusion Elite Journalists are out of touch with mainstream American values (Bernard Goldberg- "Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News” ) "How many members of the Los Angeles Times and St. Louis Post-Dispatch belong to the American Legion or the Kiwanis or go to prayer breakfasts?”
1992 Survey
Media Bias
100 80 60 40 20 0 89 43 Clinton 37 7 Bush
% vote for President
19 Perot 2 Public DC Media
On __ issues, how would you characterize your political orientation?
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 30 11 Left 57 64 Center 9 19 Right 5 5 Other Social Issues Economic Issues
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 65 32 8 “Liberal Media”?
92 42 43 64 57 77 39 59 56 35 66 Media Public
Household Income of DC Media Household Income 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 5 27 16 21 17 14 Under $50k $50-75k $75 100k $100 150k $150 200k $200k+ Household Income
I Report, You Decide Who is the “Ultra-Conservative”? Who is the “Moderate”?
Gary Bauer Pro-life Anti SS privatization & free trade, Pro minimum wage Christie Todd Whitman Pro-choice Pro SS privatization & free trade, Anti minimum wage
Selection Bias Professional Criteria for Newsworthiness Drama, color, simplicity
Long Island News Experiment How to tell an “unemployment is increasing” story?
Framing Causal Iyengar and Kinder, Experimental demonstrations of the “not-so-minimal” consequences of television news programs, American Political Science Review, 1982
Systemic Explanations National trend in increasing unemployment
Individual Explanations unemployed auto worker in Ohio
Framing (cont) What is the most important cause of poverty Systemic Framing viewers 78% say (the recession) or government and society (references to Reagan’s policies) Individual Framing viewers 62% say motivation (laziness) or skills
Implications of Framing Individual frames encourage people to hold individual responsible for the situation they are in Systemic frames encourage people to hold the public officials responsible.
Media Poor People CBS News 66% black, 34% non-black 15% working, 85% non working unemployed New Orleans youth, Newsweek
Real Poor People US Census 29% black, 71% non-black 51% work, 49% non working
Policy Consequences of Selection Bias Media Poor- black and unemployed Real Poor- white and working Surveys 50% of all poor people are black
3 Potential Sources of Bias Ideological bias of reporters/editors Professional/selection bias of reporters
Profit bias of corporate owners
Competition 1960- 7 channels; today 500+ more ways to obtain news or avoid it. Changing demographics 24-hour-a-day cable news viewers harder to attract
ABC TV/Radio, ESPN, E!, Lifetime, A&E, History, Touchstone NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, Bravo AOL, Warner Bros, Time Warner Cable, TBS, CNN, HBO, the WB, Turner Broadcasting Fox TV, SKY, START, Weekly Standard, Tech Valley Guide, New York Post CBS, MTV, BET, Showtime, Infinity Radio,
Impact on News Shift in Business Model Profitability > Reporting Ratings driven FCC scraps “Public Service Requirement”
Declining Amount of News
Government news stories on "ABC World News Tonight" dropped from 40.2% of all stories in 1977 to 15.9% in 1997 In 1997, Time Magazine, ¼ the number of government stories as in 1977
Less Coverage of Government Department of Veteran's Affairs, 2 reporters Interior Department, not 1 reporter Full time Wisconsin state government reporters, 24 in 1972, 12 in 1996
Big Increase in Soft News consumer oriented - health, business, and technology Why
“Spectacle Stories”
BTK: Out Of The Shadows
48 Hours
Dateline
Primetime Live Are Your Kids Fans of 'Ultimate Fighting'?
48 Hours Bad Girls What would drive well-educated suburban girls to become armed robbers? 48 Hours looks at the case of four Texas teen-agers charged after a robbery spree last year. (Dec. 28, Dead Men Tell No Tales Tommy Lynn Sells claims he's killed scores of people over the past 18 years. And as 48 Hours reports, it was a 10-year-old girl that helped bring him to justice.
Dateline Actor leading the fight for a cure for Parkinson’s disease Conjoined twins Kathleen and Charity Lincoln undergo a risky operation.
Breaking away Follow four families as they struggle to move out of the housing projects. Maria Shriver reports in this Special Interactive Documentary
Avg Time Devoted to 9 News Categories by local tv
weather 8% disaster 9% human interest 14% state policy 9% national policy 7% local policy 5% local economy 4% sports 16% Happy talk 28%
Is Soft News Bad?
Soft News
The Next Leader of the Free World?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsWpvkL Cvu4
Will the internet revitalize democracy and increase the voice of citizens in political affairs? Why or why not? What are the potential advantages and disadvantages of this medium over traditional media sources like television?
Can the Internet improve our democratic system and remove the problems of media bias? How? In what ways could it threaten or undermine our democratic system?
Politics in Cyberspace Will new technologies revive democratic politics?
“Offer a means of reestablishing the connection between voters and candidates” email, chat room “dramatically change the quality of information readily available to voters”, wide spectrum of political groups CNN et al will develop multimedia sites devoted to political coverage More “unmediated sources of information”
Politics in Cyberspace Will new technologies revive democratic politics?
Will reduce the cost of political contributions .. Open the electoral process to groups and candidates who have traditionally been priced out of the political market Voters will have more candidates to choose from Will make it easier to participate via email Easier to do fund raising
Politics in Cyberspace Concerns Fair and equitable access, certain segments of the electorate may be disadvantaged Requires a high level of motivation Rise of formal and informal neo-intermediaries http://www.cnn.com/ http://www.foxnews.com/ http://news.yahoo.com/
Being an intelligent citizen Newspapers Magazines Commercial orientation of networks